message that Noailles reported him to have sent, the inspiration of Pole was not wanting to Cranmer: but the Archbishop must have been wrapped in delusion if the communication which next came to his hand inspired him with hope.

A substitute for the recantation that had been framed without authority or promulgated without permission, or rather a supplement to it, was presented to him a few days after the other, and not only received his signature on March 18, but was written out by him, to make it more his own. This was a long Latin document, which if it were not composed by Friar Richard, may be thought to breathe the eloquence of Pole. It was a cruel piece. It was the most humiliating confession that was ever exacted of any prisoner. As it was impossible that the renunciation of opinions could be made more absolute than it had been made already in the former recantation, it was resolved now to cause the condemned man to accuse his own former life, and pour execration upon all that ever he had done. To this end the writer whetted his style, and brought his Biblical comparisons to bear, and by the example, cited repeatedly, of the dying thief who, though penitent, was not remitted from the cross by the Author of redemption,* taught, or may have taught, the

"All the Submissions" contains next

"6. The true copy of a Sixth Submission of the said Thomas Cranmer, written and subscribed with his own hand, as followeth.

"Ego. Thomas Cranmer, pridem Archiepiscopus Cantuarien, confiteor et doleo ex animo, quod gravissime deliquerim in cœlum et adversus Anglicanum regnum, immo in universam Christi ecclesiam, quam longe sævius persecutus sum quam olim Paulus, qui fuit blasphemus, persecutor, et contumeliosus. Atque utinam qui Saulum malitia et scelere superavi, possem cu n Paulo quem detraxi honorem Christo et ecclesiæ utilitatem recompensare! Verum meum utcunque animum latro ille evangelicus solatur. Ille namque tunc tandem ex animo resipuit, tunc illum furti pertæsum est, quum furari amplius non liceret: et ego, qui meo officio et auctoritate abusus, et Christo honorem et huic regno fidem et religionem abstuli, jam tandem Dei Maximi beneficio ad me reversus, agnosco me

victim of a fictitious mercy what he might expect. “I, Thomas Cranmer, with sorrow of heart confess that I have sinned most grievously against heaven and the English realm, yea and against the universal Church. In malice I have exceeded Saul; would that with Paul I could make amends! Beyond him who was a blasphemer and insulter, beyond him who was of old a persecutor I have persecuted the Church. But the thief in the Gospel comforts my mind, who repented of theft, when he could steal no more. I am returned to myself: I own myself the chief of sinners, who by the abuse of my office and authority have robbed Christ of honour, and the realm of faith and religion. I desire to render worthy satisfaction to God, to the Church, to her supreme head, to my omnium maximum peccatorum, et cupio, si qua possem, Deo primum, deinde ecclesiæ, et ejus capiti supremo, atque regibus, toti demum Anglicano regno, condignam reddere satisfactionem. Verum sicut latro ille felix, quum non esset solvendo quas pecunias et opes abstulit (quum nec pes nec manus affixæ cruci suum officium facerent) corde et lingua duntaxat (quæ non erat ligatɩ) testatus est quod reliqua membra essent factura, si eadem qua lingua libertate gauderent."- But there is no use in transcribing more of this Poline document: which the unhappy Cranmer, it seems, not only subscribed but wrote out with his own hand. It ends : "Scriptum est hoc anno Domini 1555. Mensis Martis 18.

Per me, THOMAS CRANMER.", In Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons this document is dated March 9— "Martii die 9 a." This is curious, if aught could be made of it.

It was Strype who first conjectured "from the tedious prolixity and style" of this outrageous composition that it was by Pole (v. 395). With him Soames agrees (iv. 525): and Todd also (ii. 480). They compare Pole's letters to Cranmer, and the recantation which he drew up for Sir John Cheke. It may be noticed that though this Sixth document in "All the Submissions" purports to have been "written" as well as subscribed "with his own hand," it is not to be concluded that Cranmer was the author of it. In Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons it is introduced in terms that would not have been used, if he had been: "Jubet scribatur confessio, cui libenter ait se assensurum." p. 85. According to that book the confession was written by Cranmer's confessor, Friar Richard: or so it seems. Cranmer is told after that dream of the two kings, that it is not enough for him to have confessed in private, having transgressed publicly, "sed aperte sua eun scelera agnoscere execrarique oportere." He approves of this, "jubet scribatur," &c. Then follows the " Scriptura."

sovereigns, and to the realm of England. The happy thief testified by his tongue what his other members would have done, his feet and hands, if they had not been fastened to the cross: he could not repay the money and goods that he had taken, but he declared his mind. With his tongue he confessed Christ to be innocent with his tongue he rebuked his impious fellow: he detested his former life with his tongue; he impetrated pardon with his tongue : with his tongue, as with a key, he opened Paradise. I, like him, have neither hands nor feet wherewith I might rebuild what I have destroyed: my lips only, that hang about my teeth, are left me: but the calves of my lips will be accepted. I offer this calf: this morsel of my body and of my life I desire to sacrifice. I confess my ingratitude towards heaven: I own me deserving of no favour or pity, but of punishment, both human and divine, both temporal and everlasting. Exceedingly offended I against Henry and Catherine in that divorce, whereof I was the cause and author, which was the seedplot of the calamities of the realm. Hence the violent death of good men, hence the schism of the whole kingdom, hence heresies, hence the slaughter of so many souls and bodies. After these griefs, these beginnings of miseries, I opened the windows wide to all heresies. I acted teacher and leader of them: and above all it wrings my mind that I blasphemed and insulted the Eucharist, denying Christ's Body and Blood to be truly and really contained under the species of bread and wine: and that I set forth books to oppugn this with all my might. I am worse than Saul and the thief: I am the most wicked wretch that earth has ever borne. I have sinned against heaven, which through me stands empty of so many inhabitants, because I impudently denied the heavenly gifts bestowed upon us. I have sinned against earth, depriving men of the supersubstantial food. Of

them that have perished for lack of it I am the slayer: and the souls of the dead I have defrauded of this daily, this celebrious sacrifice. I have been injurious against Christ's Vicar, depriving him of power by my books set forth may the high pontiff forgive my trespasses against him and the Apostolic See. I implore the King, the Queen, the realm, the Church universal to have pity on a wretched being who have nothing but a tongue wherewith to repair the ill that I have done. Above all, may the most merciful Father look on me, as on Peter, as on Magdalen, or certainly as on the thief upon the cross: and say to me in the day of death, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Whether Cranmer were in Christchurch or back in prison, when he put his hand to this, is not certain: but he was taken back to prison before his death.

The end now drew near. On the evening of March. 20, he received in prison a visitor in Doctor Cole, the provost of Eton, who had once been head of a college in Oxford, but was not at this time resident. He asked the prisoner the question, whether he abode in the Catholic faith. Cranmer answered that by God's grace he would be gladly more confirmed in the Catholic faith and Doctor Cole departed, according to the common account, without further intimation of aught, though he carried a dreadful secret.* He had been appointed in private by

* This is better stated in Fox's Latin work than in his English. "Paulo ante diem eum quem Regina illi ad necem destinasset, accersito ad se Doctore Colo, clam in mandatis dat ut concionem in diem mensis Martii vicessimum primum Cranmero exurendo funebrem paret: simulque de voluntate sua quid in ea concione fieri placeret ordine accurateque edoctum dimittit" (718). This sounds more direct than "The Queen taking secret counsel how she might despatch Cranmer out of the way, who as yet knew nothing of her secret hate and looked for nothing less than death, appointed Dr. Cole, and secretly gave him in commandment that against the 21 of March he should prepare a funeral sermon for Cranmer's burning, and so instructing him orderly and diligently of her will and

the Queen some time before to prepare a sermon to be preached at the death of Cranmer: and (from what fell out) it would seem that he was honoured with particular instructions what to say in explanation of the fatal purpose of her Majesty.* The day of the execution had been also fixed with him: and now he was arrived at Oxford on the day before, with his sermon ready. Early next morning he called on the Archbishop again: and this time he asked a still more startling question, whether Cranmer had any money. As he had none, he delivered to him fifteen crowns, that he might give them to the poor, whom he would. He exhorted him again to constancy in faith, and so departed. It was the custom for criminals on the way to execution to distribute money or other tokens. Whether Cranmer had any intimation of his doom beyond these hints seems uncertain: of the day and hour he appears to have been kept in ignorance as long as possible. But in the prison of Bocardo he may have become aware of the dreadful preparations making not far off, where Ridley and Latimer had suffered: he may have perceived a commotion in the town, which began to fill with mounted men, the retainers of gentlemen:† for Lord Williams, Sir Thomas Bridges, Sir John Brown, and other neighbouring gentlemen, had received orders to be there on that day, on March 21.

pleasure in that behalf, sendeth him away." In his English work Fox has suppressed a pun which could hardly be perceived in his Latin but by an English reader: "Colus carbonariam concionem in diem sequentem parat, dignam videlicet quæ carbone notaretur."

* But according to Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons Cole came before Cranmer's sixth recantation: and brought the plain news that his life could not be spared: on which Cranmer said that he had never feared to die, that he only felt the load of sin : and begged for something for his p. 83.

son.

↑ Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons has it that Cranmer was awakened in the night by the noise of men and horses at the gate: and that a rescue was feared. It may have been the arriving trains of some of the gentlemen. p. 91.