k at all was an
indication of infirmity. As soon as the reading was finished, the
archbishop was formally arrayed in his robes, and when the decoration
was completed, Bonner called out in exultation:

{p.246} "This is the man that hath despised the pope's holiness, and
now is to be judged by him; this is the man that hath pulled down so
many churches, and now is come to be judged in a church; this is the
man that hath contemned the blessed sacrament of the altar, and now is
come to be condemned before that blessed sacrament hanging over the
altar; this is the man that, like Lucifer, sat in the place of Christ
upon an altar[533] to judge others, and now is come before an altar to
be judged himself."[534]

[Footnote 533: An allusion to a scaffold in St.
Paul's Church, on which Cranmer had sat as a
commissioner; said to have been erected over an
altar.]

[Footnote 534: Foxe, vol. viii. p. 73.]

Thirlby checked the insolence of his companion. The degradation was
about to commence, when the archbishop drew from his sleeve an appeal
"to the next Free General Council that should be called." It had been
drawn after consultation with a lawyer, in the evident hope that it
might save or prolong his life,[535] and he attempted to present it to
his judges. But he was catching at straws, as in his clearer judgment
he would have known. Thirlby said sadly that the appeal could not be
received; his orders were absolute to proceed.

[Footnote 535: Cranmer to a Lawyer: Jenkins, vol.
i. p. 384.]

The robes were stripped off in the usual way. The thin hair was
clipped. Bonner with his own hands scraped the finger points which had
been touched with the oil of consecration; "Now are you lord no
longer," he said, when the ceremony was finished. "All this needed
not," Cranmer answered; "I had myself done with this gear long ago."

He was led off in a beadle's threadbare gown, and a tradesman's cap;
and here for some important hours authentic account of him is lost.
What he did, what he said, what was done or what was said to him, is
known only in its results, or in Protestant tradition. Tradition said
that he was taken from the cathedral to the house of the Dean of
Christ Church, where he was delicately entertained, and worked upon
with smooth words, and promises of life. "The noblemen," he was told,
"bar