turned to the pillar adjoining, and lifted up his hands to heaven. Shyness, that inexpugnable quality, was, after all, the essence of the character of that deeply troubled man: this gave him the innocency and greatness which were his strange attraction throughout his unequal career: this gave him a high retirement of the spirit, which had remained inaccessible to all who had known and used or abused him, which still remained sacred to himself, even now. Even now he was ascending thither for the last time, in the sight of all men. Doctor Cole entered the pulpit, and began to preach. His long and laboured oration of two hours bore the marks of ample instructions and of diligent preparation. It was full of instances. Mercy so tempered with justice that, if punishment be not exacted according to the guilt of offenders, upon the repentance of offenders it is not entirely remitted, was the argument: David, to whom, in the management of Heaven, if two out of the three days of pestilence were excused, yet not the third, was a great illustration. That, as to David, to Cranmer some penalty remained, though by the Canons of the Church pardon and reconciliation were due, since he had repented; and that the Queen and Council judged him to death, was explained by the speaker: and, lest Cranmer should marvel too much at that, he undertook to let him know some of the causes that had moved them. They were, that he had traitorously dissolved the marriage of the Queen's mother: had driven out the Pope: had been more than a heretic, the author of all heresy and schism, and the defender thereof in books and writings. Furthermore the speaker had to remark that there was an equipoise to be established by his death, and he must die in the name of the doctrine of equilibration. The death of Sir Thomas More, a layman, might be said to be balanced by the death of the Duke of Northumber-.

land: but to balance Bishop Fisher, a Cardinal, three such prelates as Ridley, Hooper, and Ferrar, who had all been burned alive, were not enough it would be necessary to put Cranmer into their scale for a makeweight. And there were other just and weighty causes, added the speaker, which appeared to the Queen and Council, which were not meet to be opened then to the common people.* He vigorously described the wretched state of the fallen metropolitan: for the comfort of Cranmer he brought forth again the thief expiring in

* Cole's sermon is given somewhat differently from Fox in Bishop Cranmer's Recantations: the courage of Cranmer is more prominent : the fact is declared that Cole warned him of his doom: the equation of victims is differently and more neatly stated. The reader will be willing to compare this version. "Colus a Dei beneficiis quibus humanum genus indies sibi devinciret exorsus, secundo loco nec quærendum dicebat quibus rationibus impulsa senatus auctoritas reginæque amplitudo ad veniam Cranmero dandam difficilior extitisset, propterea quod regum arcana enunciare nefas sit, et tamen causas ejus rei multas reddi poɔse, illam imprimis quia inutile foret exemploque vitiosum, si princeps et auctor omnium plagarum quas Anglia tot annis proximis accepisset impune id ferret, ob quod in comites et administros quotidie animadverteretur. Deinde Cranmero idem consilium summas posse opportunitates afferre, in quo laudabat ejus fortitudinem animi, corroboratamque in malis tolerandis et perferendis patientiam: Tantum enim abesse ut Cranmerus pœnæ accerbitate commotus fuerit, ut etiam cum ad eam cohortandi causa Colus venisset, nihil sibi jucundius fore diceret, quam quod tantorum scelerum sibi conscius hoc genere supplicii cruciaretur, imo illud sibi nimium leve jam visum esse; neque optare ut co omnino liberetur, aut id quocunque modo mitigaretur, semel dependendum suo corpori esse in hac vita, quo magis ei propitius in futura Deus fiat. Divinitus autem orationem Colus concludebat, proportione quadam multis in rebus multa esse equaliter partita et recte distributa : Joannem Roffensem et Thomam Morum, afflictata primum et perculsa religionis causa, dum eam tuerentur, neci datos, illum ex clero, hunc ex populo, magnum utrumque virum et in sua conditione clarissimum; instaurata jam eadem religione, alios duos morte similiter affici, Joannem Northumbriæ ducem et Thomam archiepiscopum Cantuariensem, illum ex populo, hunc ex clero, utrumque longo intervallo totius regni principem. Porro eos pro ea fide in morte vindicias secundum libertatem dixisse, quam in omni vita diligentissime tenuissent; hos eum cultum, quem vivi observassent, deseruisse morientes, et ad Catholicam Ecclesiam se contulisse. Ita paucis consolatur Cranmerum," &c. p. 95.

penitence with the promise of Paradise: and, though he allowed the torment of fire to be terrible, yet that the impunity of the Three Children in the furnace, the pleasure experienced by St. Andrew on the cross, and the patience of St. Laurence on the grate he said might argue torment abated, or endurance increased, of which the one or the other might be found again. He was willing, it may be seen, to forget the difference between glorious martyrs, who suffered in the hands of the heathen, and a Catholic murdered by false brethren: and it was generous in him to hope that the way might be made as easy for him as it had been for them. He added an assurance of the safety of the soul of the prisoner: that as soon as he should be dead, dirges, masses, and obsequies should be performed for him in all the churches of Oxford: he promised that in the name of all the priests who were present.

The last scene of Cranmer's life has been described by one who witnessed it: who seems to have been both a Romanensian, and not devoid of compassion or of common sense.* According to the fine expression of

* This writer, known by the initials "J. A.," is the first authority for the scene. His account is among the Foxii MSS., Harleian 422, 10. Letter of J. A., a papist, to his friend, relating what passed in St. Marie's Church in Oxford before the death of Archbishop Cranmer, the words he spake, and his behaviour there and in the fire." (Harleian Catalogue.) This invaluable document is dated March 23, only two days after Cranmer's death. It was first published by Strype in his Life of Cranmer (Bk. III. xxi.), where it occupies six folio pages, rolling unbroken from end to end. The question is, how could any spectator either remember enough, or take notes copious enough, to reproduce not only all that he saw, but all that Cranmer said, his prayer, his long exhortations to the people? The answer is that no spectator could : and that Strype has greatly manipulated his original, to make a single continuous narrative out of two papers, treating two as one: and to do this has inserted one or two little connecting sentences, and made some transpositions. The original which Strype has thus treated consists of first, J. A.'s letter describing what he saw of Cranmer's end: second, a paper headed "Cranmer's words before his death," written in the same

this unknown spectator, Cranmer appeared during the delivery of Cole's sermon "an image of sorrow." Tears rolled from his eyes, which now were lifted to heaven, now fixed upon the ground: from sluices that age had dried not they bedewed his ruddy cheeks. The copious shower, twenty times renewed, reminded men of the innocent distress of childhood: and the motions of his body, the hands that were sometimes raised, sometimes clasped before him, bespoke in him a heaviness that was self-reproach, the anguish of a stain contracted in the firmament of purity, and in which indignation at his inhuman treatment had no share.* When the sermon was ended, the people moved to depart : but Cole recalled them. "Brethren," said he, "lest any man doubt this man's earnest conversion and repentance, you shall hear

hand, and probably enclosed in the letter by J. A. This second paper was not originally written by J. A., but copied from another; as is proved by this, that certain words in it are interlinear, with a caret, as if the writer were copying a paper before him and had accidentally omitted those words. The fact that "Cranmer's words before his death" existed in written form two days after his death, and were to be copied, is thus established: and the paper that J. A. thus copied may have been the very paper that Cranmer read from in St. Mary's: all but the famous last paragraph, where J. A. gives not what Cranmer wrote, but what he said. It is unfortunate that Strype treated his original in this way: and he has greatly obscured the history. In another volume of the Foxii MSS. (Harleian 417, 10, 90) there is another narrative entitled "The Life and Death of Thomas Cranmer, late Archbishop of Canterbury," which was also used by Fox. It is published in Nicholl's Narratives. It is imperfect, but gives the last sayings of Cranmer. In the Harleian Catalogue it is conjectured to have been written by some of the exiles, shortly after Cranmer's death. It is written in two hands, one conjectured to be Scory's hand, the other the hand of Becon. See Nicholl, 228.

* The description given by J. A. is very touching. Fox, who has used it, is finer in his Latin than in his English. "Oculis ac manibus nunc in cœlum porrectis, nunc in terram depressis luctus ac mæstitiæ expressam in eo imaginem effigiemque cerneres. Plus vicies per diversa intervalla lacrimis ubertim profusis os senile mirandum in modum distillabat. Testantur qui interfuere vix in puero unquam tantum obortum lacrimarum quantum illi hoc tempore rupuerunt, tum per totam fere concionem, tum eo maxime tempore, quum precationem populo recitaret." (721.)

him speak."* The Archbishop rose, put off his cap, drew from his bosom the paper which he had there, and began to read it to the people. In all the writing it may be observed that there was no complaint, remonstrance, or reproach. He began by declaring that he would show them above all the thing that then most vexed and troubled him:† and then the author of the English Litany broke forth into the last and the sublimest of his prayers. "O Father of heaven: O Son of God, Redeemer of the world: O Holy Ghost, proceeding from them both: Three Persons and one God, have mercy upon me, most wretched caitiff, and miserable sinner. I have offended both heaven and earth more than my tongue can express: whither then may I go, or whither shall I flee for succour? To heaven I may be ashamed to lift up mine eyes: and in earth I find no refuge or succour. What shall I then do? Shall I despair? God forbid. O good God, Thou art merciful, and refusest none that come unto Thee for succour. To Thee therefore do I run: to Thee do I humble

*Fox makes Cole go on to say, pray you, master Cranmer, perform that you promised not long ago: that you should openly express the true and undoubted profession of your faith, and take away suspicion, so that all may know that you are a Catholic indeed." But Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons says nothing of the sort, nothing of any promise made by Cranmer. "Ita paucis consolatur Cranmerum quod ex necessitate virtutem, ex supplicio peccatis debito martyrium effici posse contenderat, ei facit, si quid vellet, dicendi potestatem." p. 97.

All the Submissions goes on to give the last writing of Cranmer, as follows

"The Prayer and Saying of Thomas Cranmer, a little before his death, all written with his own hand, as followeth.

"Good christian people, my dearly beloved brethren, and my sisters in Christ, I beseech you most heartily to pray for me to Almighty God, that He will forgive me all my sins and offences, which be many and above measure: but yet one thing grieveth my conscience more than all the rest, whereof, God willing, I intend to speak more hereafter. But how great and how many soever they be, I beseech you to pray God of His mercy to pardon and forgive me all." Then comes the prayer, which I have given in my text.