ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. be prosecuted with the greatest rigour; nay, deserved to die without mercy." At this, the archbishop, lifting up his hands to heaven, cried And then taking out out, "Merciful God! whom may man trust." of his bosom the letters, by which he had discovered their treachery, asked them if they knew those papers? When they saw their own letters produced against them, they were in the utmost confusion; and falling down upon their knees, humbly sued for forgiveness. The archbishop told them, "that he forgave them, and would pray for them; but that they must not expect him ever to trust them for the future." As we are upon the subject of the archbishop's readiness to forgive and forget injuries, it may not be improper here to relate a pleasant instance of it, which happened some time before the above circum stances. The archbishop's first wife, whom he married at Cambridge, was kinswoman to the hostess at the Dolphin inn, and boarded there; and he often resorting thither on that account, the popish party had raised a story that he had been ostler to that inn, and never had the benefit of a learned education. This idle story a Yorkshire priest had, with great confidence, asserted, in an alehouse which he used to frequent; railing at the archbishop, and saying, that he had no more learning When he than a goose. Some people of the parish informed Lord Cromwell of this, and the priest was committed to the Fleet prison. had been there nine or ten weeks, he sent a relation of his to the archbishop, to beg his pardon, and to sue for a discharge. The archbishop instantly sent for him, and, after a gentle reproof, asked the priest whether he knew him? To which he answering, "No," the archbishop expostulated with him, why he should then make so free with his character? The priest excused himself, by saying he was disguised with liquor; but this Cranmer told him was a double fault. He then said to the priest, if he was inclined to try what a scholar he was, he should have liberty to oppose him in whatever science he pleased. The priest humbly asked his pardon, and confessed himself to be very ignorant, and to understand nothing but his mother No doubt, then," said Cranmer," you are well versed in tongue. the English Bible, and can answer any questions out of that; pray tell me, who was David's father?" The priest stood still for some "who was Solomon's time to consider; but, at last, told the archbishop he could not recol"Tell me, then," said Cranmer, lect his name. father?" The poor priest replied, that he had no skill in genealogies, and could not tell. The archbishop then, advising him to frequent ale-houses less, and his study more, and admonishing him not to accuse others for want of learning till he was master of some himself, discharged him out of custody, and sent him home to his cure. These may serve as instances of Cranmer's clement temper. Indeed, he was much blamed by many for his too great lenity; which, it was thought, encouraged the popish faction to make fresh attempts against him; but he was happy in giving a shining example of that great Christian virtue which he diligently taught. The king, who was a good discerner of men, remarking the implacable hatred of Cranmer's enemies towards him, changed his coat of from three cranes to three pelicans, feeding their young with "that these birds should their own blood; and told the archbishop, 49 arms signify to him, that he ought to be ready, like the pelican, to shed his blood for his young ones, brought up in the faith of Christ; for," said the king, "you are like to be tried, if you will stand to your tackling, at length." The event proved the king to be no bad prophet. In 1547, Henry died, and left his crown to his only son, Edward, who was godson to Cranmer, and had imbibed all the spirit of a reformer. This excellent young prince, influenced no less by his own inclinations than by the advice of Cranmer, and the other friends of reformation, was diligent in every endeavour to promote it. Homilies, and a catechism, were composed by the archbishop; Erasmus' notes on the New Testament were translated, and fixed in churches; the sacrament was administered in both kinds; and the liturgy was read in the vulgar tongue. Ridley, the archbishop's great friend, and one of the brightest lights of the English reformation, was equally zealous in the good cause; and in concert with him, the archbishop drew up the forty-two articles of religion, which were revised by other bishops and divines; as, through him, he had perfectly conquered all his scruples respecting the doctrines of the corporeal presence, and published a much esteemed treatise, entitled, "A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrines of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." But this happy scene of prosperity was not to continue: God was pleased to deprive the nation of King Edward, in 1553, designing, in his wise providence, to perfect the new-born church of his son Jesus Christ in England, by the blood of martyrs, as at the beginning he perfected the church in general. Anxious for the success of the reformation, and wrought upon by the artifices of the duke of Northumberland, Edward had been per suaded to exclude his sisters, and to bequeath the crown to that duke's amiable and every way deserving daughter-in-law the Lady Jane Gray. The archbishop did his utmost to oppose this alteration in the succession; but the king was over-ruled; the will was made, and subscribed by the council and the judges. The archbishop was sent for, last of all, and required to subscribe; but he answered that he could not do so without perjury; having sworn to the entail of the crown on the two princesses Mary and Elizabeth. To this the king replied, "that the judges, who, being best skilled in the constitution, ought to be regarded in this point, had assured him, that notwithstanding that entail, he might lawfully bequeath the crown to Lady Jane." The archbishop desired to discourse with them himself about it; and they all agreeing, that he might lawfully subscribe the king's will, he was at last prevailed with to resign his own private scruples to their authority, and set his hand to it. Having done this, he thought himself obliged in conscience to join the Lady Jane but her short-lived power soon expired; when Mary and persecution mounted the throne, and Cranmer could expect nothing less than what ensued-attainder, imprisonment, deprivation, and death. He was condemned for treason, and, with pretended clemency, pardoned; but, to gratify Gardiner's malice, and her own implacable resentment against him for her mother's divorce, Mary gave orders to proceed against him for heresy. His friends, who foresaw the storm, had advised him to consult his safety by retiring beyond sea; but he chose rather to continue steady to the cause, which he had hitherto so nobly supported; and preferred the probability of sealing his testimony with his blood, to an ignominious and dishonourable flight. The Tower was crowded with prisoners; insomuch that Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and Bradford, were all put into one chamber; which they were so far from thinking & inconvenience, that on the contrary, they blessed God for the opportunity of conversing together: reading and comparing the scriptures, confi.ming themselves in the true faith, and mutually exhorting each other to constancy in professing it, and patience in suffering for it. Happy society! blessed martyrs! rather to be envied, than the purpled vrant, with the sword deepdrenched in blood, though encircled with all the pomp and pageantry of power! In April, 1554, the archbishop, with Bishops Ridley and Latimer, was removed from the Tower to Windsor, and from thence to Oxford, to dispute with some select persons of both universities. But how vain are disputations, where the fate of men is fixed, and every word is misconstrued! And such was the case here: for on April the 20th, Cranmer was brought to St. Mary's before the queen's commissioners, and refusing to subscribe to the popish articles, he was pronounced a heretic, and sentence of condemnation was passed upon him. Upon which he told them, that he appealed from their unjust sentence to that of the Almighty; and that he trusted to be received into his presence in heaven for maintaining the truth, as set forth in his most holy gospel. After this his servants were dismissed from their attendance, and himself closely confined in Bocardo, the prison of the city of Oxford. But this sentence being void in law, as the pope's authority was wanting, a new commission was sent from Rome in 1555; and in St. Mary's church at the high altar, the court sat, and tried the already condemned Cranmer. He was here well nigh too strong for his judges; and if reason and truth could have prevailed, there would have been no doubt who should have been acquitted, and who condemned. The February following, a new commission was given to Bishop Bonner and Bishop Thirlby, for the degradation of the archbishop. When they came down to Oxford he was brought before them; and after they had read their commission from the pope, (for not appearing before whom in person, as they had cited him, he was declared contumacious, though they themselves had kept him a close prisoner) Bonner, in a scurrilous oration, insulted over him in the most unchristian manner, for which he was often rebuked by Bishop Thirlby, who wept, and declared it was the most sorrowful scene he had ever beheld in his whole life. In the commission it was declared that the cause had been impartially heard at Rome; the witnesses on both sides examined, and the archbishop's counsel allowed to make the best defence for him they could. At the reading this, the archbishop could not help crying out, "Good God! what lies are these; that I, being continually in prison, and not suffered to have counsel or advocate at home, should produce witnesses, and appoint my counsel at Rome! God must needs punish this shameless and open lying!" When Bonner had finished his invective, they proceeded to degrade him; and that they might make him as ridiculous as they could, the episcopal habit which they put on him was made of canvass and old rags. Bonner, in the meantime, by way of triumph and mockery, calling him" Mr. Canterbury," and the like. He bore all this treatment with his wonted fortitude and patience; told them, "the degradation gave him no concern, for he had long despised those ornaments;" but when they came to take away his crosier, he held it fast, and delivered his appeal to Thirlby, saying, "I appeal to the next general council." When they had stripped him of all his habits, they put on him a poor yeoman-beadle's gown, thread-bare and ill-shaped, and a townsman's cap; and in this manner delivered him to the secular power to be carried back to prison, where he was kept entirely destitute of money, and totally secluded from his friends. Nay, such was the fury of his enemies, that a gentleman was taken into eustody by Bonner, and narrowly escaped a trial, for giving the poor archbishop money to buy him a dinner. Cranmer had now been imprisoned almost three years, and death should have soon followed his sentence and degradation; but his cruel enemies reserved him for greater misery and insult. Every engine that could be thought of was employed to shake his constancy; but he held fast to the profession of his faith. Nay, even when he saw the barbarous martyrdom of his dear companions, Ridley and Latimer, he was so far from shrinking, that he not only prayed to God to strengthen them, but also, by their example, to animate him to a patient expectation and endurance of the same fiery trial. The papists, after trying various severe ways to bring Cranmer over without effect, at length determined to try what gentle methods would do. They accordingly removed him from prison to the lodgings of the dean of Christ-church, where they urged every persuasive and affecting argument to make him deviate from his faith; and, indeed, too much melted his gentle nature, by the false sunshine of pretended civility and respect. The unfortunate prelate, however, withstood every temptation, at which his enemies were so irritated, that they removed him from the dean's lodgings to the most loathsome part of the prison in which he had been confined, and then treated him with unparalleled severity. This was more than the infirmities of so old a man could support; the frailty of human nature prevailed; and he was induced to sign the following recantation, drawn from him by the malice and artifices of his enemies: "I, Thomas Cranmer, late archbishop of Canterbury, do renounce, abhor, and detest, all manner of heresies and errors of Luther and Zuinglius, and all other teachings which are contrary to sound and true doctrine. And I believe most constantly in my heart, and with my mouth I confess one holy and catholic church visible, without which there is no salvation; and thereof I acknowledge the bishop of Rome to be supreme head in earth, whom I acknowledge to be the highest bishop and pope, and Christ's vicar, unto whom all Christian people ought to be subject. "And as concerning the sacraments, I believe in the worship and the sacrament of the altar the very body and blood of Christ, being contained most truly under the forms of bread and wine; the bread through |