The emissaries of Government were afraid to
attack him openly; but that evening they visited him at his private
residence, and offered him his choice between death and apostacy. For
all reply the venerable prelate knelt down, and exclaimed: "O Lord, on
this morning I offered to Thee on the altar the unbloody sacrifice of
the body of my Saviour; grant that I may now offer, to Thy greater
honour and glory, the sacrifice of my own life." Then he turned towards
a picture of the most holy Trinity, which was suspended in his room, and
scarce had time to pronounce the aspiration of his Order, "_Sancta
Trinitas, unus Deus, miserere nobis_," ere his head was severed from his
body, and he entered upon the beatific vision of the Three in One, for
Whom he had so gladly sacrificed his life.

The Protestant Archbishop, Dr. Browne, the Lord Chancellor, and some
other members of the Council, set out on a "visitation" of the four
counties of Carlow, Wexford, Waterford, and Tipperary, in which the
church militant was for the nonce represented by the church military.
They transmitted an account of their expedition, and the novel fashion
in which they attempted to propagate the Gospel, to England, on the 18th
January, 1539. One brief extract must suffice as a specimen of their
proceedings. "The day following we kept the sessions there [at Wexford].
There was put to execution four felons, accompanied with another, a
friar, whom we commanded to be hanged in his habit, and so to remain
upon the gallows for a mirror to all his brethren to live truly."[399]

There was One, whom from reverence I name not here, who said, when about
to die, that, when "lifted up, He should draw all men unto Him."
Centuries have rolled by since those most blessed words were uttered,
but they have been verified in the disciples as well as in the Master.
The "lifting up" of a friar upon the gallows, or of a bishop upon the
block, has but served to draw men after them; and the reformations they
failed to effect during their lives, by their preaching and example,
have been accomplished after and because of their martyrdoms.

The reformers now began to upbraid each other with the very crimes of
which they had accused the clergy in England. When mention is made of
the immense sums of money which were obtained by the confiscation of
religious houses at this period, it has been commonly and naturally
supposed, that the religious were possessors of immense wealth, which