thou hast made thyself unworthy of God's grace': the ring, The ring, the symbol of fidelity, we justly draw from thee, who hast violated the church, the spouse of God': the pastoral staff, "The pastoral staff we take from thee, for thou mayest not exercise the office of correction.' Then the gloves shall be drawn off, and the thumbs and hands of the degradand scraped gently with the knife or the bit of glass: We thus, so far as we can, deprive thee of the grace of spiritual benediction, of mystical anointing, that thou mayest lose the power of sanctifying and blessing.' Then shall he scrape also the head of the degradand, saying, 'We annul the consecration, the blessing, the unction bestowed on thee: from the pontifical order we depose thee.' The officials shall thereupon take off his sandals. From the priesthood the degradation is thus performed. The officials deliver to the degradand the cup and wine, the paten and host; which the consecrating prelate takes from him again, and says, We take from thee the power of offering sacrifice to God, and celebrating mass for the quick and the dead.' He then scrapes his thumbs and hands: that he takes from him the power of blessing and sacrificing, which was given him by the anointing of his hands and thumbs. He takes from his back the chasuble, saying, 'As thou hast lost all innocency, we strip thee of the sacerdotal vest denoting charity' and the stole, Thou hast cast off the mark of the Lord, signified by this stole, which therefore we remove from thee; and render thee incapable of any priestly function.' From a deacon to be degraded is to be taken the gospel book, the dalmatic, and the stole, with the words, We remove from thee the power of reading the Gospel in the church of God: we deprive thee of the Levitical order, which thou hast not fulfilled the white stole, which thou receivedst to wear immaculate in the sight of the Lord, we rightly abstract.

from thee, because that thou, understanding the mystery of it, hast not afforded an example for the faithful to follow and we forbid thee the office of a deacon.' The epistle book is taken from a subdeacon to be degraded, with similar words: the tunicle, with the words, The subdiaconal tunic we remove from thee, whose heart and body the fear of the Lord has not constrained': the maniple, with the command, Put down the maniple, because thou hast not defeated the wiles of the spiritual enemy by the fruits of good works, which it signifies': and the amice, Because thou hast not chastened thy voice.' The degradator then gives and takes away the vessels of wine and water, the basin and a towel: in doing this he says nothing. Then he takes from the degradand the cup and paten, and says, "The power of entering the sanctuary, of touching cloths, vessels, and garniture, all the subdeaconship, we take from thee.' An acolyte is degraded thus. An empty pitcher and a blown out candle are offered and withdrawn, with the words, Filthy creature, thou shalt not minister wine or water, or the rest of the Eucharist: cease to bear the visible light, thy office, who hast neglected to exhibit the spiritual light.' From an exorcist the book of exorcisms is taken, with the words, We deprive thee of the power of laying hands upon energumens, and expelling demons from the bodies of the possessed.' A reader is deprived of the lesson book, a doorkeeper, of the keys of the church: and Thou shalt not read in the church any longer, nor bless holy bread, nor fruits' to the one; to the other is said, "Thou hast erred in keys, and keys thou shalt demit thou hast not barred the doors of thy heart from demons, so thou shalt not be a doorkeeper of the church, nor ring the bell, nor open the church, nor the sacristy, nor the preaching book.' Then after all these stages of degradation, which may happen to the same person, if he

be high enough, the surplice shall be pulled off, the degrading prelate saying, 'From thee we take the clerical habit: we degrade, we spoil and strip thee of all clerical order, of benefice, of privilege: we reduce thee to serfdom, and to the ignominy of the secular habit and state.' He shall then begin to shear his head (that the tonsure may be obliterated in universality) with the sentence that the royal crown of the priesthood is removed from him, and that he is cast out of the lot of the Lord and the barber shall complete the work.* The degrading prelate may add, if he please, that he is deposed from the office of singing because he sung with his mouth but not in his heart nor witnessed in his deeds. Then shall the degraded person be dressed in the lay habit, and handed over to the secular jurisdiction. Henceforth the degrading prelate shall not touch him: but shall declare him to be denuded of all clerical character and privilege and shall address the secular magistrate thus: 'Master Judge, we pray thee with all earnestness, by the fear of God, for the sake of pity, and in consideration of our request, that thou bring upon this most wretched man no peril of death or mutilation!'"

The Bishops of London and Ely, proceeding to Oxford, called Cranmer before them, sitting in the choir of Christchurch: and opened their commission. As they recited the consistorial proceedings at Rome, where it was said that he had been summoned but had, taken no pains to appear, the prisoner indignantly interrupted, exclaiming that such lies would not go unpunished. The

* When Cranmer took off his cap at the fire it was observed that his head was completely bald. Perhaps that was the work of the degrading barber. When Ridley was degraded, he exclaimed that he had never been a singer in his life. Perhaps this part of the ceremony may have been the occasion of his exclamation.

Bulla Pauli papæ mandans depositionem et degradationem Thomæ Cranmer. Wilkins, iv. 132: also in the early editions of Fox.

[CH. XXVII. lamentable rites of degradation were then performed: they clothed him in a surplice and alb, the vestments of a subdeacon, and proceeded with the rest of the garniture, till he stood habited as a priest ready to Mass. "What," said he at this point, "I think I shall say Mass."—" Yes, my Lord," said a chaplain kindly, "I trust to see you say Mass for all this."-"That will you never see," answered Cranmer. He was then invested in the robes of a bishop, and the ensigns of an archbishop were delivered to him: but it is said that, instead of rich and costly texture, they were of canvas and clouts: done in mockery. Bonner, unmoved by the spectacle of fallen greatness, bade the congregation observe him. "This is the man," rhetorically exclaimed he, "who has ever despised the Pope's Holiness, and now is to be judged by him. This is the man who hath pulled down so many churches, and now is come to be judged in a church. This is the man that condemned the Sacrament of the altar, and is to be condemned before that Sacrament hanging over the altar. This is the man that like Lucifer sat in the place of Christ upon an altar to judge another, and is come to be judged himself before an altar." Cranmer interrupted the orator that he wittingly belied him there. "It was in Paul's church that I sat in commission, on a scaffold prepared by you and your officers: whether there were an altar under it, I neither knew nor suspected." * But

* In Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, horrified mention is made of that which was now cast up against him, that he had sat on an altar. "Ingreditur Divi Pauli templum Londini, et quoniam de clero etiam esset, in cellam beatæ Mariæ intrans, ad altare, quod nondum afflixerat, accedit, non sacri faciendi causa, quid ergo est? In ipso altari, quo Christo in Eucharistiæ sacramento per illum aspirare non licebat, Cranmerus cognitionis exercendæ causa consedit, tremendum locum hominibus, imo angelis, aspectu quoque horribilem, in quo scabellum pedum Christi adorari solitum est, pedibus pollutis uxorius pontifex conculcat: quod nisi historicum esse me recordarer, sæpe ego et ante exclamassem et hic liberius etiam ingemuissem." p. 15.

the

Bonner resumed in the same style, in spite of the anguish of his fellow commissioners, who plucked him by the gown to hold his peace. And yet maybe Bonner was not so unfriendly as he is said to have been. When he came to the end of his oration, they began to strip the vested figure. The crozier was about to be taken from his hands; but he held it fast till, after the example of Latimer, he had delivered the appellation to the next general council, which he had prepared, as it has been seen. "Our commission is to proceed omni appellatione remota," said Thirlby. "Then," said the Archbishop, "you do me the more wrong: my case is not that of any man: it is with the pope immediately: pope cannot be judge in his own cause." Thus he asserted the greatness of his own position, and history and reason, not less than justice, might applaud his words. "If the appellation can be admitted, it shall be," answered Thirlby and received it of him. And here, being greatly moved, the Bishop of Ely began to implore the prisoner to consider his state: that he would intercede for him with the King and Queen: that nothing but the royal commandment would have brought him to the most sorrowful action of his life. Cranmer comforted him, and said that he was content with the ceremony: in which expression we may perhaps discern the lack of fire, which was the defect of a great character. The next step in the degradation was the removal of the pall, the distinctive ornament of a metropolitan. "Which of you," said Cranmer," hath a pall, to take off my pall?" They answered that they were competent, not as bishops, but as delegates of the Holy Father; and perchance the same authority had power to convert a bit of wool, upon which no Pope had ever breathed his blessing, into the mystic emblem which an Augustine had accepted and a Winifred