God was

myself, saying, O Lord God, my sins be great, but yet have mercy upon me for Thy great mercy. not made man for our small offences. Thou didst not give Thy Son unto death for our little and small sins only, but for all and the greatest sins of the world, so that the sinner return to Thee in his heart: as I do here. at this present. Wherefore have mercy upon me, O Lord, for although my sins be great, yet Thy mercy is greater. I crave nothing, O Lord, for mine own merits, but for Thy name's sake, that it may be hallowed thereby : and for Thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake."* Here he repeated the Lord's Prayer: and proceeded with his paper to exhort the people, as a man about to die, in several particulars. He bade them not to set too much by the

* Fox's Latin version of Cranmer's prayer is fine. "O summe et immense cœli Pater: O Fili Patris, Redemptor orbis: O Sancte Spiritus: Personæ tres, unus Deus: misereat (te precor) mei perditi et nefarii peccatoris," &c. In Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons this is, "O Pater Cœlestis, O Fili Redemptor mundi, O Spiritus Sancte ab utroque procedens, tres personæ et unus Deus." That authority goes on to remark that when Cranmer had repeated the Lord's Prayer, he went not on to repeat the Ave: "salutationem Angeli ad beatissimam Virginem omnino prætermittit": and that this was an omen of what was to follow. In the old Matins the Ave followed the Lord's Prayer, and after it the last petitions of the Lord's Prayer were repeated again.

+ In considering the last words of Cranmer there are four sources to be examined. 1. The "Prayer and Saying of Thomas Cranmer, a little before his death, all written with his own hand," in All the Submissions: which must be regarded as the chief. 2. The paper called "Cranmer's words before his death," enclosed in the invaluable letter of J. A. 3. The other Harleian account printed by Nicholl. 4. Fox, whose narrative seems made up of all these. It will be desirable to compare these four sources, which exhibit some interesting various readings, as we go along; in order to ascertain what Cranmer said, or what was added thereto. By far the most important variants are in the paper of J. A., which I have said that I believe to have been copied from the very paper that Cranmer read from, or from a copy of it, and therefore the same original as "The Prayer and Saying of Thomas Cranmer" in All the Submissions. How then came J. A. to vary from the original that is found in All the Submissions, if he had it before him to copy from? The answer is either that Cranmer himself in reading did not keep absolutely to his own written text, and that J. A. altered by memory where he

present world, to obey the King and Queen willingly and gladly, to have brotherly love one with another, and the rich that they should show charity. These points he had drawn out at large. Next he had in his paper a

recollected that Cranmer had so done; or, which seems to me more likely, that J. A. was prompted by excited feeling, the impulse to be emphatic in some places, or even to improve the style, to make the variants and little addits that are found in him. It will be seen that he seldom improved Cranmer. The other Harleian account is of less importance. Fox constructs from them all, directly or indirectly but has one or two variants of which he may be himself the author.

:

To begin with Cranmer's prayer; which I have in my text given exactly out of All the Submissions. Here J. A. introduces some variants which cannot be regarded as improvements. For "more than my tongue can express" he reads "more grievously than any tongue." He alters "flee" into "fly," he omits "or succour." (And certainly there are three succours in Cranmer.) He substitutes for the plain "God was not made man for our small offences" an elaborate, "O God the Son, Thou wast not made man, this great mystery was not wrought, for few or smail offences" and goes on, "Nor Thou didst not give Thy Son to death, O God the Father, for our," &c.: thus confusedly repeating two of the invocations at the beginning of the prayer. The other Harleian partly follows him, and so does Fox, who, omitting the invocation, "O God the Son," &c., has the single sentence, "The great mystery that God became man was not wrought for little or few offences." J. A. reduced this, but still keeps the mystery, an added thought to Cranmer. To go on, instead of "the sinner return to Thee in his heart," J. A. gives the more conventional, return unto Thee with a penitent heart": where the other Harleian has, "return and repent unto Thee with his whole heart" and Fox reduces to "return to Thee with his whole heart."After "have mercy upon me, O Lord,” J. A. adds "whose property is always to have mercy." The other Harleian adopts this, and suffixes to it "and pity." Fox adopts it also, but without "and pity": and proceeds on his own account to omit Cranmer's following words, "for although my sins be great, yet Thy mercy is greater." Here (for another alteration) after the word "greater," the other Harleian puts in a whole sentence, "Wherefore have mercy upon me, O Lord, after Thy great goodness." He has therefore two sentences beginning "Wherefore have mercy,” &c. The skilful Fox reduces them to one by omitting a Wherefore, thus: "Wherefore have mercy on me, O Lord, whose property is always to have mercy, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for Thy great mercy." After all this manipulation how much better are the simple words of Cranmer!

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-For "hallowed" J. A. reads "glorified," though Cranmer evidently used the word to bring in the Lord's Prayer, which he repeated after his Here J. A. is not followed by the other Harleian, or by Fox.

own.

note or heading, "Here to declare the Queen's just title to the crown," which he had not drawn out in writing further and he now seems to have omitted this point altogether.* The reason may have been that he was

* "Every one desireth, good people, at the time of their death to give some exhortation that good folk may remember after their death, and be the better for the same: I so beseech God grant unto me that I may speak something whereby He may be glorified, and you edified." All the Submissions. Here J. A. and the others put in "at this my departing" after "something." The other Harleian, instead of "for the same" reads "thereby," and adds "for one word spoken of a man at his last end will be more remembered than many sermons made of them that live and remain." Cranmer never said that.

"First, it is an heavy case to see how many folks be so much doted of this present world, and be so careful of it, that for the world to come they seem to care very little or nothing. Therefore this shall be my first exhortation, that you set not overmuch by this present world, but upon the world to come, and upon God: and to know what this lesson meaneth of St. John: The love of the world, saith he, is hatred unto God." All the Submissions. Here J. A. and the others have "the love of this false world" and "the love of God and of the world to come"-and "by this false glosing" for "this present."

"The second exhortation is, that next unto God you obey your king and queen willingly and gladly, without murmuring or grudging, not for fear of them, but much more for fear of God, knowing that they be God's ministers, approved by God for to govern and rule you, and therefore they that resist them resist God's ordinance." All the Submissions. Here the other Harleian omits "and gladly," and inserts "only" after "fear of them." The book entitled Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons says that when he named the King and Queen, "genu submisse flectebat." That book adheres to All the Submissions as to Cranmer's last words: as indeed it does throughout the papers concerned with his fall.

"The third exhortation is, that you love altogether like brethren and sisters. But alas! pity it is to see how faint this love is, many taking other not as brother and sisters, but rather as strangers or mortal enemies. And yet, I pray you, learn this one lesson, to do good unto all men, as much as in you lieth, and to hurt no man, no more than you could do to your natural loving brother and sister. For whosoever hateth any person, and goeth about maliciously to hurt him, surely without doubt God is not with that man although he think himself never so much in God's favour." All the Submissions. Here J. A. and Fox have, “pity it is to see what contention and hatred one Christian man hath to another," instead of "how frail this love is." The other Harleian varies this "one man hath against another"-All have "and" for "or," thus making nonsense. All have "learn and bear well away"—J. A. and Fox have

doubtful on it, and would not at such a moment utter aught that he held not unquestionable: he may have considered that he had discharged his duty to the Queen in what he had said already: the rebukes of Cole concerning the great divorce still sounding in his ears may have deterred him, though the study of revenge was not in him. Considering how his whole life and destiny for thirty years had been involved in that affair, we cannot

"your own natural and loving": the other Harleian omits both "and" and "loving."-Instead of " For whosoever," all have "For this ye may be sure of that whosoever."-Instead of "maliciously to hurt" all have "maliciously to hinder or hurt."-All have "surely and without all doubt."

"The fourth exhortation shall be to them that have substance and riches of the world, that they well consider and remember three sayings of the scripture. One is of our Saviour Christ Himself, who saith that 'rich men hardly come into heaven,' a sore saying, and yet spoken of Him that knew the truth. The second is of St. John, who saith thus: 'He that hath the substance of this world, and seeth his brother in necessity, and shutteth up his mercy from him, how can he say that he loveth God?' The third is of St. James, who saith to covetous rich men after this manner Weep and howl, ye rich men, for the misery that shall come upon you: your riches do rot, your clothes be motheaten, your gold and silver wax cankery and rusty, and their rust shall bear witness against you, and consume you like fire: you make a hoard and treasure of God's indignation at the last day.' Let them that be rich ponder well these three sentences: for if ever they had occasion to show their charity, they have it now, the poor people being so many, and victuals so dear." All the Submissions. Here J. A. and the others read "have great substance.” J. A. and the other Harleian have "consider and weigh.”—J. A. omits the third scriptural sentence, but inserts, "Much more might I speak of every part, but time sufficeth not: I do but put you in remembrance of things"-J. A. and the others have "now at this present”—J. A. and the other Harleian add at the end, "For though I have been long in prison, yet I have heard of the great penury of the poor. Consider that that which is given to the poor is given to God: Whom we have not otherwise present corporally with us but in the poor." Cranmer may have said this.

"Here to declare the queen's just title to the crown. All the Submissions. J. A., the other Harleian, and Fox omit this entirely. [Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons says that he had it written in his paper, but omitted to speak on it. "Sequebatur in charta, ut de jure diceret quod regina ad hoc regnum habebat : quibus tamen in dicendo prætermissis," &c. p. 103.]

wonder if he now omitted it: and by silence made his first departure from that which he had written to speak. He then proceeded to declare his faith: that he believed. all the articles of the Catholic faith, contained in the New and Old Testament, and explicated in the General Councils.* He had almost exhausted the time before

"And now, forasmuch as I am come to the last end of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life past and all my life to come, either to live with my Saviour Christ for ever in joy, or else to be in pains ever with the wicked devils in hell: and I see before mine eyes presently either heaven ready to receive me, or else hell ready to swallow me up: I shall therefore declare unto you my faith without colour or dissimulation : for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have said, preached, or written in time past." All the Submissions. Here J. A. substitutes "in heaven" for "for ever": the other Harleian misses out "for ever" without putting anything instead—J. A. puts in "for" before the other "ever": and so Fox wrongly the expression is in pains ever. The other Harleian reads "ever in pains," which is commonplace.-They all omit "the" before "wicked devils": again wrongly-J. A. omits "else" between "heaven" and "ready," the other Harleian interposes a bracketed description "(pointing his finger upward)", and between "hell" and "ready" interposes "(pointing downward)." That is rubbish-Before "faith" they all put in needlessly the word "very," and after "faith" they all needlessly add the clause "how I believe"- -J. A. omits "said preached, or" and thereby marks, if he be taken to represent what Cranmer really said, a very important deviation from the written paper. The other Harleian and Fox omit "preached" only: which is an important omission. According to this, what Cranmer had here written in his paper might have applied to his teachings as a Reformer, and been agreeable with the recantation thereof. By omitting the words “said, preached," or even only "preached," he confined himself to what he had "written" only, his recent recantations, and might proceed to retract them; as indeed he did.

"First, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, &c. And I believe every article of the catholic faith, every clause, word, and sentence taught by our Saviour Jesus Christ, His apostles and prophets in the New and Old Testament, and all Articles explicate and set forth in the general Councils." All the Submissions. Here they all omit "clause"-They all omit "and all articles explicate and set forth in the general Councils." Whether Cranmer omitted them, again departing from his written paper, or not, they were consistent with his whole contention as a reformer, and with all the English reformers. [Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons makes him speak the words, but this may be merely copying All the Submissions.]