Actes and Monuments

by John Foxe

Continuation of The Life, State, and Martyrdom of the Reverend Pastor and Prelate, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury

While the archbishop was thus remaining in durance, (whom they had kept now in prison almost three years,) the doctors and divines of Oxford busied themselves all that ever they could, to have him recant, essaying by all crafty practices and allurements they might devise how to bring their purpose to pass, specially Henry Sydal and John de Villa Garcia.

First, they set forth how acceptable it would be both to the king and queen, and especially how gainful to him, and for his soul's health. They added how the council and noble men bare him good will; and put him in hope that he should not only have his life, but also be restored to his ancient dignity, saying, it was but a small matter and so easy that they required him to do, only that he would subscribe to a few words with his own hands; which, if he did, there should be nothing in the whole realm that the queen would not easily grant him, whether he would have riches or dignity; or else if he had rather live a private life in quiet rest, in whatsoever place he listed, without all public ministry, only that he would set his name in two words to a little leaf of paper. But if he refused there was no hope of health and pardon, for the queen was so purposed that she would have Cranmer a catholic, or else no Cranmer at all. Moreover, they exhorted him that he would look to his wealth, his estimation and quietness, saying that he was not so old but that many years yet remained in this his so lusty age; and if he would not do it in respect of the queen, yet he should do it for respect of his life, and not suffer that other men should be more careful for his health than he was himself. Finally, if the desire of life did nothing move him, yet he should remember that to die is grievous in all ages, and especially in these his years and flower of dignity it were more grievous; but to die in the fire and such torments is most grievous of all.

With these and like provocations, these fair flatterers ceased not to solicit and urge to their side; whose force his manly constancy did a great while resist. But at last, when they made no end of calling and crying upon him, the archbishop being overcome, whether their importunity, or by his own imbecility, or of what mind I cannot tell, at length gave his hand, though it was against his conscience. But so it pleaseth God, that so great virtues in this archbishop should not be had in too much admiration of us without some blemish, or else that the falsehood of the popish generation by this means might be made more evident, of else to minish the confidence of our own strength, that in him should appear an example of man's weak imbecility.

This recantation was soon caused by the doctors and prelates to be imprinted, and set abroad in all men's hands. All this while Cranmer was in uncertain assurance of his life, although the same was faithfully promised to him by the doctors; but after that they had their purpose, the rest they committed to all adventure, as became men of that religion to do. The queen received his recantation very gladly, but of her purpose to put him to death she would nothing relent. And now was Cranmer's cause in a miserable taking, who neither inwardly had any quietness in his own conscience, nor yet outwardly any help in his adversaries.

In the meantime, while these things were adoing in the prison among the doctors, the queen taking secret counsel how to dispatch Cranmer out of the way, appointed Dr. Cole, and secretly gave him in commandment, that against the 21st of March he should prepare a funeral sermon for Cranmer's burning. Soon after, the lord Williams of Thame, and the lord Chandos, sir Thomas Bridges, and sir John Brown were sent for, with other worshipful men and justices, and commanded in the queen's name to be at Oxford at the same day, with their servants and retinue, lest Cranmer's death should raise there any tumult.

Cole the doctor, having this lesson given him before, and charged by her commandment, returned to Oxford ready to play his part; who, two days before the execution, came into the prison to Cranmer, to try whether he abode in the catholic faith wherein before he had left him. To whom, when Cranmer had answered, that by God's grace he would daily be more confirmed in the catholic faith; Cole, departing for that time, the next day repaired to the archbishop again, giving no signification as yet of his death that was prepared. In the morning appointed for his execution, the said Cole, coming to him, asked him if he had any money; to whom when Cranmer answered that he had none, he delivered him fifteen crowns to give to the poor to whom he would; and so exhorting him so much as he could to constancy in faith, departed thence about his business.

By this partly, and other like arguments, Cranmer began more and more to surmise what they went about. Then there came to him the Spanish friar, John de Villa Garcia, witness of his recantation, bringing a paper with articles which Cranmer should openly profess in his recantation before the people. But the archbishop, thinking that the time was at hand in which he could no longer dissemble the profession of his faith with Christ's people, put secretly into his bosom his prayer with his exhortation, which he minded to recite to the people, before he should make the last profession of his faith, fearing lest, if they had heard the confession of his faith first, they would not afterward have suffered him to exhort the people.

Soon after, about nine of the o'clock, the lord Williams, sir Thomas Bridges, sir John Brown, and the other justices, with certain other noblemen that were sent of the queen's council, came to Oxford with a great train of waiting men. Also of the multitude on every side (as is wont in such a matter) was made a great concourse, and greater expectation. Cranmer at length cometh from the prison of Bocardo into St. Mary's church, (the chief church in the university,) with the mayor and aldermen, walking between two friars. There was a stage set over against the pulpit, where Cranmer had his standing, waiting until Cole made him ready to his sermon. He that was late archbishop, metropolitan, and primate of all England, and the king's privy councillor, being now in bare and ragged gown, and ill-favouredly clothed, with an old square cap, exposed to the contempt of all men, did admonish men not only of his own calamity, but also of their state and fortune. In this habit, when he had stood a good space upon the stage, turning to a pillar near adjoining thereunto, he lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed unto God once or twice, till at the length Dr. Cole coming into the pulpit began his sermon. Proceeding a little from the beginning, he took occasion by and by to turn his tale to Cranmer, and with many hot words reproved him, that once he, being indued with the favour and feeling of wholesome and catholic doctrines, fell into the contrary opinion of pernicious error.

All this meantime, with the greatest grief, Cranmer stood hearing his sermon: one while lifting up his hands and eyes unto heaven, and then again for shame letting them down to the earth, while the tears gushed from his eyes. Great commiseration and pity moved all men's hearts, that beheld so heavy a countenance, and such abundance of tears in an old man of so reverend dignity. Cole having ended his sermon, he called back the people that were ready to depart. "Brethren," said he, "lest any man should doubt of this man's earnest conversion and repentance, you shall hear him speak before you; and therefore I pray you, Mr. Cranmer, to perform that now which you promised not long ago; namely, that you would openly express the true and undoubted profession of your faith, that you may take away all suspicion from men and that all men may understand that you are a catholic indeed."

To this Cranmer, rising up and uncovering his head, replied thus: "I will do it, and that with a good will. Good people, my dearly beloved brethren in Christ, I beseech you most heartily to pray for me to Almighty God, that he will forgive me all my sins and offences, which are without number, and great above measure. But yet one thing grieveth my conscience more than all the rest, whereof, God willing, I intend to speak more hereafter. But how great and how many soever my sins be, I beseech you to pray to God of his mercy to pardon and forgive them all." And here kneeling down he said the following prayer.

"O Father of heaven, O Son of God, Redeemer of the world, O Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, have mercy upon me, most wretched caitiff and miserable sinner. I have offended both against heaven and earth, more than my tongue can express. Whither then may I go, or whither shall I flee; to heaven I may be ashamed to lift up mine eyes, and in earth I find no place of refuge or succour. To thee, therefore, O Lord, do I run; to thee do I humble myself. O Lord my God, my sins be great, but yet have mercy upon me for thy great mercy. The great mystery that God became man was not wrought for little or few offences. Thou didst not give thy Son, O heavenly Father, unto death for small sins only, but for all the greatest sins of the world, so that the sinner return to thee with his whole heart, as I do at this present. Wherefore have mercy on me, O God, whose property is always to have mercy; have mercy upon me, O Lord, for thy great mercy. I crave nothing for mine own merits, but for thy name's sake, that it may be allowed thereby, and for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake. And now, therefore, our Father of heaven, hallowed be thy name," etc.

Rising he said;

"Every man, good people, desireth at the time of his death to give some good exhortation, that others may remember the same before their death, and be the better thereby: so I beseech God grant me grace that I may speak something at this my departing, whereby God may be glorified, and you edified. It is a heavy cause to see that so many folk so much dote upon the love of this false world, and be so careful for it, that of the love of God, or the world to come, they seem to care very little or nothing. Therefore this shall be my first exhortation, that you set not your minds overmuch upon this deceitful world, but upon God, and upon the world to come, and to learn to know what this lesson meaneth which St. John teacheth, that the love of this world is hatred against God."

"Next unto God, you obey your king and queen willingly and gladly without murmuring or grudging; not for fear of them only, but much more for the fear of God; knowing that they be God's ministers, appointed by God to rule and govern you: and, therefore, whosoever resisteth them, resisteth the ordinance of God. Then I further entreat that you love altogether like brethren and sisters. For, alas! pity it is to see what contention and hatred one christian man beareth to another, not taking each other as brother and sister, but rather as strangers and mortal enemies. But I pray you learn and bear well away this one lesson, to do good unto all men, as much as in you lieth, and to hurt no man, no more than you would hurt your own natural loving brother or sister. For this you may be sure of, that whosoever hateth any person, and goeth about maliciously to hinder or hurt him, surely, and without all doubt, God is not with that man, although he think himself ever so much in God's favour."

"I exhort them that have great substance and riches of this world, that they will well consider and weigh three sayings of the scripture: one is of our Saviour himself, who saith, 'It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.' A sore saying, and yet spoken by him who knoweth the truth. Another is of St. John, whose saying is this;
'He that hath the substance of this world, and seeth his brother in necessity, and shutteth up his mercy from him, how can he say that he loveth God?' One more saying I wish you to remember is of St. James, who speaketh to the covetous rich man, after this manner;
'Weep you and howl for the misery that shall come upon you: your riches do rot, your clothes be moth-eaten, your gold and silver doth canker and rust, and their rust shall bear witness against you, and consume you like fire; you gather a hoard or treasure of God's indignation against the last day.' Let them that be rich ponder well these three sentences: for if they ever had occasion to shew their charity, they have it now at this present, the poor people being so many, and victuals so dear."

"And now forasmuch as I am come to the end of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life past, and all my life to come, either to live with my Master Christ for ever in joy, or else to be in pain for ever with wicked devils in hell, and I see before mine eyes presently either heaven ready to receive me, or else hell ready to swallow me up: I shall therefore declare unto you my very faith how I believe, without any colour of dissimulation; for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have said or written in times past."

He then recited the creed, and added;

"I believe every article of the catholic faith, every word and sentence taught by our Saviour Christ, his apostles and prophets, in the New and Old Testament.

"And now I come to the great thing which so much troubleth my conscience, more than any thing that ever I did or said in my whole life, and that is the setting abroad of a writing contrary to the truth; which now I here renounce and refuse, 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; and 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 hath offended, writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished; for when 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. As for the sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the bishop of Winchester, which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of the sacrament, that it shall stand at the last day before the judgment of God, where the papistical doctrine contrary thereto shall be ashamed to shew her face."

Here the standers-by were all astonished and amazed, and looked upon one another, whose expectation he had so notably deceived. Some began to admonish him of his recantation, and to accuse him of falsehood. Briefly, it was a world to see the doctors beguiled of so great a hope; for they looked for a glorious victory by this man's retractation. As soon as they heard these things they began to rage, fret, and fume: and so much the more, because they could not revenge their grief; for they could no longer threaten or hurt him. For the most miserable man in the world can die but once; whereas of necessity he must needs die that day. And so when they could do nothing else to him, yet lest they should say nothing, they ceased not to object unto him his falsehood and dissimulation. To this he replied;

"Ah, my masters, do not you take it so. Always since I lived hitherto, I have been a hater of falsehood, and a lover of simplicity, and never before this time have I dissembled."

In saying this he wept bitterly. And when he began to speak more of the sacrament and of the papacy, some of them began to cry out and bawl, especially Cole, who cried out, "Stop the heretic's mouth and take him away!"

Then Cranmer being pulled down from the stage, was led to the fire, accompanied by those friars, vexing, troubling, and threatening him most cruelly. "What madness," say they, "has brought thee again into this error, by which thou will draw innumerable souls with thee into hell?" To whom he answered nothing, but directed all his talk to the people, saving that to one troubling him in the way he spake, and exhorted him to get home to his study, and apply to his book diligently; saying, if he did earnestly call upon God, by reading more, he should get knowledge. But the other, raging and foaming was almost out of his wits, always having this in his mouth, Non fecisti? Didst thou it not?

When he came to the place where the holy bishops and martyrs of God, Latimer and Ridley, were burnt before him for a confession of the truth, kneeling down he prayed to God; and not long tarrying in his prayers, putting off his garments to his shirt, he prepared himself to death. His shirt was made long, down to his feet, which were bare; likewise his head, when both his caps were off, was so bare that one hair could not be seen upon it. His beard was so long and thick, that it covered his face, and his reverend countenance moved the hearts both of his friends and enemies. Then the Spanish friars, John and Richard, began to exhort him, and play their parts with him afresh; but Cranmer, with steadfast purpose, abiding in the profession of his doctrine, gave his hand to certain old men and others that stood by, bidding them farewell. When he had thought to have done so likewise to Mr. Ely, the latter drew back his hand and refused, saying, it was not lawful to salute heretics, and especially such an one as falsely returned to the opinions he had forsworn. And if he had known before that he would have done so, he would never have used his company so familiarly, and chid those serjeants and citizens who had not refused to give him their hands. This Mr. Ely was a student in divinity, and had been lately made a priest, being then one of the fellows in Brazen-nose college.

Then was an iron chain tied about Cranmer, whom when they perceived to be more steadfast than that he could be moved from his sentence, they commanded the fire to be set unto him. And when the wood was kindled and the fire began to burn near him, stretching out his arm, he put his right hand into the flame, which he held so steadfast and unmovable, (saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face,) that all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched. His body did so abide the burning of the flame with such constancy and steadfastness, that standing always in one place without moving his body, he seemed to move no more than the stake to which he was bound; his eyes were lifted up into heaven, and oftentimes he repeated "his unworthy right hand," so long as his voice would suffer him; and using often the words of Stephen, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," in the greatness of the flames he gave up the ghost, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.

And this was the end of this learned archbishop, whom, lest by evil subscribing he should have perished, by well recanting God preserved; and lest he should have lived longer with shame and reproof, it pleased God rather to take him away, to the glory of his name and profit of his church. So good was the Lord to his church, in fortifying the same with the blood and testimony of such a martyr; and so good also to the man with this cross of tribulation, to purge his offences in this world, not only of his recantation, but also of his standing against John Lambert and master Allen, or if there were any other with whose burning and blood his hands had been before anything polluted. Thus have you the story of the life and death of this reverend archbishop and martyr of God, and also of divers other the learned sort of Christ's martyrs burned in queen Mary's time, of whom Cranmer was the last, being burned about the very middle time of the reign of that queen, and almost the very middle man of all the martyrs which were burned in all her reign besides.

Divers books, treatises, and letters the said Thomas Cranmer wrote, both in prison and out of prison, the which we have no space here to insert, saving an extract from a letter to queen Mary, which here followeth:

"I learned by Dr. Martin, that on the day of your majesty's coronation, you took an oath of obedience to the pope of Rome, and at the same time you took another oath to this realm, to maintain the laws, liberties, and customs of the same. And if your majesty did make an oath to the pope, I think it was according to the other oaths which he useth to administer to princes; which is, to be obedient to him, to defend his person, to maintain his authority, honour, laws, lands, and privileges. And if it be so, then I beseech your majesty to look upon your oath made to the crown and realm, and to compare and weigh the two oaths together, to see how they do agree, and then do as your majesty's conscience shall direct you: for I am surely persuaded, that willingly your majesty will not offend, nor do against your conscience for any thing. "But I fear there are contradictions in your oaths, and that those who should have informed your grace thoroughly, did not their duties therein. And if your majesty ponder the two oaths diligently, I think you shall perceive you were deceived; and then your highness may use the matter as God shall put in your heart. Furthermore, I am kept here from the company of learned men, from books, from counsel, from pen and ink, except at this time, to write unto your majesty, which were all necessary for a man in my case. Wherefore I beseech your majesty that I may have such of these as my stand with your majesty's pleasure. And as for my appearance at Rome, if your majesty will give me leave, I will appear there. And I trust that God shall put in my mouth to defend his truth there as well as here. But I refer it wholly to your majesty's pleasure."

Continuation of Faithful Martyrs for the Cause of Christ Who Suffered Between March and September 1556