seen that there was a chance of his escape.
Finding, however, that his execution had been
irrevocably determined on, he made the substitution
at the last moment.

There are many difficulties in this view, chiefly
from the character of the speech itself, which has
the stamp upon it of too evident sincerity to have
been composed with any underhand intentions. The
tone is in harmony throughout, and the beginning
leads naturally to the conclusion which Cranmer
really spoke.

There is another explanation, which is to me more
credible. The Catholics were furious at their
expected triumph being snatched from them. Whether
Cranmer did or did not write what Bonner says he
_wrote_, Bonner knew that he had not _spoken_ it,
and yet was dishonest enough to print it as having
been spoken by him, evidently hoping that the truth
could be suppressed, and that the Catholic cause
might escape the injury which the archbishop's
recovered constancy must inflict upon it. A man who
was capable of so considerable a falsehood would
not have hesitated for the same good purpose to
alter a few sentences. Pious frauds have been
committed by more religious men than Edmund Bonner.
See the Recantation of Thomas Cranmer, reprinted
from Bonner's original pamphlet: Jenkins, vol. iv.
p. 393.]

So far the archbishop was allowed to continue, before his astonished
hearers could collect themselves. "Play the Christian man," Lord
Williams at length was able to call; "remember yourself; do not
dissemble." "Alas! my lord," the archbishop answered, "I have been a
man that all my life loved plainness, and never dissembled till now,
which I am most sorry for." He would have gone on; but cries now rose
on all sides, "Pull him down," "Stop his mouth," "Away with him," and
he was borne off by the throng out of the church. The stake was a
quarter of a mile distant, at the spot already consecrated by the
deaths of Ridley and Latimer. Priest and monk