The martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, March 21 1556

The light of truth and freedom had been kindled into a new and brighter flame all through England by the moral shock and indignation which the burning of the martyrs evoked.

This was greatly increased by the admiration of the martyrs themselves, for those who had suffered had to a man borne the pains of death in splendid triumph. And would it not be so in the case of Cranmer? For of all men in the country, recantation would be for him the most unthinkable. He was chief and captain of the English Reformation and had sought to guide it step by step with all the authority of his great place. He who advised his friends to fly the land without hint of reproach chose for his own part to remain, and he braved the fear of prison and death by his resolute confession of faith and his declaration against the Mass. Nor did he show the least sign of yielding until he had suffered imprisonment for well over two years, and the fires of persecution had for 12 months burnt round many of his closest colleagues. And yet he did falter.

Death sentence

The Queen had made up her mind that Cranmer must die; but she would have him so recant that his death would put out the flame of Latimer’s candle. Therefore it was resolved to play alternately on the chords of fear and hope so as to obtain a more detailed recantation from the author of the Reformation formularies. Therefore on February 24 1556, the Queen signed a warrant which would commit Cranmer to death by fire; but no date was fixed, and he was simply informed that the writ had been signed. Cranmer had now been in prison for two and a half years, cut off from friends, from books, even for the most part from the means of writing. And false men laid siege to his heart, flattering, threatening, promising, cajoling in turn. He was overcome by human loneliness and human frailty, and he subscribed his name at last to a statement which had been drawn up in advance.

Plans were then prepared to make Cranmer sign yet another confession. This may have been partly to remove for ever all suspicion of forgery, but the major object was to blacken the whole Reformation with indelible shame. Cranmer was required to accuse himself as the sinister architect of all the wrongs which had overtaken both Church and realm, and the language of this recantation was drawn up so as to shame and humiliate him in the last depths of disgrace. On March 18, this Sixth Recantation was laid before him in prison. Cranmer, humbled, broken, sore at heart, in shame of conscience, succumbed for the last time. He signed his name to a statement which placed in the hands of the Queen all that she could desire: for when the chief prophet of the Reformation had cursed it in terms like these, who would rise up to bless or defend?

It was on March 19 that this recantation was lodged in the hands of the Queen. But of her purpose to put him to death, she would nothing relent. On March 20, orders were dispatched to Oxford that he should die by fire on the morrow. Morning broke with angry skies and driving rain in Oxford, but the crowds were early at St. Mary’s. Two friars led him into the church to a stage which faced the pulpit, and there he stood while Cole preached his sermon, lifting up his hands once or twice while his lips moved in prayer, and the tears rolled down his face as down the face of a child.

Cranmer speaks

The sermon came to an end with Cole’s summons to the people, and to Cranmer. Brethren, he said, lest any man should doubt of this man’s earnest conversion and repentance, you shall hear him speak before you; and therefore I pray you, Master Cranmer, that you will now perform that you promised not long ago, namely, that you would openly express the true and undoubted profession of your faith that . . . all men may understand that you are a Catholic indeed.

Cranmer was thus marked out as the pivot of the English Reformation: it was to stand or fall with his conduct, and not a doubt but that they thought it must fall.

After praying, Cranmer addressed four short exhortations to the people. But this was all so far no more than an introduction to the real end which was in view, although with great skill he kept his purpose hidden until the very last moment.

And now, he said, Forasmuch as I am come to the last end of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life past and all my life to come . . . I shall therefore declare unto you my very faith how I believe, without any colour or dissimulation: for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have said or written in times past. Cranmer had now come to the great work which was to make that day for ever memorable. When he had poured out his heart in prayer, the voice of repentance had been so manifest to all; but it was repentance, not for Reformation truth and teaching, but for his denial of them. But the meaning did not reach the congregation as they heard his first words, for they had been led to expect quite a different confession.

I refuse the Pope

Cranmer had now completely recovered the poise which he had lost when he signed the Recantations, and he meant to restate his full accord with the Reformation and its theology. But he managed his speech with such skill that he was allowed to run on, at some length before its real drift was perceived.

And now, he said, 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 now I renounce and refuse, as things written with my hand contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death and to save my life if it might be: and that is, all such bills which I have written or signed with mine own hand since my degradation: wherein I have written many things untrue. And forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire, it be first burned. And as for the Pope, I refuse him as Christ’s enemy and anti-Christ, with all his false doctrine. And as for the Sacrament...

He could get no further; all the pent-up fury of a thunderstruck audience broke out. Ordered to reflect on his Recantations and to refrain from dissembling, Cranmer replied, I have been a man that all my life loved plainness, and never dissembled till now against the truth: which I am most sorry for. And he seized the chance to bear his witness to the Sacramental doctrine which he really believed. And as for the sacrament, he cried, I believe as I have taught in my book against the Bishop of Winchester: the which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of the Sacrament that it shall stand at the last day before the judgment of God!

Then Cole thundered out to stop the heretic utterance and to have him away. Cranmer was dragged from the stage and hurried off to the stake. On the same site where not six months before Ridley and Latimer had been called out to play the man, the stake was set up for Cranmer. He knelt on the bare ground besides the stake and gave himself briefly to prayer. Then with cheerful spirit, he put off his upper garments until he stood with bare feet in a long shirt which reached to the ground.

Right hand in the flame

Then he was bound to the stake with a steel band round his waist, and the fire was kindled at his feet. The fire leapt up, and he stretched out his arm and held his right hand in the flame: there he held it, without flinching, except that once it was withdrawn to wipe his face, until it had burnt to a stump, while he cried out the while: This hand hath offended.

It was by this famous gesture that he proclaimed his faith and came at last to his triumph. This was recantation of a kind which none could undo; a sign of faith which no one could misread. His patience in torment, his courage in dying, won admiration even from hostile members of the crowd which looked on. He stood firmly in the same place, ringed with flame, lapped with fire; and stirred no more than the stake to which he was bound, only lifting up his eyes and crying so long as his voice would allow, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!

Abridged by Alicia Felce from Masters of the English Reformation by Sir Marcus Loane, Banner of Truth, 320 pages, £15.50, ISBN 0 85151 910 5.

The martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, March 21 1556

Death sentence

Cranmer speaks

I refuse the Pope

Right hand in the flame

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