"And now," he went on, "forasmuch as I am come to the last end of my
life, whereupon hangeth all my life past and all my life to come,
either to live with my Saviour Christ in joy, or else to be ever in
pain with wicked devils in hell; and I see before mine eyes presently
either heaven"--and he pointed upwards with his hand--"or hell," and
he pointed downwards, "ready to swallow me. I shall therefore declare
unto you my very faith, without colour or dissimulation; for now it is
no time to dissemble. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth; in every article of the Catholic faith; every word
and sentence taught by our Saviour Christ, his apostles, and prophets,
in the Old and New Testament.
"And now I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more
than any other thing that ever I said or did in my life, and that is
the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth, which here I now
renounce and refuse,[547] as things {p.258} written with my hand
contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for
fear of death to save my life, if it might be; and that is, all such
bills and papers as I have written and signed with my hand since my
degradation, wherein I have written many things untrue; and forasmuch
as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, my hand therefore
shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire, it shall be
the first burnt. As for the pope, I utterly refuse him, as Christ's
enemy and Anti-Christ, with all his false doctrine; and as for the
sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the Bishop of
Winchester."
[Footnote 547: There are two original contemporary
accounts of Cranmer's words--_Harleian MSS._, 417
and 422--and they agree so far almost word for word
with "The Prayer and Saying of Thomas Cranmer a
little before his Death," which was published
immediately after by Bonner. But we now encounter
the singular difficulty, that the conclusion given
by Bonner is altogether different. The archbishop
is made to repeat his recantation, and express
especial grief for the books which he had written
upon the Sacrament.
There is no uncertainty as to what Cranmer really
said; but, inasmuch is Bonner at the head of his
version of the speech has described it as "written
with his own hand," it has been inferred that he
was required to make a copy of what he intended to
say--that he actually wrote what Bonner printed,
hoping to the end that his life would be spared;
and that he would have repeated it publicly, had he
seen that there was a chance of his escape.
Finding, however, that his execution had been
irrevocably determined on, he made the substitution
at the last moment.
There are many difficulties in this view, chiefly
from the character of the speech itself, which has
the stamp upon it of too evident sincerity to have
been composed with any underhand intentions. The
tone is in harmony throughout, and the beginning
leads naturally to the conclusion which Cranmer
really spoke.
There is another explanation, which is to me more
credible. The Catholics were furious at their
expected triumph being snatched from them. Whether
Cranmer did or did not write what Bonner says he
_wrote_, Bonner knew that he had not _spoken_ it,
and yet was dishonest enough to print it as having
been spoken by him, evidently hoping that the truth
could be suppressed, and that the Catholic cause
might escape the injury which the archbishop's
recovered constancy must inflict upon it. A man who
was capable of so considerable a falsehood would
not have hesitated for the same good purpose to
alter a few sentences. Pious frauds have been
committed by more religious men than Edmund Bonner.
See the Recantation of Thomas Cranmer, reprinted
from Bonner's original pamphlet: Jenkins, vol. iv.
p. 393.]
So far the archbishop was allowed to continue, before his astonished
hearers could collect themselves. "Play the Christian man," Lord
Williams at length was able to call; "remember yourself; do not
dissemble." "Alas! my lord," the archbishop answered, "I have been a
man that all my life loved plainness, and never dissembled till now,
which I am most sorry for." He would have gone on; but cries now rose
on all sides, "Pull him down," "Stop his mouth," "Away with him," and
he was borne off by the throng out of the church. The stake was a
quarter of a mile distant, at the spot already consecrated by the
deaths of Ridley and Latimer. Priest and monks "who did rue[548] to
see him go so wickedly to his death, ran after him, exhorting him,
while time was, to remember himself." But Cranmer, having flung down
the burden of his shame, had recovered his strength, and such words
had no longer power to trouble him. He approached the stake with "a
cheerful countenance," undressed in haste, and stood upright in his
shirt. Soto and another Spanish friar continued expostulating; but
finding they could effect nothing, one said in Latin to the other,
"Let us go from him, for the devil is within him." An Oxford {p.259}
theologian--his name was Ely--being more clamorous, drew from him only
the answer that, as touching his recantation, "he repented him right
sore, because he knew that it was against the truth."
[Footnote 548: _Harleian MS._, 422. Strype has
misread the word into "run," losing the point of
the expression.]
"Make short, make short!" Lord Williams cried, hastily.
The archbishop shook hands with his friends; Ely only drew back,
calling, "Recant, recant," and bidding others not approach him.
"This was the hand that wrote it," Cranmer said, extending his right
arm; "this was the hand that wrote it, therefore it shall suffer first
punishment." Before his body was touched, he held the offending member
steadily in the flame, "and never stirred nor cried." The wood was dry
and mercifully laid; the fire was rapid at its work, and he was soon
dead. "His friends," said a Catholic bystander, "sorrowed for love,
his enemies for pity, strangers for a common kind of humanity, whereby
we are bound to one another."
So perished Cranmer. He was brought out, with the eyes of his soul
blinded, to make sport for his enemies, and in his death he brought
upon them a wider destruction than he had effected by his teaching
while alive. Pole was appointed the next day to the See of Canterbury;
but in other respects the court had overreached themselves by their
cruelty. Had they been contented to accept the recantation, they would
have left the archbishop to die broken-hearted, pointed at by the
finger of pitying scorn; and the Reformation would have been disgraced
in its champion. They were tempted, by an evil spirit of revenge, into
an act unsanctioned even by their own bloody laws; and they gave him
an opportunity of redeeming his fame, and of writing his name in the
roll of martyrs. The worth of a man must be measured by his life, not
by his failure under a single and peculiar trial. The apostle, though
forewarned, denied his Master on the first alarm of danger; yet that
Master, who knew his nature in its strength and its infirmity, chose
him for the rock on which He would build His church.
{p.260} CHAPTER V.