ear. Being ordered by Oliphant to go up to the stake, he
refused, and said, "No, I will not go, except thou put me up with thy
hand, for by the law of God I am forbidden to put hands to myself, but
if thou wilt put to thy hand, and take part of my death, thou shalt see
me go up gladly." Then Oliphant putting him foreward, he went up with a
cheerful countenance, saying, _Introibo ad altare Dei_, and desired that
he might be permitted to speak to the people; he was answered by
Oliphant, "That he had spoken too much already, and the bishops were
exceedingly displeased with what he had said." But some youths took his
part, and bid him say on what he pleased; he first bowed his knees and
prayed, then arose and standing upon the coals addressed the people to
this effect, "Dear friends, the cause why I suffer this day, is not for
any crime laid to my charge, though I acknowledge myself a miserable
sinner before God, but only for the defence of the truths of Jesus
Christ set forth in the old and new Testament; I praise God that he
hath called me among the rest of his servants, to seal up his truth with
my life; as I have received it of him, so I again willingly offer it up
for his glory, therefore, as ye would escape eternal death, be no longer
seduced with the lies of bishops, abbots, friars, monks, and the rest of
that sect of Antichrist, but depend only upon Jesus Christ and his
mercy, that so ye may be delivered from condemnation."--During this
speech, loud murmurs and lamentations were heard among the multitude,
some admiring the patience, boldness and constancy of this martyr,
others complaining of the hard measures and cruelty of his persecutors.
After having spoken as above, he prayed a little while, and then was
drawn up and bound to the stake, and the fire being kindled, he cried,
"Lord, have mercy on me; Pray, pray, good people, while there is time."
And so cheerfully yielded up his soul into the hands of his God on the
twenty-eighth of April, _anno_ 1558, being then about the eighty-second
year of his age.

The fortitude and constancy of this martyr affected the people so much,
that they heaped up a great pile of stones on the place where he had
been burned, that the memory of his death might be preserved, but the
priests gave orders to have it taken down and carried away, denouncing a
curse on any who should lay stones there again; but that anathema was so
little regarded, that what was thrown down in the day-time w