1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
|
---|
2 | <!DOCTYPE Archive SYSTEM "https://greenstone.org/dtd/Archive/1.0/Archive.dtd">
|
---|
3 | <Archive>
|
---|
4 | <Section>
|
---|
5 | <Description>
|
---|
6 | <Metadata name="gsdlsourcefilename">import/englishhistory.net/tudor/pcranmer.html</Metadata>
|
---|
7 | <Metadata name="gsdlsourcefilerenamemethod">url</Metadata>
|
---|
8 | <Metadata name="gsdldoctype">indexed_doc</Metadata>
|
---|
9 | <Metadata name="Plugin">HTMLPlugin</Metadata>
|
---|
10 | <Metadata name="FileSize">9557</Metadata>
|
---|
11 | <Metadata name="Source">pcranmer.html</Metadata>
|
---|
12 | <Metadata name="SourceFile">pcranmer.html</Metadata>
|
---|
13 | <Metadata name="Language">en</Metadata>
|
---|
14 | <Metadata name="Encoding">windows_1252</Metadata>
|
---|
15 | <Metadata name="Title">Primary Sources: The execution of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, 1556</Metadata>
|
---|
16 | <Metadata name="FileFormat">HTML</Metadata>
|
---|
17 | <Metadata name="URL">http://englishhistory.net/tudor/pcranmer.html</Metadata>
|
---|
18 | <Metadata name="UTF8URL">http://englishhistory.net/tudor/pcranmer.html</Metadata>
|
---|
19 | <Metadata name="weblink"><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/pcranmer.html"></Metadata>
|
---|
20 | <Metadata name="webicon">_iconworld_</Metadata>
|
---|
21 | <Metadata name="/weblink"></a></Metadata>
|
---|
22 | <Metadata name="dc.Subject">Tudor period|Others</Metadata>
|
---|
23 | <Metadata name="Identifier">HASH01fd9e47f9ed8572bc1c2789</Metadata>
|
---|
24 | <Metadata name="lastmodified">1678162980</Metadata>
|
---|
25 | <Metadata name="lastmodifieddate">20230307</Metadata>
|
---|
26 | <Metadata name="oailastmodified">1678163151</Metadata>
|
---|
27 | <Metadata name="oailastmodifieddate">20230307</Metadata>
|
---|
28 | <Metadata name="assocfilepath">HASH01fd.dir</Metadata>
|
---|
29 | <Metadata name="gsdlassocfile">pcranmer.gif:image/gif:</Metadata>
|
---|
30 | </Description>
|
---|
31 | <Content>
|
---|
32 |
|
---|
33 | <div align="center">
|
---|
34 | <center>
|
---|
35 | <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" width="94%">
|
---|
36 | <tr>
|
---|
37 | <td valign="bottom" colspan="3">
|
---|
38 | <p align="center">&nbsp;<br>
|
---|
39 | <p align="center">
|
---|
40 | <img border="0" src="_httpdocimg_/pcranmer.gif" width="359" height="91"><p align="center">&nbsp;</td>
|
---|
41 | </tr>
|
---|
42 | <tr>
|
---|
43 | <td></td>
|
---|
44 | <td></td>
|
---|
45 | <td></td>
|
---|
46 | </tr>
|
---|
47 | <tr>
|
---|
48 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size="-1">This
|
---|
49 | dramatic account of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's execution was written by
|
---|
50 | an anonymous bystander.&nbsp; </font>
|
---|
51 | <p><font size="-1">Cranmer was executed on 21 March 1556.&nbsp; Imprisoned by
|
---|
52 | the Catholic Queen Mary I, Cranmer wrote a recantation of Protestantism,
|
---|
53 | but he denied that recantation before he died.</font></p>
|
---|
54 | <p><font size="-1">Mary had good cause to dislike Cranmer.&nbsp; Not only
|
---|
55 | was he the premier Protestant in England, he also annulled her parents'
|
---|
56 | marriage and subsequently married King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn.</font></p>
|
---|
57 | <p><br>
|
---|
58 | <br>
|
---|
59 | </td>
|
---|
60 | <td width="4%"></td>
|
---|
61 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
|
---|
62 |
|
---|
63 | But that I know for our great friendships, and long continued love,
|
---|
64 | you look even of duty that I should signify to you of the truth of such
|
---|
65 | things as here chanceth among us; I would not at this time have written
|
---|
66 | to you the unfortunate end, and doubtful tragedy, of Thomas Cranmer late
|
---|
67 | bishop of Canterbury: because I little pleasure take in beholding of such
|
---|
68 | heavy sights.&nbsp; And, when they are once overpassed, I like not to rehearse
|
---|
69 | them again; being but a renewing of my woe, and doubling my grief.&nbsp;
|
---|
70 | For although his former, and wretched end, deserves a greater misery, (if
|
---|
71 | any greater might have chanced than chanced unto him), yet, setting aside
|
---|
72 | his offenses to God and his country, and beholding the man without his
|
---|
73 | faults, I think there was none that pitied not his case, and bewailed not
|
---|
74 | his fortune, and feared not his own chance, to see so noble a prelate,
|
---|
75 | so grave a counsellor, of so long continued honor, after so many dignities,
|
---|
76 | in his old years to be deprived of his estate, adjudged to die, and in
|
---|
77 | so painful a death to end his life.&nbsp; I have no delight to increase
|
---|
78 | it.&nbsp; Alas, it is too much of itself, that ever so heavy a case should
|
---|
79 | betide to man, and man to deserve it.
|
---|
80 | <br>But to come to the matter: on Saturday last, being 21 of March, was
|
---|
81 | his day appointed to die.&nbsp; And because the morning was much rainy,
|
---|
82 | the sermon appointed by Mr Dr Cole to be made at the stake, was made in
|
---|
83 | St Mary's church: whither Dr Cranmer was brought by the mayor and aldermen,
|
---|
84 | and my lord Williams: with whom came divers gentlemen of the shire, sir
|
---|
85 | T A Bridges, sir John Browne, and others.&nbsp; Where was prepared, over
|
---|
86 | against the pulpit, a high place for him, that all the people might see
|
---|
87 | him.&nbsp; And, when he had ascended it, he kneeled him down and prayed,
|
---|
88 | weeping tenderly: which moved a great number to tears, that had conceived
|
---|
89 | an assured hope of his conversion and repentance....
|
---|
90 | <br>When praying was done, he stood up, and, having leave to speak, said,
|
---|
91 | 'Good people, I had intended indeed to desire you to pray for me; which
|
---|
92 | because Mr Doctor hath desired, and you have done already, I thank you
|
---|
93 | most heartily for it.&nbsp; And now will I pray for myself, as I could
|
---|
94 | best devise for mine own comfort, and say the prayer, word for word, as
|
---|
95 | I have here written it.'&nbsp; And he read it standing: and after kneeled
|
---|
96 | down, and said the Lord's Prayer; and all the people on their knees devoutly
|
---|
97 | praying with him....
|
---|
98 | <br>And then rising, he said, 'Every man desireth, good people, at the
|
---|
99 | time of their deaths, to give some good exhortation, that other may remember
|
---|
100 | after their deaths, and be the better thereby.&nbsp; So I beseech God grant
|
---|
101 | me grace, that I may speak something, at this my departing, whereby God
|
---|
102 | may be glorified, and you edified....
|
---|
103 | <br>And now I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more
|
---|
104 | than nay other thing that ever I said or did in my life: and that is, the
|
---|
105 | setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth.&nbsp; Which here now
|
---|
106 | I renounce and refuse, as things written with my hand, contrary to the
|
---|
107 | truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, and to
|
---|
108 | save my life, if it might be: and that is, all such bills, which I have
|
---|
109 | written or signed with mine own hand since my degradation: wherein I have
|
---|
110 | written many things untrue.&nbsp; And forasmuch as my hand offended in
|
---|
111 | writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished:
|
---|
112 | for if I may come to the fire, it shall be first burned.&nbsp; And as for
|
---|
113 | the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and antichrist, with all his
|
---|
114 | false doctrine.'
|
---|
115 | <br>And here, being admonished of his recantation and dissembling, he said,
|
---|
116 | 'Alas, my lord, I have been a man that all my life loved plainness, and
|
---|
117 | never dissembled till now against the truth; which I am most sorry for
|
---|
118 | it.'&nbsp; He added hereunto, that, for the sacrament, he believed as he
|
---|
119 | had taught in his book against the bishop of Winchester.&nbsp; And here
|
---|
120 | he was suffered to speak no more....
|
---|
121 | <br>Then was he carried away; and a great number, that did run to see him
|
---|
122 | go so wicjedly to his death, ran after him, exhorting him, while time was,
|
---|
123 | to remember himself.&nbsp; And one Friar John, a godly and well learned
|
---|
124 | man, all the way traveled with him to reduce him.&nbsp; But it would not
|
---|
125 | be.&nbsp; What they said in particular I cannot tell, but the effect appeared
|
---|
126 | in the end: for at the stake he professed, that he died in all such opinions
|
---|
127 | as he had taught, and oft repented him of his recantation.
|
---|
128 | <br>Coming to the stake with a cheerful countenance and willing mind, he
|
---|
129 | put off his garments with haste, and stood upright in his shirt: and bachelor
|
---|
130 | of divinity, named Elye, of Brazen-nose college, labored to convert him
|
---|
131 | to his former recantation, with the two Spanish friars.&nbsp; And when
|
---|
132 | the friars saw his constancy, they said in Latin to one another 'Let us
|
---|
133 | go from him: we ought not to be nigh him: for the devil is with him.'&nbsp;
|
---|
134 | But the bachelor of divinity was more earnest with him: unto whom he answered,
|
---|
135 | that, as concerning his recantation, he repented it right sore, because
|
---|
136 | he knew it was against the truth; with other words more.&nbsp; Whereby
|
---|
137 | the Lord Williams cried, 'Make short, make short.'&nbsp; Then the bishop
|
---|
138 | took certain of his friends by the hand.&nbsp; But the bachelor of divinity
|
---|
139 | refused to take him by the hand, and blamed all the others that so did,
|
---|
140 | and said, he was sorry that ever he came in his company.&nbsp; And yet
|
---|
141 | again he required him to agree to his former recantation.&nbsp; And the
|
---|
142 | bishop answered, (showing his hand), 'This was the hand that wrote it,
|
---|
143 | and therefore shall it suffer first punishment.'
|
---|
144 | <br>Fire being now put to him, he stretched out his right hand, and thrust
|
---|
145 | it into the flame, and held it there a good space, before the fire came
|
---|
146 | to any other part of his body; where his hand was seen of every man sensibly
|
---|
147 | burning, crying with a&nbsp; loud voice, 'This hand hath offended.'&nbsp;
|
---|
148 | As soon as the fire got up, he was very soon dead, never stirring or crying
|
---|
149 | all the while.
|
---|
150 | <br>His patience in the torment, his courage in dying, if it had been taken
|
---|
151 | either for the glory of God, the wealth of his country, or the testimony
|
---|
152 | of truth, as it was for a pernicious error, and subversion of true religion,
|
---|
153 | I could worthily have commended the example, and matched it with the fame
|
---|
154 | of any father of ancient time: but, seeing that not the death, but cause
|
---|
155 | and quarrel thereof, commendeth the sufferer, I cannot but much dispraise
|
---|
156 | his obstinate stubbornness and sturdiness in dying, and specially in so
|
---|
157 | evil a cause.&nbsp; Surely his death much grieved every man; but not after
|
---|
158 | one sort.&nbsp; Some pitied to see his body so tormented with the fire
|
---|
159 | raging upon the silly carcass, that counted not of the folly.&nbsp; Other
|
---|
160 | that passed not much of the body, lamented to see him spill his soul, wretchedly,
|
---|
161 | without redemption, to be plagued for ever.&nbsp; His friends sorrowed
|
---|
162 | for love; his enemies for pity; strangers for a common kind of humanity,
|
---|
163 | whereby we are bound one to another.&nbsp; Thus I have enforced myself,
|
---|
164 | for your sake, to discourse this heavy narration, contrary to my mind:
|
---|
165 | and, being more than half weary, I make a short end, wishing you a quieter
|
---|
166 | life, with less honor; and easier death, with more praise.<p align="center">&nbsp;<p align="center"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html">
|
---|
167 | <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td>
|
---|
168 | </tr>
|
---|
169 | </table>
|
---|
170 | </center>
|
---|
171 | </div>
|
---|
172 |
|
---|
173 |
|
---|
174 |
|
---|
175 | <!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fhostingprod.com%2fjs%5fsource%2fgeov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;el=direct&amp;href=http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082606" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>
|
---|
176 | <IMG SRC="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;el=direct&amp;href=http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001524&t=1108082606" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>
|
---|
177 | </Content>
|
---|
178 | </Section>
|
---|
179 | </Archive>
|
---|