50 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 



struments of the Anglican Reformation, we blame him only that 

 with his avowed reverence for historical impartiality, he should 

 have spoken so lifelessly andf** coldly of that truly apostolical man 

 the Bisho}) of Rochester, Cardinal, as the papists style him, of the 

 Holy Church of Rome ; whose nobleness of principle, unalterable 

 purity of action, disinterestedness, and generosity of soul, should at 

 least have been described with fairness and liberality, if they did not 

 command his willing admiration.* 



One would have imagined, from its being so demonstrable that 

 Henry could not find hatred enough in his heart, or punishment 

 enough on earth,t for that inflexibly honest prelate, our upright and 

 conscientious historian would, as often as the name of Fisher pre- 

 sented itself to his notice, have penned not a few sentences of moral 

 reprobation upon those hellish inmates of Henry's breast which 

 may be called his household gods. But from the manner in which 

 he glides over the monstrous iniquity of his sentence, the hasty and 

 superficial reader might be led to suppose, that Burnett was as ig- 

 norant of it, as of the mighty powers of steam ; whereas, to those 



* The qualities of his head and heart were such, as at one time to extort 

 from Henry himself this high compliment to them : addressing Cardinal 

 Pole, he said, " Se judicare me nunquam invenisse in universa peregrina- 

 tione mea, qui Uteris et virtute cum Rofterne esset comparandus." — Apol. 

 Poll, p. 95. 



f The brutal malignity of Henry did not, according to Pole, cease with 

 the life of Fisher, but extended itself towards his remains :— " Itaque cum 

 post carceris miseriam quindecim mensium spatio perpessam produci eum 

 fecisset, capite, plecti jussit. Nee vero hoc satis, nisi niortui corpus omni 

 contumelire objiceret, quod nudum prorsus in loco supplicii ad spectaculum papu- 

 la relinqui mandaverat, ad quod nemo accedere audebat tyranni metu, prseter 

 eos qui contumelise causa accederent, vel qui mortuo indumenta detraxe- 

 rant." — Apalog., p. 96. There is a detailed account of the treatment of Fish- 

 er's dead body, in Dr. Hall's, or, more correctly writing, Dr. Bailey's Life of 

 Fisher, from which any one might justly conclude that the English people 



were not then emerged from savagery, even to a semi-civilization p. 210. 



But what I shall now state on the authority of the Roman Catholic histo- 

 rian, Dodd, will transcend the belief of the present age, and can be received 

 by the vulgar only, whose credulity is always probable : — " After the expo- 

 sure of Fisher's head for fourteen days upon London Bridge, it was thrown 

 into the Thames, in consequence of a report that rays of light were observed 

 to shine around it." — Church Hist., v. i., p. IGl. Hall, more modest in his 

 reference to this miracle, though ready enough to give it a welcome admis- 

 sion, contents himself with saying, that " the face was observed to become 

 fresher and more comely day by day, and that such were the crowds collect- 

 ed together to look at it, that almost neither cart nor horse could pass." — 

 Life of Fisher, p. 212. 



