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C R A N INI E R. 



ranmcr. relenting cruelty. To expose him to ridicule, the arch- 

 *~ % r~*i' bishop of Canterbury was arrayed in pontifical robes 

 made of coarse black canvass ; these were taken off him 

 piece by piece, according to the ceremonies appointed 

 in such cases by the church of Rome ; and a sentence 

 adjudging him to the flames was pronounced. The 

 patience and fortitude which he displayed, contrasted 

 with the insolence and cruelty of Bonner, not only 

 melted Thirleby into tears, but will transmit to posterity 

 the name of the former with deserved infamy ! 



His immediate execution would have prevented Cran- 

 mer from clouding the evening of his days by an un- 

 availing dereliction of principle. Unfortunately for his 

 fame, he was remanded to prison : there he was assail- 

 ed by the treacherous promises of his enemies, who 

 assured him of pardon upon his gratifying the wishes of 

 the queen ; and by the no less urgent solicitations of 

 his friends, who conjured him to relax his unbending 

 spirit, and to yield to the storm, with which it was in 

 vain to contend. In the gloom of confinement and of 

 solitude, the dread of perishing amid the flames shook 

 his virtuous resolution ; the love of life, and the hope 

 of being useful to his country, awakened in his bo- 

 som; and in an evil hour he signed that recantation of his 

 religious principles which has to the present moment 

 inspired men with grief or with exultation, according 

 as they have been the friends or the foes of the refor- 

 mation. The victory which the treachery of his enemies 

 had gained, their malice knew how to improve. His 

 recantation was printed and circulated with the utmost 

 assiduity ; the queen, that he might not have time to 

 return to a better mind, resolved upon his immediate 

 execution ; and a warrant, to that purpose, was signed 

 on the 24th February. This his enemies designed to 

 conceal from him, but he suspected their design, and 

 prepared for the consequences. On the 2 1st March, 

 he was conducted in solemn procession to St Mary's 

 church, Oxford ; he was placed upon a platform raised 

 opposite to a pulpit, where Dr Cole, provost of Eton, 

 was appointed to preach before him a sermon suited to 

 the occasion ; and whilst the preacher deferred his ap- 

 pearance, that the fallen victim of superstition might be 

 fully exhibited to the mockery of his enemies, he turn- 

 ed his venerable face to a pillar that was behind him, 

 in all the wretchedness of degraded dignity. The mean 

 and the tattered garments which covered him ; the ago- 

 ny of his soul, winch appeared in every feature of his 

 countenance ; the silent prayer which, in the bitterness 

 of his spirit, he poured out to the Friend of the afflict- 

 ed ; and the awful circumstances in which he was pla- 

 ced, exhibiting an affecting instance of the instability of 

 human greatness, might have softened the heart even 

 of his persecutors. Dr Cole, however, at last ascended 

 the pulpit, and after expatiating, with insulting malig- 

 nity, on the errors and the punishment of the enemies 

 of religion, he turned to the wretched victim of his cru- 

 elty, and thanking God for his return to popery, whk h 

 lie attributed to the agency of the divine Spirit, he as- 

 sured him that his death should not be comfortless, as 

 the priests there present would pray for his departing 

 soul ; but as a proof of his sincerity in returning to the 

 bosom of the church, he commanded him to read aloud 

 the abjuration of his errors. The aged primate, who 

 ■stood an image of sorrow and contrition 'during this 

 scene of insult and cruelty, with a firm and manly voice, 

 professed his belief in all that the scriptures reveal to 

 man ; but, added he, " that which I wish chiefly to men- 

 tion, that which wounds my conscience more than all 

 :he sins of my life, is, that, contrary to truth, and the 



dictates of conscience, I abjured the religion which I Cranmer. 

 had embraced from the deepest conviction ; and to re- > - w "y~' 

 pair, as much as is in my power, the majesty of truth 

 which I have shamefully violated, I now renounce all 

 the errors, which, in opposition to my better judgment, 

 my hand lias subscribed ; and, as a mark of my detes- 

 tation of my crime, the hand which committed the deed 

 shall be first consumed in the flames which you prepare 

 for me !" The spectators, who imagined that the sorrow 

 which he displayed had arisen for the crime of aposta- 

 tizing from popery, no sooner heard this declaration, 

 than they loaded him with the most barbarous execra- 

 tions. Dr Cole, with the wildest fury, cried out to stop 

 his mouth ! to pull him down ! to (hag him to the 

 flames ! His commands were obeyed with the most 

 savage inhumanity. When he was chained to the stake, 

 he bade the multitude, who reproached him, farewell ; 

 and perceiving one Ely, formerly an intimate friend, 

 and a fellow of the same university, standing near, he 

 offered him his hand, but he refused to touch so vile a 

 heretic. He then stretched his right hand amid the 

 flames that now rose around him, exclaiming, This is 

 the hand that did it ! Once only he removed it, and 

 drew it across his forehead ; and returning it again, he 

 held it firm till it chopped from his shoulder. Unmoved 

 like a statue, he stood with unshaken fortitude, and 

 when the fire seized upon his vitals, he raised his eyes 

 to heaven, and uttering the words of Stephen, " Lord 

 Jesus, receive my spirit !" sealed his testimony by his 

 death. 



Such was the fate of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop 

 of Canterbury, in the 67th year of his age. Had he fal- 

 len in better days, his life would have exhibited every 

 virtue which can adorn the man, or dignify the Chris- 

 tian ; and he would have descended to the grave with- 

 out those shades, which circumstances of peculiar diffi- 

 culty threw upon the fulness of his fame. The praise 

 and love of his friends are not a more decisive proof of 

 his distinguished learningandabilities, than the reproach 

 and hatred of his enemies ; and the arts and labours 

 which the votaries of Rome have employed to blacken 

 his character, evince how skilfully he wielded the powers 

 of a superior mind against the foundations of their 

 church. Mild, modest, temperate; he conciliated the 

 affection, without rousing the envy of those whom he 

 surpassedin the race of civil or ecclesiastical preferment; 

 and the noble stand which he made in defence of the 

 Duke of Norfolk, his constant and determined enemy, 

 when attainted by Henry contrary to justice, raised a 

 column to his integrity and generosity which will never 

 be shaken. With a mind patient in the investigation, 

 piercing in the discovery, and ardent in the love of 

 knowledge, he was admirably qualified to detect error, 

 and to appreciate truth ; and the intimate friendship 

 which he cultivated with men of learning, as well as the 

 patronage and protection which he extended to every 

 branch of science, proved, that he beheld in others with 

 pleasure those qualities upon which depended his own 

 fame. But, whilst we love and admire the mild and 

 splendid virtues which he possessed in an eminent de- 

 gree, we are not blind to the failings and weaknesses 

 which attended them. That he uniformly employed 

 his influence to moderate the passions and soften the as- 

 perities of Henry's temper, will not, at all times, justi- 

 fy his complaisance to the wishes of that monarch. 

 That he was open and sincere in his attachment to 

 truth, will hardly excuse the manner in which he took 

 the oath of allegiance to the pope, and signed the will 

 of Edward ; though it must be confessed, that had he 



