and venerable of the English prelates, who was charged with
countenancing treason by listening to the prophecies of a religious
fanatic called the "Nun of Kent." But for the moment even Cromwell
shrank from their blood. They remained prisoners, while a new and more
terrible engine was devised to crush out the silent but widespread
opposition to the religious changes.

By a statute passed at the close of 1534 a new treason was created in
the denial of the King's titles; and in the opening of 1535 Henry
assumed, as we have seen, the title of "on earth supreme head of the
Church of England." The measure was at once followed up by a blow at
victims hardly less venerable than More. In the general relaxation of
the religious life, the charity and devotion of the brethren of the
Charter-house had won the reverence even of those who condemned
monasticism. After a stubborn resistance they had acknowledged the royal
supremacy and taken the oath of submission prescribed by the act. But,
by an infamous construction of the statute which made the denial of the
supremacy treason, the refusal of satisfactory answers to official
questions, as to a conscientious belief in it, was held to be equivalent
to open denial.

The aim of the new measure was well known, and the brethren prepared to
die. In the agony of waiting, enthusiasm brought its imaginative
consolations; "when the host was lifted up, there came as it were a
whisper of air which breathed upon our faces as we knelt; and there came
a sweet, soft sound of music." They had not long, however, to wait, for
their refusal to answer was the signal for their doom. Three of the
brethren went to the gallows; the rest were flung into Newgate, chained
to posts in a noisome dungeon, where, "tied and not able to stir," they
were left to perish of jail fever and starvation. In a fortnight five
were dead and the rest at the point of death, "almost despatched,"
Cromwell's envoy wrote to him, "by the hand of God, of which,
considering their behavior, I am not sorry."

Their death was soon followed by that of More. The interval of
imprisonment had failed to break his resolution, and the new statute
sufficed to bring him to the block. With Fisher he was convicted of
denying the King's title as only supreme head of the Church. The old
bishop approached the scaffold with a book of the New Testament in his
hand. He opened it at a venture ere he knelt, and read, "This is life
eternal to know thee, t