or dissimulation; for now it is
no time to dissemble. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth; in every article of the Catholic faith; every word
and sentence taught by our Saviour Christ, his apostles, and prophets,
in the Old and New Testament.

"And now I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more
than any other thing that ever I said or did in my life, and that is
the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth, which here I now
renounce and refuse,[547] as things {p.258} written with my hand
contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for
fear of death to save my life, if it might be; and that is, all such
bills and papers as I have written and signed with my hand since my
degradation, wherein I have written many things untrue; and forasmuch
as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, my hand therefore
shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire, it shall be
the first burnt. As for the pope, I utterly refuse him, as Christ's
enemy and Anti-Christ, with all his false doctrine; and as for the
sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the Bishop of
Winchester."

[Footnote 547: There are two original contemporary
accounts of Cranmer's words--_Harleian MSS._, 417
and 422--and they agree so far almost word for word
with "The Prayer and Saying of Thomas Cranmer a
little before his Death," which was published
immediately after by Bonner. But we now encounter
the singular difficulty, that the conclusion given
by Bonner is altogether different. The archbishop
is made to repeat his recantation, and express
especial grief for the books which he had written
upon the Sacrament.

There is no uncertainty as to what Cranmer really
said; but, inasmuch is Bonner at the head of his
version of the speech has described it as "written
with his own hand," it has been inferred that he
was required to make a copy of what he intended to
say--that he actually wrote what Bonner printed,
hoping to the end that his life would be spared;
and that he would have repeated it publicly, had he