Sidenote: Clark dies in prison.]

[Sidenote: His last words.]

Wolsey had Garret in his own keeping, and declined to surrender him.
Ferrars had been taken at the Black Friars, in London,[82] and making
his submission, was respited, and escaped with abjuration. But Clark was
at Oxford, in the bishop's power, and the wicked old man was allowed to
work his will upon him. A bill of heresy was drawn, which the prisoner
was required to sign. He refused, and must have been sent to the stake,
had he not escaped by dying prematurely of the treatment which he had
received in prison.[83] His last words only are recorded. He was
refused the communion, not perhaps as a special act of cruelty, but
because the laws of the church would not allow the holy thing to be
profaned by the touch of a heretic. When he was told that it would not
be suffered, he said "_crede et manducasti_"--"faith is the communion;"
and so passed away; a very noble person, so far as the surviving
features of his character will let us judge; one who, if his manhood had
fulfilled the promise of his youth, would have taken no common part in
the Reformation.

[Sidenote: Dalaber and his friends carry fagots in High-street.]

The remaining brethren were then dispersed. Some were sent home to their
friends,--others, Anthony Dalaber among them, were placed on their
trial, and being terrified at their position, recanted, and were
sentenced to do penance. Ferrars was brought to Oxford for the occasion,
and we discern indistinctly (for the mere fact is all which survives) a
great fire at Carfax; a crowd of spectators, and a procession of
students marching up High-street with fagots on their shoulders, the
solemn beadles leading them with gowns and maces. The ceremony was
repeated to which Dr. Barnes had been submitted at St. Paul's. They were
taken three times round the fire, throwing in each first their fagot,
and then some one of the offending books, in token that they repented
and renounced their errors.

[Sidenote: Oxford is purged.]

Thus was Oxford purged of heresy. The state of innocence which Dr.
London pathetically lamented[84] was restored, and the heads of houses
had peace till their rest was broken by a ruder storm.

[Sidenote: The early history of Protestantism is the history of its
martyrs and confessors,]

[Sidenote: And its evidences, their endurance and suffering.]

In this single specimen we may see a complete image of Wolsey's
persecution, as