Some Archbishops of Canterbury.

sworn to support the succession of Mary if Edward were to die. It soon appeared the Lady Jane Grey had no strong party in her favour. She was a queen but for a few days, and all the twenty-three who had signed the paper turned round and swore allegiance to Mary, with one exception-that was Cranmer. He would not forsake the meek usurper.' He was ordered to remain at Lambeth until it was decided by the new Queen's Government what proceedings should be taken against him. It seems certain he might have escaped, and his enemies would have been relieved of a difficulty thereby. But, said he, I will undergo with constancy the loss of life rather than steal out of this realm.'

Without his consent the Mass was restored at Canterbury, and it was affirmed publicly that the Archbishop had connived at it to please the Queen. Cranmer sat down and wrote an indignant letter, in which he attributed the Mass to Satan. This letter was circulated without his consent, and all London rang with it.

He was cited before the Star Chamber, and sent to the Tower. There, in company with Ridley, Bradford, and Latimer, he read the New Testament with great delectation and peaceful study.'

Mary hated Cranmer for the part he had taken in divorcing her mother from Henry, and she was determined he should die, whether he recanted or not.

Only six members of Convocation were found faithful to the Reformed doctrines. Bonner, as president, chuckled to his vulgar heart's content. The Prayer-book was pronounced very abominable, and the Articles full of heresy.

Lest a popular rising should take place in favour of Cranmer and his fellows, they were sent to Oxford, to argue the controverted points in that city. Before that, however, Cranmer was arraigned for conspiring to set up the Lady Jane, and was sentenced to death. When he left the Tower people expected he was going straightway to execution, and they thronged the streets. When he arrived at Oxford he was called on to defend his cause in St. Mary's Church, before Dr. Weston and thirty-three Commissioners. Weston made a speech, and accused Cranmer of violating the Church's unity, and of making new faiths every year. Three articles were prepared, all on the crucial point of the Lord's Supper, and on these Cranmer was requested to write his mind. Two days were allowed for this, one being Sunday. On Sunday evening the written comment was handed in, composed in elegant Latin.

The next day Cranmer was led to the Divinity School, and there the same great subject was discussed. The Archbishop displayed much ability; he was often hissed and hooted, but he calmly faced the storm. At length the meeting was dispersed.

After this there was a strange scene, for three Bishops had sentence of heresy pronounced upon them by a number of Presbyters. Will you turn?' they were asked. We are not minded to turn,' said they. Then their doom was pronounced. Cranmer wrote to the Queen suing for pardon, but no answer came. The Queen and her advisers were in a difficulty. Mary would do nothing until the Pope's authority was restored. The law had made her supreme, but that headship she renounced, and, until the law restored the supremacy to

Some Archbishops of Canterbury.

the Pope, nothing could, in her opinion, be done against the heretical Bishops. They were, consequently, spared for eighteen months. During that time Cardinal Pole arrived in England as the Pope's legate, and took up his residence at Lambeth. And now the tall cedars of the Reformation were to be stricken down. Now died the eloquent Rogers, the pious Hooper, the excellent Rowland Taylor, the learned Ferrar, and many more.

In September, the Bishop of Gloucester, as the Pope's Commissioner, sat on a high throne in St. Mary's Church, and Cranmer was obliged to stand before him accused of blasphemy and heresy. The Archbishop took off his cap, and bent his knee to the Queen's officials, who sat right and left of the Pope's creature; but he would not make any sign of homage to the emissary of Rome.

The Bishop of Gloucester, smothering his resentment, then addressed the prisoner, and hinted at the blessed consequences of repentance. In return, Cranmer having recited the Creed, denied the right of his judges to judge him. He stated his views on the Lord's Supper, described the Pope as Antichrist, and held a brisk argument with his judges on various points. Much was made to the discredit of the Archbishop, and from his works he was pronounced wicked, rebellious, and so forth. To all this the accused replied, boldly, as one who had no cause for shame. He was sent back to prison, there to await the Pope's final judgment. He still hoped the English people would not allow a papal sentence to be carried into execution against an Archbishop of Canterbury.

This fatal hope unnerved the man, and kept him from those spiritual exercises which would have made him as resolute as Ridley and Latimer. Certain friars often visited him, one being with him at the very moment when his friends, Ridley and Latimer, were passing his prison on their way to execution. When Cranmer knew what was going on he flew to the window, but too late. He then made his way to the prison roof, whence he could see those blessed martyrs glorifying God by their deaths.

Two months after Cranmer was degraded, that is, stripped of his robes of office. This was done by Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, once a Reformer; and by the brutal Bishop Bonner. Thirlby was moved to tears at these indignities, but Bonner behaved like a vulgar bully.

But now came Cranmer's downfall. Thirlby, who had recanted and who loved Cranmer, was made the occasion of his falling.

The Archbishop loved life, and was gradually led on by Thirlby and two designing Spanish friars to sign, first one document and then another, until he became reckless. But though he signed no less than six documents, in which, to his shame, he acknowledged the Pope to be the supreme head, and admitted all Roman errors to be true; though he did this, and a melancholy sight it is, yet Mary never meant to spare him, however low he might grovel at her feet.

But, however disgraceful his conduct was, the behaviour of those lying friars was yet more base. When they laid the sixth recantation before Cranmer, they knew his death-warrant was already signed. He was hoping every day to hear he was pardoned, when, one Friday evening in March, Dr. Cole, the Provost of Eton, visited him. Cole was come to preach at Cranmer's execution, which was to be next day. He told Cranmer nothing about his death, so very near, but he informed

Provost was to preach and the fallen Archbishop to read his rejection of the reformed faith. When, at the threshold of the church, the choir began to chant the Nunc Dimittis, he no longer doubted he was to die. He ascended a platform facing the pulpit, and leant against a pillar, while Dr. Cole preached. In his sermon the Provost called Cranmer a traitor, and a heretic, and a man who ought to die, though he had abjured his errors. He assured the condemned man, however, that as he was about to die in the bosom of the Church, he would be in Paradise that evening. He also warned him against the pangs of death, by adverting

ST. MARY'S CHURCH, OXFORD,

Little Kindnesses.

to the three Jewish children and St. Lawrence; and he promised that masses for his soul's repose should be sung in every church in Oxford. But, lest men might doubt of his repentance, he called upon Cranmer to fulfil his promise, and openly express his faith.

That I will, with a good will,' replied the Archbishop. Having, in the most affecting manner, asked the people to join him in prayer, he kneeled down, and, in an awful hush, made a plain and touching supplication and confession to God. Rising from his knees, he exhorted the people to be loyal, loving, and heavenly-minded. He then repeated the Creed, and said, 'I believe every Article of the Church, and all that our Lord and His Apostles have taught.'

Then there was a pause, and afterwards he said, 'I now come to that which troubles my conscience more than anything I ever did or said, and that is, the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth, which now here 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 . . . And, as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall be first punished; for, may I come to the fire, it shall be first burned.'

The Roman party were pale with rage, and called him traitor, liar, and so forth. There was much confusion, and Dr. Cole was heard saying, 'Stop the heretic's mouth, and take him away!'

Cranmer was pulled roughly off the scaffold, and would have been much injured if the Lord Williams had not protected him. The procession then formed once more, and left the church, and where Ridley and Latimer had glorified God, there was Cranmer bound to the stake. The fire was kindled, and over the flame he was seen stretching forth his right hand, crying loudly, This hand hath offended! O this unworthy hand!' While his right hand was thus held out, as a sign of his repentance, his left hand pointed upwards in faith to Heaven. Thither, we trust, his soul was borne, in answer to his last humble and fervent prayer, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' G.S. O.

TALE OF AN UNDERGROUND MISSION.

HILE staying in the neighbourhood of the great coal-field of Lancashire, I saw several of the colliers one evening at a large gathering at tea out of doors. I was struck with their quietness of demeanour, as well as with their intelligent faces. I arranged with the foreman on that occasion to give to the men a tale while in the coal-pit the next day, and afterwards to deliver a lecture in the Town Hall to as many as liked to come; and I arranged to spend my afternoon in going about the colliers' cottages, to see their domestic habits, and gathering what I could from wives and children. In this manner I proposed to divide my next day, and accordingly on the morrow I set out with some companions on a journey to the bowels of the earth.

The scene was novel enough; and after the tales we have heard and read of explosions of fire-damp and the falling-in of shafts, it was not altogether free from peril and apprehension: but this rather lent interest to it. We pulled down the canal, whose dark, greasy waters flowed lazily past our keel; the low and narrow archway of brick seemed sometimes to dip down so as to close quite over us; the candledips, stuck along the edge of the barge, gave just sufficient light to enable one to see the gloom with which we were surrounded.

'There were three men connected with the expedition: one whose work it was, while standing as it were upon his back, to propel the vessel with his feet pressing against the brick roof above him: another, who was my especial friend, sat on a tub beside me; and a third in front, in order to see that there was no danger ahead. During the voyage I took the opportunity of conversing with my friend the foreman—a man intelligent and high-principled; in fact, one of the most striking specimens of the human race I had come across. He very soon assured me that, however wild and rude the appearance of the colliers would be, I should find a great inclination to appreciate and be grateful for what I might do for them; and that amongst them theological discussion was by no means uncommon on questions connected with the Church, while they were pursuing their work. told me that many would appear in the evening at the Town Hall, to be present at the lecture; and that, being dressed after the fashion of the middle-classses of the day, I should hardly be able to detect my swarthy and half-naked friends of the pit; and that, amongst the various qualities of the race, gratitude and a continued remembrance of any kindness in word and action were amongst the foremost.

He

"We presently approached the opening into a dark passage, which seemed to lead up into realms even darker, and more obscure than those into which we had come. The boat drew up, and we were told to get out; and on doing so we found the coal beach crowded with half-naked boys, of about eleven to fourteen years of age, with ragged hair, blackened breasts and arms, waists bound round with belts and chains, led me to imagine that the assurances of my friend in the boat would hardly be verified.

"We now ascended an inclined plane; it was not high enough to stand on, or smooth enough to crawl in: the only hope was to go in a stooping posture, and that stooping posture was obliged to be sustained