Mary would doubtless have bravely endured for her faith the full
measure of suffering which she inflicted. Her state of mind was that
of all who then held strong convictions. Each party believed it a
duty to convert or exterminate the other, and the alternative offered
to the heretic was to "turn or burn."
Sir Thomas More, who gave his life as a sacrifice to conscience in
Henry's reign (S351), was eager to put Tyndale to the torture for
translating the Bible. Cranmer (S362), who perished at Oxford (1556),
had been zealous in sending to the flames those who differed from
him. Even Latimer (S361), who died bravely at the stake, exhorting
his companion Ridley (1555) "to be of good cheer and play the man,
since they would light such a candle in England that day as in God's
grace should not be put out," had abetted the kindling of slow fires
under men as honest and determined as himself but on the opposite
side.
In like spirit Queen Mary kept Smithfield, London, ablaze with
martyrs, whose blood was the seed of Protestantism. Yet persecution
under Mary never reached the proportions that it did on the
Continent. At the most, but a few hundred died in England for the
sake of their religion, while Mary's husband, Philip II, during the
last of his reign, covered Holland with the graves of Protestants, who
had been tortured and put to cruel deaths, or buried alive, by tens of
thousands.