Part 15 (1/2)
The March morning broke wild and stormy. The sermon intended to be preached at the stake was adjourned, in consequence of the wet, to St. Mary's, where a high stage was erected, on which Cranmer was to stand conspicuous. Peers, knights, doctors, students, priests, men-at-arms, and citizens, thronged the narrow aisles, and through the midst of them the archbishop was led in by the mayor. As he mounted the platform many of the spectators were in tears. He knelt and prayed silently, and Cole, the Provost of Eton, then took his place in the pulpit.
Although, by a strained interpretation of the law, it could be pretended that the time of grace had expired with the trial; yet, to put a man to death at all after recantation was a proceeding so violent and unusual, that some excuse or some explanation was felt to be necessary.
Cole therefore first declared why it was expedient that the late archbishop should suffer, notwithstanding his reconciliation. One reason was ”for that he had been a great causer of all the alterations in the realm of England; and when the matter of the divorce between King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine was commenced in the court of Rome, he, having nothing to do with it, sate upon it as a judge, which was the entry to all the inconvenients which followed.” ”Yet in that Mr. Cole excused him-that he thought he did it, not out of malice, but by the persuasion and advice of certain learned men.”
Another occasion was, ”for that he had been the great setter-forth of all the heresy received into the church in the latter times; had written in it, had disputed, had continued it even to the last hour; and it had never been seen in the time of schism that any man continuing so long had been pardoned, and that it was not to be remitted for example's sake.”
”And other causes,” Cole added, ”moved the queen and council thereto, which were not meet and convenient for every one to understand.”[544]
The explanations being finished, the preacher exhorted his audience to take example from the spectacle before them, to fear G.o.d, and to learn that there was no power against the Lord. There, in their presence, stood a man, once ”of so high degree-sometime one of the chief prelates of the church-an archbishop, the chief of the council, the second person of the realm: of long time, it might be thought, in great a.s.surance, a king on his side;” and now, ”notwithstanding all his authority and defence, debased from a high estate unto a low degree-of a councillor become a caitiff, and set in so wretched estate that the poorest wretch would not change conditions with him.”
Turning, in conclusion, to Cranmer himself, Cole then ”comforted and encouraged him to take his death well by many places in Scripture; bidding him nothing mistrust but that he should incontinently receive that the thief did, to whom Christ said, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Out of Paul he armed him against the terrors of fire, by the words, The Lord is faithful, and will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which you are able to bear; by the example of the three Children, to whom G.o.d made the flame seem like a pleasant joy; by the rejoicing of St. Andrew on his cross; by the patience of St. Lawrence on the fire.” He dwelt upon his conversion, which, he said, was the special work of G.o.d, because so many efforts had been made by men to work upon him, and had been made in vain. G.o.d, in his own time, had reclaimed him, and brought him home.
A dirge, the preacher said, should be sung for him in every church in Oxford; he charged all the priests to say each a ma.s.s for the repose of his soul; and finally, he desired the congregation present to kneel where they were, and pray for him.
The whole crowd fell on their knees, the archbishop with them; and ”I think,” says the eye-witness,[545] ”that there was never such a number so earnestly praying together; for they that hated him before, now loved him for his conversion, and hopes of continuance: they that loved him before could not suddenly hate him, having hope of his confession; so love and hope increased devotion on every side.”
”I shall not need,” says the same writer, ”to describe his behaviour for the time of sermon, his sorrowful countenance, his heavy cheer, his face bedewed with tears; sometimes lifting his eyes to heaven in hope, sometimes casting them down to the earth for shame-to be brief, an image of sorrow, the dolour of his heart bursting out of his eyes, retaining ever a quiet and grave behaviour, which increased the pity in men's hearts.”
His own turn to speak was now come. When the prayer was finished, the preacher said, ”Lest any man should doubt the sincerity of this man's repentance, you shall hear him speak before you. I pray you, Master Cranmer,” he added, turning to him, ”that you will now perform that you promised not long ago; that you would openly express the true and undoubted profession of your faith.”
”I will do it,” the archbishop answered.
”Good Christian people,” he began, ”my dear, beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, I beseech you most heartily to pray for me to Almighty G.o.d, that he will forgive me all my sins and offences, which be many and without number, and great above measure; one thing grieveth my conscience more than all the rest, whereof, G.o.d willing, I shall speak more; but how many or how great soever they be, I beseech you to pray G.o.d of his mercy to pardon and forgive them all.”
Falling again on his knees:-
”O Father of heaven,” he prayed, ”O Son of G.o.d, Redeemer of the world, O Holy Ghost, three Persons and one G.o.d, have mercy upon me, most wretched caitiff and miserable sinner. I have offended both heaven and earth more than my tongue can express; whither then may I go, or whither should I flee for succour? To heaven I am ashamed to lift up mine eyes, and in earth I find no succour nor refuge. What shall I do? Shall I despair? G.o.d forbid! Oh, good G.o.d, thou art merciful, and refusest none that come to thee for succour. To thee, therefore, do I come; to thee do I humble myself, saying, O Lord, my sins be great, yet have mercy on me for thy great mercy. The mystery was not wrought that G.o.d became man, for few or little offences. Thou didst not give thy Son, O Father, for small sins only, but for all and the greatest in the world, so that the sinner return to thee with a penitent heart, as I do at this present. Wherefore have mercy upon me, O Lord, whose property is always to have mercy; although my sins be great, yet is thy mercy greater; wherefore have mercy upon me, O Lord, for thy great mercy. I crave nothing, O Lord, for mine own merits, but for thy Name's sake, and, therefore, O Father of heaven, hallowed be thy Name.”
Then rising, he went on with his address:-
”Every man desireth, good people, at the time of his death, to give some good exhortation that others may remember after his death, and be the better thereby; for one word spoken of a man at his last end[546] will be more remembered than the sermons made of them that live and remain. So I beseech G.o.d grant me grace, that I may speak something at my departing whereby G.o.d may be glorified and you edified.
”But it is an heavy case to see that many folks be so doted upon the love of this false world, and be so careful for it, that of the love of G.o.d or the world to come, they seem to care very little or nothing; therefore this shall be my first exhortation-that you set not over-much by this glozing world, but upon G.o.d and the world to come; and learn what this lesson meaneth which St. John teacheth, that the love of the world is hatred against G.o.d.
”The second exhortation is, that next unto G.o.d, you obey your king and queen willingly, without murmur or grudging, not for fear of them only, but much more for the fear of G.o.d, knowing that they be G.o.d's ministers, appointed of G.o.d to rule and govern you, and therefore whosoever resisteth them resisteth G.o.d's ordinance.
”The third exhortation is, that you live all together like brethren and sisters: but, alas! pity it is to see what contention and hatred one man hath against another, not taking each other for brethren and sisters, but rather as strangers and mortal enemies. But I pray you learn and bear well away the lesson, to do good to all men as much as in you lieth, and hurt no man no more than you would hurt your own natural brother or sister. For this you may be sure, that whosoever hateth his brother or sister, and goeth about maliciously to hinder or hurt him, surely, and without all doubt, G.o.d is not with that man, although he think himself never so much in G.o.d's favour.
”The fourth exhortation shall be to them that have great substance and riches of this world, that they may well consider and weigh these three sayings of the Scriptures. One is of our Saviour Christ himself, who saith that it is a hard thing for a rich man to come to heaven; a sore saying, and spoken of Him that knoweth the truth. The second 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 compa.s.sion and mercy from him, how can he say he loveth G.o.d? The third is of St. James, who speaketh to the covetous and rich men after this manner: Weep and howl for the misery which shall come upon you; your riches doth rot, your clothes be moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered and rusty, and the rust thereof shall bear witness against you, and consume you like fire; you gather and h.o.a.rd up treasure of G.o.d's indignation against the last day. I tell them which be rich, ponder these sentences; for if ever they had occasion to show their charity, they have it now at this present; the poor people being so many, and victuals so dear; for although I have been long in prison, yet have I heard of the great penury of the poor.”
The people listened breathless, ”intending upon the conclusion.”
”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 h.e.l.l; and I see before mine eyes presently either heaven”-and he pointed upwards with his hand-”or h.e.l.l,” 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 G.o.d 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 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.”
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 s.h.i.+rt. 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 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.”
”Make short, make short!” Lord Williams cried, hastily.