r Christ for ever in joy, or else to be in pain for ever with
the wicked in hell, and I see before mine eyes presently, either heaven
ready to receive me, or else hell ready to swallow me up; I shall
therefore declare unto you my very faith how I believe, without any
colour of dissimulation: for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I
have said or written in times past.

"First, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
&c. And I believe every article of the Catholic faith, every word and
sentence taught by our Saviour Jesus Christ, his apostles and prophets,
in the New and Old Testament.

"And now I come to the great thing which so much troubleth my
conscience, more than any thing that ever I did or said in my whole
life, and that is the setting abroad of a writing contrary to the truth,
which now here I renounce and refuse, as things written with my hand
contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear
of death, and to save my life, if it might be; and that is, all such
bills or papers which I have written or signed with my hand since my
degradation, wherein I have written many things untrue. And forasmuch as
my hand hath offended, writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand
shall first be punished; for when I come to the fire, it shall first be
burned.

"And as for the Pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy, and antichrist,
with all his false doctrine.

"And as for the sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against
the bishop of Winchester, which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of
the sacrament, that it shall stand in the last day before the judgment
of God, where the papistical doctrines contrary thereto shall be ashamed
to show their face."

Upon the conclusion of this unexpected declaration, amazement and
indignation were conspicuous in every part of the church. The catholics
were completely foiled, their object being frustrated; Cranmer, like
Sampson, having completed a greater ruin upon his enemies in the hour of
death, than he did in his life.

Cranmer would have proceeded in the exposure of the popish doctrines,
but the murmurs of the idolaters drowned his voice, and the preacher
gave an order to lead the heretic away! The savage command was directly
obeyed, and the lamb about to suffer was torn from his stand to the
place of slaughter, insulted all the way by the revilings and taunts of
the pestilent monks and friars. With thoughts intent