in the ceremony of degradation, which he accompanied by railleries and insolent language, crying aloud, "He is no longer my lord! he is no longer my lord!" Bishop Thirlby, who was present, though a bigoted papist, reproved Bonner's conduct, and every effort was made, both by severity and flattery, to shake, if possible, Cranmer's stedfastness in the faith. He was induced to sign a paper, renouncing his opposition to popery; from this he was led further, and signed five others in succession; or rather five other papers were exhibited as having been signed by him, though there are strong grounds for believing he never consented to some of them. A promise that his life should be spared was disregarded; Mary and her council always intended that he should suffer. On March 20th, 1556, he was taken to St. Mary's church in Oxford, and told that he was to repeat in public the declaration he had made. But Dr. Cole preached what may be called his condemnation sermon, exhorting him to take his death patiently, expressing joy of his recovery to the church, and promising that after his death masses should be said for his soul. Cranmer had expected this; he came prepared with a written declaration of firm adherence to the truths of the gospel, to which was added a renunciation of the declarations he had been induced to sign. The church was crowded. All persons attached to the Reformation rejoiced that the papists were disappointed. The latter were enraged; they pulled Cranmer from the stage on which he stood, two Spanish friars, in particular, loudly abused him, and he was hurried to the stake. When the pile was kindled, he thrust his right hand into the rising flame, declaring that it should first suffer, as it had offended by signing his recantation. The next day Pole was appointed archbishop of Canterbury; the same night some one wrote on the gates of Lambeth-palace, the solemn warning addressed to Ahab; 1 Kings xxi. 19; "Hast thou killed, and also taken possession ?" Pole was now at the highest eminence he attained; though he had toiled for it through more than twenty years of treachery, intrigue, and murder, he enjoyed it for a very short time. He had sought the popedom, but in vain; once, as already stated, he had nearly attained that dignity, but was considered by his fellow cardinals as too much inclined to reform the outward abuses of the church. Large grants of lands were made by the queen to Pole; in the close of the year, he was made chancellor of the university of Oxford, and two Spanish friars, Soto and Garcia, were settled there as professors of divinity. His influence was such, that the French ambassador wrote, that the queen had expressly commanded her council to conclude nothing of any weight without communicating it to Pole, having resolved to do nothing of importance without his authority and advice. Among the proceedings under his influence, was a commission for a renewed "diligent search and discovery of heretics," directing the bishop of Exeter and others "to inquire into all heresies; to search out and take possession of all heretical and seditious books, letters, and writings; to search out all persons who refused to be confessed, or to hear mass, or to receive the sacrament, or to come to their parish churches; to call before them any suspected persons, and to award such condign punishment, by fine or imprisonment, as to their wisdom should seem meet.' The people, as Strype describes, now formed three classes: The one sort, the papists; the second, the open professors of the gospel; the third and largest, were of the same judgment with the professors; they in their minds disallowed popery, and esteemed its worship to be idolatrous; yet, out of policy, they outwardly complied with that religion, and went to mass, keeping their opinions to themselves, for their own security." The condition of the Protestants in England at this time was very pitiable. They were liable to suffer the severest punishments; every action was observed by the spies and informers of the persecuting bishops; whenever pretexts for accusing them of heresy could be found they were imprisoned, nor was that a light matter. The imprisonment of those days is graphi cally described by Coverdale, in the preface to the Letters of the Martyrs." "Some being thrown into dungeons, ugsome holes, dark, loathsome, and stinking corners; other some lying in fetters and chains, and loaded with so many irons that they could scarcely stir; some tied in the stocks with their heels upward; some having their legs in the stocks, and their necks chained to the wall with gorgets of iron; some standing in the most painful engines of iron, with their bodies doubled. Some whipped and scourged, beaten with rods, and buffeted with fists; some having their hands burned with a candle, to try their patience, or force them to relent; some hunger-pined, and most miserably famished. All these torments, and many more, even such as cruel Phalaris could not desire worse, were practised by the papists, the stout, sturdy soldiers of Satan, thus delighting in variety of tyranny and torments upon the saints of God, as it is full well and too well known, and as many can testify which are yet alive, and have felt the smart thereof. Yea, and furthermore, so extremely were these dear servants of God dealt with, that, although they were most desirous by their pen and writing to edify their brethren, other poor lambs of Christ, yet were they so narrowly watched and straitly kept from all necessary helps, as paper, ink, books, and such like, that great marvel it is, how they could be able to write any one of these or other so excellent and worthy letters. Sometimes for lack of ease, sometimes for lack of light, they could neither see to write well, nor to read their letters again; sometimes through the hasty coming in of the keepers or officers, who left no corner or bed straw unsearched; yea, sometimes they were put to so hard shifts, that like as for lack of pens they were fain to write with the lead of their windows, so for want of ink they took their own blood, and yet sometimes they were fain to rend and tear what they had written, at the hasty coming in of the officers." "to Strype shows the activity with which the queen and her council, under Pole's influence and direction, urged forward persecution. Orders were again given make a dispatch of all those that were already condemned for religion." Bonner, emphatically called the common slaughter-man, was urged to proceed with increased activity. But it was evident that the people were averse to these proceedings: a report to the council about this time denounced four parishes in Essex as still continuing the English service. The severe sufferings of the Protestants are well described by Foxe; but the details of Strype afford a fuller idea of the extent and the minuteness to which the investigations and harassing of individuals were made to extend; and Strype also describes the cruel sufferings then commonly inflicted, in brief, simple terms, which make deeper impression than fuller delineations. The following is taken from his "Occurrences in the State,' May, 1556, written by a contemporary: "On the 15th day, two tall men were carried in a cart from Newgate unto Stratford, Bow, to be burned; the one blind, the other lame; the one named Hugh Leveroke, a painter, dwelling in St. Swithin's lane, and the other, that is the blind man, dwelling in St. Thomas Apostle. And on the 16th, between nine and ten of the clock aforenoon, were three women, who were of Essex, carried into Smithfield, to end their lives by fire." When he notices in his "Journal of Occurrences" any criminals suffering, he states their offences; but the mass of sufferers in queen Mary's days had no crime laid to their charge, but that of seeking to worship in spirit and in truth it was enough for him thus to state their sufferings; the cause was sufficiently understood. : At this period, several were hanged and dismembered in the streets of London as traitors, having been driven to utter expressions, or to think of acts, which indicated |