The wicked arts that were practised against him succeeded but too well: he, who could have resisted the utmost malice of open enemies, was drawn aside by the speciousness of false friends. After the confinement of a year in his gloomy prison, this sudden restoration to the pleasures of social intercourse, dissipated what had seemed to be the settled purpose of his soul. The love of life, which had appeared to be subdued, . insensibly regained dominion; his tempters saw their opportunity, and offered him a paper, expressing his assent to the tenets of popery, which, in an evil hour, Cranmer consented to sign.

This completed the triumph of the popish party; and they received the recantation thus obtained, with joy beyond expression. It was immediately printed and published; and the cruel work now only wanted its finishing stroke; a warrant was hastened for Cranmer's execution, while he was kept in ignorance of the fate that awaited him*."

"O mamma!" interrupted Harry, with his eyes full of tears," how dreadful to think, that men should be capable of barbarity like this? What could Cranmer have done, mild

* Gilpin, p. 131, 149-154; and Southey, 224-230.

and good as he was, to provoke them to use him so cruelly?"

"It is imputed," replied his mother," to the queen's resentment of the part he had acted in procuring her mother's divorce*. If this be true, it gives a frightful idea of the persevering malignity of her temper. But you had better proceed with the short remainder of our story."

Cranmer had never till now felt the power of his enemies. Convicted in his own judgment, he did not attempt to apologize even to himself, for the weakness into which he had been betrayed. That cheerful serenity, which had formerly been the habitual temper of his mind, gave place to remorse and horror. By day and by night, one agonizing thought seemed ever present. "I have denied the faith: I have pierced myself through with many sorrows!" Then would recur the peculiar circumstances which aggravated his sense of guilt: that he, who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing in the true faith, should be among those who had deserted it; that he, who had been so long the leader of others, should now set them so dreadful an example; that he, who had always

* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 333.

been looked up to with reverence, should at length be lost among the herd of apostates!..

Overwhelmed with grief and perplexity, whichever way he turned he could discern no ray of comfort. To retract what he had done, appeared impossible; his paper was abroad in the world, and himself in the hands of men who could easily prevent him from speaking or publishing any thing to counteract its influence. But though, to his depressed spirits, every hope seemed extinguished, the Eye that sees in secret beheld the sincerity of his repentance. He who pities the infirmities of his children, would not permit this bruised reed to be utterly broken; and the counsels of his enemies were now, under the direction of a merciful Providence, about to afford him the opportunity he desired.

After his recantation he seems to have been again consigned to the prison; where, on the evening of the 20th of March, 1556, Dr. Cole, one of the heads of the popish party, came to him, and, from his ambiguous discourse, Cranmer suspected that the crisis of his fate was at hand. After his visiter departed, he spent the remainder of the evening in drawing up a full confession of his apostacy, resolving to take the best opportunity that might present, either to speak or publish it. About nine o'clock the

next morning he was taken from the prison to St. Mary's church, where a crowded audience had already assembled. It seems to have been the intention of his enemies to compel him to repeat his recantation in the presence of the people, and then to lead him immediately to the place of execution, where every thing was already prepared. With this view he was conducted to a stage or platform raised for the purpose opposite to the pulpit, whence Dr. Cole was, in the first place, to preach a sermon on the occasion.

An interval of expectation succeeded, during which one intense and painful interest occupied the thoughts of the congregation: hope and fear, though excited by different motives, alternately agitated their minds, while the anxiety of suspense and sympathy was felt by all. The Romanists hoped they should that day enjoy the triumph of hearing Cranmer declare his conviction of the Catholic faith. The protestants, notwithstanding his late defection, indulged a persuasion that he would now confirm, by his dying testimony, the truth of those doctrines he had so long and so zealously laboured to establish. Meantime, all eyes and hearts were turned towards the platform, where he, who had so lately been the counsellor of kings, the head of the English clergy, and the leader of

the Reformation, was standing, clothed in a mean, ragged gown, and an old square cap, turning to the pillar beside him, and lifting up his hands, in earnest though silent prayer, to that compassionate Being who was touched with the feeling of all his infirmities.

The stillness was soon interrupted by the arrival of the vice-chancellor and heads of houses, who, with a numerous train of doctors and professors, entered the church. Among them was Dr. Cole: he paid his respects to the vice-chancellor, and then ascended the pulpit. The sermon was tedious and formal, after the custom of the schools; but Cole was a man of talent, and his discourse is said to have been an excellent specimen of that kind of oratory. After a suitable introduction, he stated the reasons why it was judged necessary to put the unhappy person before them to death, notwithstanding his recantation. He then exhorted his audience, from this striking example, to reflect on the instability of fortune, and the necessity of subjection to their prince. That if the queen's majesty would not spare such a man as this, much less, in the like cause, would she spare other men. Then, turning to the degraded primate, he condoled with him under his present calamity, exhorting him to bear this his last trial with courage. He glorified God