Acts and Monuments Volume 2 Part 2, Book 11 · Account 22 · Prayer
The Prayer of Doctour Cranmer Archbyshop.
GOod Christen people, my dearly beloued brethren and sisters in Christ, I beseech you most hartely to pray for me to almighty God, that he wil forgeue me al my sinnes and offences, which be many, without number, and great aboue measure. But yet one thing grieueth my conscience more then all the rest, whereof God willing, I entende to speake more heereafter. But howe great and howe many soeuer my sinnes be. I beseeche you to pray God of hys mercy to pardon and forgeue them all. And heere kneling downe, he sayd:
O Father of heauen: O sonne of God redeemer of the worlde: The prayer of Archb. Crāmer.O holy Ghoste, three persones and one God, hauehave mercye vppon me moste wretched caitife and miserable sinner. I hauehave offended both againste heauen and earth, more then my tounge can expresse. Whether then may I goe, or whether should I flie? To heauen I may be ashamed to lifte vp mine eyes, and in earth I finde no place of refuge or succour. To thee therefore (O Lorde) doe I runne: to thee doe I humble my selfe saying. O Lorde my God, my sinnes be great, but yet hauehave mercye vppon me for thy great mercy. The great mysterie that God became man, was not wrought for little or fewe offences. Thou diddest not geue thy sonne (O heauenly father) vntounto death for smal sinnes onelyonly, but for all the greatest sinnes of the world, so that the sinner returne to thee with his whole heart, as I do here at this present. Wherefore hauehave mercye on mee O God, whose propertie is alwayes to hauehave mercy, hauehave mercy vponupon me O Lord, for thy great mercy. I craue nothing for mine owne merites, but for thy names sake, that it maye be hallowed thereby, and for thy deare sonne Iesus Christes sake. And nowe therefore, Our father of heauen, halowed be thy name. &c. And then he rising, sayde:
EueryEvery man (good people) desireth at that time of their death to geue some good exhortation,The last wordes of Exhortation of the Archb. to the people. that other maye remember the same before theyr death, & be the better thereby: so I beseche God graunt me grace, that I may speake some thyng at thys my departing, whereby God may be glorified, and you edified.
First, it is an heauy case to see that so many folke be so much doted vponupon the louelove of this false world,Exhortation to contempt of the world. and so carefull for it, that of the louelove of God, or ye world to come, they seeme to care very little or nothing. Therefore this shalbe my first exhortation, that you sette not your mindes ouer much vponupon thys glosing world, but vponupon God and vponupon the world to come: and to learne to know what this lesson meaneth, whych s. Iohn teacheth, that the louelove of this world is hatred against God.
The seconde exhortation is,Exhortation to obedience. that next vnderunder God you obey your King and Queene willingly and gladly, without murmuring or grudging: not for feare of them onelyonly, but much more for the feare of God: knowing that they be Gods ministers, appoynted by God to rule and gouerne you: and therefore who soeuer resisteth them, resisteth the ordinance of God.
The third exhortatiō is,Exhortation to brotherly louelove. that you louelove altogether lyke brethren and sisters. For alasse, pitie it is to see what contention and hatred one Christen man beareth to an other, not taking cache other as brother and sister, but rather as strangers and mortall ennemies. But I pray you learne and beare well away this one lesson, to doe good vntounto all men, asmuch as in you lieth, and to hurt no man, no more then you would hurt your owne naturall louing brother or sister. For thys you maye be sure off, that who soeuer hateth any person, and goeth about maliciously to hinder or hurte hym, surely, and wythout all doubte God is not wyth that man, although he thinke himself neuer so much in Gods fauour.
The fourth exhortation shall be to them yt hauehave great substance & riches of this world,Exhortation to rich men of this world mouing them to charitable almes. Luke 18. 1. Iohn 3. that they will well consider and weigh three sayinges of the Scripture. One is of our Sauiour Christ him selfe, who sayeth: It is harde for a rich man to enter into the kingdome of heauen. A sore saying, and yet spoken of hym that knoweth the truth.
The second is of S. Iohn, whose saying is thys: Hee that hath the substaunce of this worlde, and seeth hys brother in necessitie, and shutteth vp his mercy from him, howe can he saye that hee loueth God?
The third is of S, Iames, who speaketh to the couetous riche man after thys maner: Weepe you and howle for the miserie that shall come vponupon you: your riches do rotte, your clothes be mothe eaten, your golde and siluer doeth canker and rust, and their rust shall beare witnesse against you, and consume you like fire▪ you gather a hoarde or treasure of Gods indignation against the last day. Let them that be riche, ponder well these three sentences: for if they had occasion to shew their charitie, they hauehave it now at this present, the poore people being so many, and victuals so deare.
And now, for as much as I am come to the last end of my life, whereupon hangeth al my life past, and all my life to come, either to liue with my maister Christe for euer in ioy, or els to be in paine for euer, with wicked Deuilles in hell, & I see before mine eyes presently either heauen ready to receiue me, or els hell ready to swallow me vppe: I shall therefore declare vntounto you my very faith how I beleeue, wythout any colour or dissimulation: for nowe is no time to dissemble, whatsoeuer I hauehave sayd or wrytten in time past.
The Archb. declareth the true confession of his fayth without all colour or dissembling. The Archb. rereuoketh his former recantation and repenteth the same.First, I beleeue in God the Father almightye, maker of heauen and earth. &c. And I beleue eueryevery Article of the Catholicke faith, eueryevery woord and sentence taught by our Sauiour Iesus Christ, his Apostles and Prophets, in the newe and olde Testament.
And nowe I come to the great thinge, that so muche troubleth my conscience more then any thing that euer I did or sayd in my whole life, and that is the setting abroad of a wryting contrary to the truth: which now here I renounce and refuse as things wrytten with my hand, contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for feare of death, and to saue my life if it might be, and that is, all suche billes and papers which I hauehave wrytten or signed with my hand since my degradation: wherein I hauehave wrytten many thinges vntrue. And for asmuche as my hand offended, wryting cōtrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished therfore: for may I come to the fire, it shalbe first burned.
The Archb. refuseth the Pope as Christes enemy and Antichrist. The Archb. st…deth to his booke written agaynst Winchester.And as for the Pope, I refuse hym as Christes ennemie and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine.
And as for the sacrament, I beleeue as I hauehave taught in my booke against the Bishop of Winchester, the whych my booke teacheth so true a doctrine of the sacrament, that it shall stand at the last day before the iudgement of God, where the Papisticall doctrine contrary thereto, shalbe ashamed to shewe her face.
Here ye standers by were all astonied, maruailed, were amased, did looke one vponupon an other, whose expectation he had so notably deceiued. Some began to admonish hym of hys recantation, and to accuse him of falshoode.
Briefly,… Papists …ceaued. it was a world to see the doctours beguiled of so great an hope. I thinke there was neuer crueltie more notably or better in time deluded & deceiued. For it is not to be doubted but they looked for a glorious victorie, and a perpetuall triumph by this mans retractation.
Who assoone as they heard these things, began to lette downe their eares, to rage, frette, and fume: and so much the more, because they coulde not reuenge their griefe:The Papists in a great chase agaynst the Archb. for they coulde nowe no longer threaten or hurt him. For the most miserable manne in the world can die but once: and where as of necessity he must needes die that day, though the papists had bene neuer so well pleased: now being neuer so much offended with him, yet coulde hee not be twise killed of them. And so when they coulde doe nothing els vntounto him, yet least they shoulde say nothinge, they ceassed not to obiect vntounto him his falshoode and dissimulation.
Unto which accusation he answered:Cranmers aunswere to the Papists. Ah my maisters (quoth he) do not you take it so. Alwayes since I liued hitherto, I hauehave bene a hater of falshood, and a louer of simplicitie, and neuer before this time hauehave I dissembled: and in saying this, al the teares that remained in his body, appeared in hys eyes. And when he began to speake more of the sacrament and of the papacie, some of them beganne to cry out, yalpe, and baule, and specially Cole cried out vppon him: stop the heretickes month, and take him away.
And then Cranmer beinge pulled downe from the stage, was ledde to the fire,Cranmer pulled downe frō the stage. accompanied wyth those Friers, vexing, troubling, and threatning him most cruelly. What madnesse (saye they) hath brought thee againe into this error, by which thou wilt draw innumerable soules with thee into hel? To whom he answeared nothyng,Cranmer led to the fire. but directed all his talke to ye people, sauing that to one troubling hym in the way, hee spake and exhorted him to gette hym home to hys studie, and applye hys booke diligently, saying if he did diligently cal vponupon God, by reading more he should get knowledge.
But the other Spanishe barker, raging and foming, was almost out of hys wittes, alwaies hauing this in his mouth: Non fecisti? diddest thou it not?
❧ The description of Doctour Cranmer, howe he was plucked downe from the stage, by Friers and Papists, for the true Confession of hys Faith.
❧ The burnyng of the Archbishop of Caunterbury Doctor Thomas Cranmer, in the Towneditch at Oxforde, with his hand first thrust into the fire, wherewith he subscribed before.
But when he came to the place where the holye Bishops and Martyrs of God, Hugh Latymer and Ridley were burnt before hym for the confession of the truth,The Archb. b…ought to rep…ace of execution. kneelyng downe, he prayed to God, and not long tarying in hys prayers, putting of hys garments to hys shirt, he prepared hymselfe to death. His shirt was made long down to hys feete. His feete were bare. Likewyse his head, when both his caps were of, was so bare, that one haire coulde not be seene vponupon it. His beard was long and thicke, couering hys face with meruailous grauitie. Such a countenance of grauitie mooued the hearts both of his friends and of his enemies.
Then the Spanish Friers Iohn & Richard, of whom mention was made before, began to exhort him and playe their partes with him a freshe, but with vayne and lost labour, Cranmer with stedfast purpose abidyng in the profession of his doctrine, gaue his hand to certaine old men, and other that stood by, biddyng them farewell.
… Ely … to … to the Archbishop.And when he had thought to hauehave done so likewyse to Ely, the sayd Ely drewe backe his hande and refused, saying: it was not lawfull to salute heretickes, and specially such a one as falsly returned vntounto the opinions that he had forsworne. And if he had knowen before that hee would hauehave done so, he would neuer hauehave vsed his company so familiarly, and chid those sergeants and Citizens, whiche had not refused to geue hym their hands. This Ely was a priest lately made, and student in Diuinitie, beyng thē one of the fellowes of Brasennose.
The Arch…op tyed … stake.Then was an iron chaine tied about Cranmer, whom when they perceyued to be more stedfast then that he could be mooued from hys sentence, they commaunded the fire to be set vntounto hym.
Cranmer …tteth his … hand w…ich subscribed first … the ….And when the woode was kindled, and the fire began to burne neere hym, stretching out his arme, he put hys right hand into the flame: which he held so stedfast & immoueable (sauing that once with the same hand he wiped his face) that all men might see hys hande burned before his body was touched. His body did so abide the burning of the flame with such constancy and stedfastnes, that standyng alwayes in one place without moouyng of his body, he seemed to mooue no more then the stake to which hee was bound:The last wordes of Cranme… at … death. his eyes were lifted vp into heauen, and oftentymes he repeated hys vnworthy right hand, so long as his voyce would suffer hym: and vsing oftē the words of Steuen, Lord Iesus receiue my spirite, in the greatnesse of the flame, he gaue vp the Ghost.
This fortitude of mynd which perchaunce is rare and not found among the Spaniards, when Frier Ioh. saw, thinkyng it came not of fortitude, but of desperation (although such maner of examples which are of the like constancy,The Fryers lying report of Cranmer. hauehave bene common here in England) ranne to the L. Williams of Tame, crying that the Archb. was vexed in mind, and died in great desperation. But he which was not ignorant of the Archbishoppes constancy, beyng vnknowen to the Spaniards, smiled only, and (as it were) by silence rebuked the Friers folly. And this was the ende of this learned Archb. whom, least by euill subscribyng he should hauehave perished, by well recantyng God preserued: and least he should hauehave lyued longer with shame and reproofe, it pleased God rather to take him away, to the glory of his name and profit of his Church. So good was the Lord both to hys Church, in fortifieng the same wyth the testimony and bloud of such a Martyr: and so good also to the man with this crosse of tribulation, to purge his offences in this world, not onelyonly of his recantation, but also of his standyng agaynst Iohn Lambert and M. Allen, or if there were any other, with whose burnyng and bloude, hys hands had bene before any thyng polluted. But especially he had to reioyce, that dying in such a cause, he was to be numbred amongst Christes Martyrs, muche more worthy the name of S. Thomas of Caunterbury, then he whom the Pope falsly before did Canonise.
And thus hauehave you the full story concernyng the lyfe and death of this reuerend Archbish. and Martyr of God, Thomas Cranmer, and also of diuers other the learned sort of Christs Martyrs burned in Queene Maries time,Archb. Cranmer the middle Martyr of all the Martyrs burnt in Q Maryes tyme. of whom this Archb. was the last, beyng burnt about the very middle tyme of the raign of that Queene, and almost the very middle man of all the Martyrs which were burned in all her raigne besides.
Now after the lyfe and story of this foresayde Archbishop discoursed, let vsus adioyne withall his letters, beginning first with his famous letter to Quene Mary, which he wrote vntounto her incontinent after he was cited vp to Rome by bishop Brookes and his fellowes, the tenour whereof here followeth.