"And when the wood was kindled, and the fire began to burn near him, he
put his right hand into the flame, which he held so stedfast and
immovable (saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face), that
all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched."--_Acts
and Monuments_, ed. 1839, vol. viii. p. 90.
Burnet is more circumstantial:
"When he came to the stake he prayed, and then undressed himself: and
being tied to it, as the fire was kindling, he stretched forth his
right hand towards the flame, never moving it, save that once he wiped
his face with it, till it was burnt away, which was consumed before the
fire reached his body. He expressed no disorder from the pain he was
in; sometimes saying, 'That unworthy hand;' and oft crying out, 'Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit.' He was soon after quite burnt."--_Hist. of
the Reformation_, vol. iii. p. 429., ed. 1825.
Hume says:
"He stretched out his hand, and, without betraying either by his
countenance or motions the least sign of weakness, or even feeling, he
held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed."--Hume, vol. iv.
p. 476.
It is probable that Hume believed this, for while Burnet states positively
as a fact, though only inferentially as a miracle, that "the heart was
found entire and unconsumed among the ashes," Hume says, "it was pretended
that his heart," &c.
I am not about to discuss the character of Cranmer: a timid man might have
been roused under such circumstances into attempting to do what it is said
he did. The laws of physiology and combustion show that he could not have
gone beyond the attempt. If a furnace were so constructed, that a man might
hold his hand in the flame without burning his body, the shock to the
nervous system would deprive him of all command over muscular action before
the skin could be "entirely consumed." If the hand were chained over the
fire, the shock would produce death.
In this case the fire was unconfined. Whoever has seen the effect of flame
in the open air, must know that the vast quantity sufficient entirely to
consume a human hand, must have destroyed the life of its owner; though,
from a peculiar disposition of the wood, the vital parts might have been
protected.
The entire story is utterly impossible. May we, guided by the words "as the
fire was kindling," believe that he _then_ thrust his right hand into the
flame--a practice I believe not unusual with our martyrs, and peculiarly
suitable to him--and class the "holding it till consumed" with the whole
and unconsumed heart?
I may observe that in the accounts of martyrdoms little investigation was
made as to what was possible. Burnet, describing Hooper's execution, says,
"one of his hands fell off before he died, with the other he continued to
knock on his breast some time after." This, I have high medical authority
for saying, could not be.