“HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.” 369 
admit that he did not act up to his high functions and responsibilities. 
Now it is evident to the most careless reader that Strype, in sum- 
ming up the character of the archbishop, holds him in the profound- 
est reverence. ‘I do not intend,” says he, “these my collections for 
such a panegyric of him as to make the world believe him void of 
all faults and frailties—the condition of human nature. He lived 
in such critical times, and under such princes, and was necessarily 
involved in such affairs as exposed him to greater temptations than 
ordinary. And if any blemishes shall, by curious observers, be 
espied in him, he may therefore seem the more pardonable ; and his 
great and exemplary goodness and usefulness in the church of God 
may make ample amends for some errors.” Yet the rectitude of the 
biographer’s mind, and his reverence for historical truth, would not 
allow him to suppress Cranmer’s six recantations.‘3 He had the 
honesty to publish all these, which were not fully known before ; 
whereas Burnett has unduly omitted these lapses, and has given fa- 
vourable impressions of those which he mentions. 
The sudden and unexpected downfal of Queen Anne, no doubt, 
placed Cranmer, for a time, in great jeopardy: and he has been 
extolled immoderately by Burnett for venturing to write a letter to 
the blood-thirsty persecutor in behalf of this most injured Jady. 
What less could the first minister of religion do, when he acknow- 
ledges that “next to his grace, he is most bound unto her of all 
creatures living,” and when his heart must have secretly told him 
that a cruel and unjust sentence was about to be passed on her? In 
this much-praised letter, in vain must we look for any generous 
burst of feeling, for any touches of that high-minded magnanimity, 
which, in the face of all consequences, can vindicate the honour of 
the Lutheran'+ Queen. Surely there is nothing of such a nature 
in this declaration respecting the object of his sympathies and affec- 
tions. “If she be found culpable, considering your grace’s good- 
ness towards her, and from what condition your grace of your only 
- meer goodness took her, and set the crown upon her head, I repute 
him not your grace’s faithful servant and subject, nor true unto the 
18 Five of them are given in his Ecoles. Mem. vol. v, p. 392, and the other 
in Fox, p. 559. 
14 “What, though I know her virtuous 
And well deserving, yet I know her for 
A spleeny Lutheran ; and not wholesome to 
Our cause, that she should lie in the bosom of 
Our hard-ruled king.”—Henry VIII, Act 3rd. 
VOL. IX, NO. XXVII. 47 
