dreadful sentence to which he
was condemned, prompted her also to seek the ruin of his honor and the
infamy of his name. Persons were employed to attack him, not in the
way of disputation, against which he was sufficiently armed, but by
flattery, insinuation, and address, by representing the dignities to
which his character still entitled him, if he would merit them by a
recantation; by giving hopes of long enjoying those powerful friends,
whom his beneficent disposition had attached to him during the course of
his prosperity.[*]

* Mem. of Cranm. p. 375.

** Heylin, p. 55. Mem. p. 383.

Overcome by the fond love of life, terrified by the prospect of those
tortures which awaited him, he allowed, in an unguarded hour, the
sentiments of nature to prevail over his resolution, and he agreed to
subscribe the doctrines of the papal supremacy and of the real presence.
The court, equally perfidious and cruel, were determined that this
recantation should avail him nothing; and they sent orders that he
should be required to acknowledge his errors in church before the whole
people, and that he should thence be immediately carried to execution.
Cranmer, whether that he had received a secret intimation of their
design, or had repented of his weakness, surprised the audience by
a contrary declaration. He said, that he was well apprised of the
obedience which he owed to his sovereign and the laws; but this duly
extended no further than to submit patiently to their commands, and to
bear without resistance whatever hardships they should impose upon him:
that a superior duty, the duty which he owed to his Maker, obliged
him to speak truth on all occasions, and not to relinquish, by a base
denial, the holy doctrine which the Supreme Being had revealed to
mankind: that there was one miscarriage in his life, of which, above
all others, he severely repented; the insincere declaration of faith, to
which he had the weakness to consent, and which the fear of death alone
had extorted from him: that he took this opportunity of atoning for his
error, by a sincere and open recantation; and was willing to seal with
his blood that doctrine which he firmly believed to be communicated from
Heaven; and that as his hand had erred by betraying his heart, it should
first be punished by a severe but just doom, and should first pay the
forfeit of its offences. He was thence led to the stake amidst the
insults of the Catholics; and having now su