mmoned up all the force of
his mind, he bore their scorn, as well as the torture of his punishment,
with singular fortitude. He stretched out his hand, and without
betraying, either by his countenance or motions, the least sign of
weakness, or even of feeling, he held it in the flames till it was
entirely consumed. His thoughts seemed wholly occupied with reflections
on his former fault; and he called aloud several times, "This hand has
offended." Satisfied with that atonement, he then discovered a serenity
in his countenance, and when the fire attacked his body, he seemed to be
quite insensible of his outward sufferings, and by the force of hope and
resolution to have collected his mind altogether within itself, and to
repel the fury of the flames. It is pretended, that after his body was
consumed, his heart was found entire and untouched amidst the ashes; an
event which, as it was the emblem of his constancy, was fondly believed
by the zealous Protestants.

He was undoubtedly a man of merit; possessed of learning and capacity,
and adorned with candor, sincerity, and beneficence, and all those
virtues which were fitted to render him useful and amiable in society.
His moral qualities procured him universal respect; and the courage of
his martyrdom, though he fell short of the rigid inflexibility observed
in many, made him the hero of the Protestant party.[*]

After Cranmer's death, Cardinal Pole, who had now taken priest's orders,
was installed in the see of Canterbury; and was thus, by this office, as
well as by his commission of legate, placed at the head of the church
of England. But though he was averse to all sanguinary methods of
converting heretics, and deemed the reformation of the clergy the more
effectual, as the more laudable expedient for that purpose,[**] he found
his authority too weak to oppose the barbarous and bigoted disposition
of the queen and of her counsellors. He himself, he knew, had been
suspected of Lutheranism; and as Paul, the reigning pope, was a furious
persecutor, and his personal enemy, he was prompted, by the modesty of
his disposition, to reserve his credit for other occasions, in which he
had a greater probability of success.[***]

* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 331, 332, etc. Godwin, p. 352.

** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 324, 325.

*** Heylin, p. 68, 69. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 327

{1557.} The great object of the queen was to engage the nation in the
war which was kindled between F