I wrote previously about Thomas Cramner in THIS blog post, but want to conclude this with an account by Thomas Chalmers of his subsequent persecution and martyrdom:
After queen Mary's accession to the throne, so obnoxious an enemy to popery could not long escape, and accordingly he was first ordered to appear before the council, and bring an inventory of his goods; which he did August the 27th, when he was commanded to keep his house, and be forthcoming. September the 13th, he was again summoned before the council, and enjoined to be at the Starchamber the next day, when he was committed to the Tower; partly, for setting his hand to the instrument of the lady Jane's succession; and, partly, for the public offer he had made a little before, of justifying openly the religious proceedings of the late king. Some of his friends, forseeing the storm that was likely to fall upon him, advised him to fly, but he absolutely refused, as unworthy of his character and the station he held. In the ensuing parliament, on November the 3d, he was attainted, and at Guildhall found guilty of high treason; on which the fruits of his archbishopric were sequestered; yet, upon his humble and repeated application, he was pardoned the treason, but it was resolved he should be proceeded against for heresy. In April 1554, he, and Ridley and Latimer, were removed to Oxford, for a public disputation with the papists on the subject of the sacrament; which was accordingly held there towards the middle of the month, with great noise, triumph, and confidence on the papists' side, and with as much graavity, learning, modesty, and argument on the side of the protestant bishops. The 20th of April, two days after the end of these disputations, Cranmer and the two others were brought before the commissioners, and asked, whether they would subscribe (to Popery)? which they unanimously refusing, were condemned as heretics. From this sentence the archbishop appealed to the just judgement of the Almighty; and wrote to the council, giving them an account of the disputation, and desiring the queen's pardon for his treason, which it seems was not yet remitted. By the convocation, which met this year, his Defence of the true and Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, was ordered to be burnt. Some of his friends petitioned the queen in his behalf; putting her in mind, how he had once preserved her, by his earnest intercessions for her, when her father had determined to send her to the Tower, and make her suffer for disobedience to the laws; so that she had reason to believe he loved her, and would speak the truth to her, more than all the rest of the clergy. But all these endeavours were ineffectual. The sentence pronounced against him by Weston at Oxford being void in law, because the Pope's authority was not yet reestablished in England, a new commission was sent from Rome for his trial and conviction. Accordingly, on September the 12th, 1555, he appeared before the commissioners; viz. Brooks bishop of Gloucester, for the pope; and Drs. Martin and Story for the queen: the commission was opened at St. Mary's church, Oxford, and Cranmer was accused of blasphemy and heresy, for his writings against popery; of perjury, for breaking his oath to the pope; and of incontinency, or adultery, on account of his being married: against all which he vindicated himself. At last, he was cited to appear at Rome within eighty days, to asnwer in person; which he said he would do if the king and queen would send him, but this was not done, and therefore the pope dispatched, on December the 14th, his letters executory to the king and queen, and to Bonner and Thirlby bishops of London and Ely, to degrade and deprive him. In these letters, Cranmer was declared contumacious, for not appearing at Rome within eighty days, according to his citation; as if he could have appeared at Rome, when he was all the while kept a prisoner. Upon the arrival of the letters, Bonner and Thirlby, with Dr. Martin and Dr. Story the king's and queen's proctors, went to Oxford to degrade him. They dressed him in all the garments and ornaments of an archbishop, only in mockery every thing was of canvass and old clouts: and then he was, piece by piece, stripped of all again. When they came to take the crosier out of his hand, he refused to part with it, and appealed to the next general council. After he was degraded, they put him on a poor yeomanbeadle's gown, threadbare, and a townsman's cap, and remanded him to prison. From thence he wrote letters to the queen, to give her an impartial account of what had passed at his degradation, to prevent misreports, and to justify himself in what he had said and done; and hitherto he manifested a great deal of courage and wisdom in his sufferings; but at last human frailty made him commit what he felt as the greatest blemish of his life. For, through flatteries, promises, importunities, threats, and the fear of death, he was prevailed upon to sign a recantation*, wherein he renounced the Protestant religion, and embraced again all the errors of popery; which recantation was immediately printed and dispersed about by his enemies. Notwithstanding that, the merciless queen, not satisfied with this conquest, resolved to glut her revenge, by committing Cranmer to the flames. Acordingly, she sent for Dr. Cole, provost of Eton, and gave him instructions to prepare a sermon for that mournful occasion; and on the 24th of February a writ was signed for the execution. The 21st day of March, the fatal day, he was brought to St. Mary's church, and placed on a kind of stage over against the pulpit, where Dr. Cole was to preach. While Dr. Cole was haranguing, the unfortunate Cranmer expressed great inward confusion; often lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven; and frequently pouring out floods of tears. At the end of the sermon, when Cole desired him to make an open profession of his faith, as he had promised him he would; he, first, prayed in the most fervent manner; then made an exhortationn to the people present, not to set their minds upon the world; to obey the king and queen; to love each other; and to be charitable. After this he made a confession of his faith, beginning with the Creed, and concluding with these words, And I believe every word and sentence tought by our Saviour Jesus Christ, his apostles and prophets, in the Old and New Testament.—And now, added he, I come to the great thing, that so much troubleth my conscience more than any thing I ever did or said in my whole life; and that is the setting abroad a writing contrary to the truth, which I here now renounce as things written with my hand contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, and to save my life if it might be; that is, all such bills and papers which I have written or signed with my hand since my degradation, wherein I have written many things untrue. And forasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished; for, may I come to the fire, it shall be first burned. As for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and antichrist, with all his false doctrine. And as for the Sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the bishop of Winchester. Thunderstruck as it were with this unexpected declaration, the enraged popish crowd admonished him not to dissemble: Ah, replied he with tears, since I lived hitherto, I have been a hater of falsehood, and a lover of simplicity, and never before this time have I dissembled. On this, they pulled him off the stage with the utmost fury, and hurried him to the place of his matyrdom, over against Baliolcollege; where he put off his clothes in haste, and standing in his shirt, and without shoes, was fastened with a chain to the stake. Some pressing him to agree to his former recantation, he answered, showing his hand, This is the hand that wrote it, and therefore it shall first suffer punishment. Fire being applied to him, he stretched out his right hand into the flame, and held it there unmoved (except that once with it he wiped his face) till it was consumed, crying with a loud voice, This hand hath offended; and often repeating, This unworthy right hand. At last, the fire getting up, he soon expired, never stirring or crying out all the while, only keeping his eyes fixed to the heaven, and repeating more than once, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Such was the end of the renowned Thomas Cranmer, in the 67th year of his age, a man who deservedly ranks high among the most illustrious characters in ecclesiastical history, although his conduct was not in all instances free from blame.
