upon a far higher
object than the empty threats of man, he reached the spot dyed with the
blood of Ridley and Latimer. There he knelt for a short time in earnest
devotion, and then arose, that he might undress and prepare for the
fire. Two friars who had been parties in prevailing upon him to abjure,
now endeavoured to draw him off again from the truth, but he was
steadfast and immoveable in what he had just professed, and before
publicly taught. A chain was provided to bind him to the stake, and
after it had tightly encircled him, fire was put to the fuel, and the
flames began soon to ascend. Then were the glorious sentiments of the
martyr made manifest;--then it was, that stretching out his right hand,
he held it unshrinkingly in the fire till it was burnt to a cinder, even
before his body was injured, frequently exclaiming, "This unworthy right
hand!" Apparently insensible of pain, with a countenance of venerable
resignation, and eyes directed to Him for whose cause he suffered, he
continued, like St. Stephen, to say, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit!"
till the fury of the flames terminated his powers of utterance and
existence. He closed a life of high sublunary elevation, of constant
uneasiness, and of glorious martyrdom, on March 21, 1556.

Thus perished the illustrious Cranmer, the man whom king Henry's
capricious soul esteemed for his virtues above all other men. Cranmer's
example is an endless testimony that fraud and cruelty are the leading
characteristics of the catholic hierarchy. They first seduced him to
live by recantation, and then doomed him to perish, using perhaps the
sophistical arguments, that, being brought again within the catholic
pale, he was then most fit to die. His gradual change from darkness to
the light of the truth, proved that he had a mind open to conviction.
Though mild and forgiving in temper, he was severe in church discipline,
and it is only on this ground that one act of cruelty of his can in any
way be excused. A poor woman was in Edward's reign condemned to be burnt
for her religious opinions; the pious young monarch reasoned with the
archbishop upon the impropriety of protestants resorting to the same
cruel means they censured in papists, adding humanely, "What! would you
have me send her quick to the devil in her error?" The prelate however
was not to be softened, and the king signed the death warrant with eyes
steeped in tears. There is however a shade in the greatest characters,