answered.
"Doubt not," Hooper said, "but God will give us strength."

They were remanded to prison. The next morning they were brought again
before the court. "The queen's mercy" was offered them, if they would
recant; they refused, and they were sentenced to die. Rogers asked to
be allowed to take leave of his wife and children. Gardiner, with a
savage taunt, rejected the request. The day of execution was left
uncertain. They were sent to Newgate to wait the queen's pleasure. On
the 30th, Taylor of Hadley, Laurence Sandars, rector of All Hallows,
and the illustrious Bradford, were passed through the same forms with
the same results. Another, a notorious preacher, called Cardmaker,
flinched, and made his submission.

Rogers was to "break the ice," as Bradford described it.[443] On the
morning of the 4th of February the wife of the keeper of Newgate came
to his bedside. He was sleeping soundly, and she woke him with
difficulty to let him know that he was wanted. The Bishop of London
was waiting, she said, to degrade him from the priesthood, and he was
then to go out and die. Rubbing {p.192} his eyes, and collecting
himself, he hurried on his clothes. "If it be thus." he said, "I need
not tie my points." Hooper had been sent for also for the ceremony of
degradation. The vestments used in the mass were thrown over them, and
were then one by one removed. They were pronounced deposed from the
priestly office, incapable of offering further sacrifice--except,
indeed, the only acceptable sacrifice which man can ever offer, the
sacrifice of himself. Again Rogers entreated permission to see his
wife, and again he was refused.

[Footnote 443: Bradford to Cranmer, Ridley, and
Latimer: Foxe.]

The two friends were then parted. Hooper was to suffer at Gloucester,
and returned to his cell; Rogers was committed to the sheriff, and led
out to Smithfield. The Catholics had affected to sneer at the faith of
their rivals. There was a general conviction among them, which was
shared probably by Pole and Gardiner, that the Protestants would all
flinch at the last; that they had no "doctrine that would abide the
fire." When Rogers appeared, therefore, the exultation of the people
in his constancy overpowered the horror of his fate, and he was
received with rounds of cheers. His family, whom he was forbidden to
part with in private, were waiting on the way to see him--his wife
with nine little ones at