Marginalia1556. March.pray for me to almighty God, that he will forgeue me all my sinnes and offenses, which be many, without nūber, & great aboue meausre. But yet one thing greueth my cōscience more then al þ^e rest, wherof God willyng, I entend to speake more hereafter. But how great & how many soeuer my sinnes be, & besech you to pray God of his mercy to pardon & forgeue thē all. And here kneelyng down, he said: MarginaliaThe prayer of Archb. Cranmer.O father of heauē: O sonne of God redemer of the world: O holy Ghost three persons and one God, haue mercy vpō me most wretched caitife and miserable sinner. I haue offended both against heauē & earth more then my toung can expresse. Whether then may I go, or whether should I flie? To heauē I may be ashamed to lift vp mine eyes, and in earth I find no place of refuge or succour. To thee therfore (O Lord) do I runne: to thee do J humble my selfe, saying: O Lord my God, my sins be great, but yet haue mercy vpō me for thy great mercy. The great mistery that God became man, was not wrought for litle or few offenses. Thou diddest not geue they sonne (O heauenly father) vnto death for small sinnes onely, but for all the greatest sinnes of the world, so that the sinner returne to thee with his whole hart, as I do here at this present. Wherfore haue mercy on me O God, whose propertie is alwayes to haue mercy: haue mercy vpō me O lord, for thy great mercy. I craue nothing O Lord, for myne owne merites, but for thy names sake, that it may be halowed therby, and for thy deare sonne IESVS CHRISTES sake: And now therfore, our father of heauen, halowed be thy name. &c. And then he rysing, sayd:  

Commentary     Close

Cranmer's prayer, as printed by Foxe, is a composite of the versions given by the account of Cranmer sent to Foxe during his exile and the account of 'J. A.'. Both accounts closely resemble each other but there are differences. Preceding this point, Cranmer's prayer is based on the account sent to Foxe during his exile; after this point it is based on 'J.A.' until 'The second exhortation...'.

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MarginaliaThe last wordes of exhortatiō of the Archb. to the people.Euery man (good people) desireth at the time of their death to geue some good exhortation, that other may remember the same before their death, and be the better thereby: so I besech God graunt me grace, that I may speake some thyng at this my departyng, whereby God may be glorified, and you edified.

First, it is an heauy case to see that so many folke be so much doted vpō the loue of this false world, and so carefull for it, that of the loue of God, or the world to come, they seeme to care very litle or nothing. Therfore this

shalbe my first exhortatiō,MarginaliaExhortation to contempt of the world. that you set not your mindes ouer much vpon this glosing world, but vpon God and vpon the world to come: & to learne to know what this lesson meaneth, which S. Iohn teacheth, that the loue of thys world is hatred agaynst God.

The second exhortation  

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From this point until the end Cranmer's prayer is based on the version in the account sent him during his exile (cf. BL, Harley 422, fo. 94r-v).

The third exhortatiō is,MarginaliaExhortation to brotherly loue. that you loue altogether like brethren and sisters. For alas, pitie it is to see what contention and hatred one Christen mā beareth to an other, not taking ech other as brother and sister, but rather as straungers and mortal enemyes. But I pray you learne and beare well away this one lesson, to do good vnto al men, asmuch as in you lyeth, and to hurt no mā, no more then you would hurt your owne naturall louyng brother or sister. For this you may be sure of, that who soeuer hateth any person & goeth about maliciously to hinder or hurt him, surely and without al doubt, God is not with that man, although he thinke him selfe neuer so much in Gods fauour.

The fourth exhortatiōMarginaliaExhortation to rich men of this world, mouing them to charitable almes. shalbe to them that haue great substaunce and riches of this world, that they will well consider and wey three sayinges of the Scripture. One is of our Sauior CHRIST hym self, who sayth: MarginaliaLuke. 18.It is hard 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 this: Marginalia1. Iohn. 3.He that hath the substance of this world, and seeth his brother in necessitie, and shutteth vp his mercy from him, how cā he say that he loueth God? The third is of S. Iames, who speaketh to þ^e couetous rich man after this maner: MarginaliaIacob. 5.VVeepe you and howle for the misery that shall come vpon you: your riches do rotte, your clothes be moth eaten, your gold and siluer doth canker and rust, and their rust shal beare witnes agaynst you, and consume you lyke fire: you gather a horde or treasure of Gods indignation agaynst the last day. Let them that be rich, ponder well these three sentences: for if euer they had occasion to shew their charitie, they haue it now at this present, the poore people beyng so many, and victuals so deare.

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Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

The two images of Thomas Cranmer on adjacent pages gain added weight in 1563 by appearing together on one opening. Besides giving visual emphasis to Cranmer's ultimate steadfastness, both harp on the factious testing by Spanish friars with their exaggerated fulsome habits and cowls - themselves indications of popish excess. In both woodcuts the balding archbishop has the drooping moustache and long slightly forked beard characteristic of the Protestant patriarch, familiar from surviving portraits like that at Lambeth Palace (whose closeness to the features here indicates that even if posthumous it has good claim to authenticity). Cranmer is shown as having aged since 1534, as well as gaining a longer beard. Compare his face in 'The Pope suppressed by K Henry the eight' (1583, p. 799). The scene represents the utter dismay when Cranmer announced his renunciation of his recantation. Dr Henry Cole expresses astonishment in the pulpit where he had just delivered his sermon justifying the archbishop's burning. Cranmer, whose raised hands suggest the finality of 'it is finished', is pulled off the platform erected for his examination as commotion ensued and he was hurried off to the stake. The action, which takes place in a church interior that does duty for the gothic St Mary's, Oxford, shares features with the earlier illustration 1563, [(page un-numbered by Foxe (p. 474)] of Thomas Bilney being pulled out of the pulpit by two friars. That in turn was followed by another woodcut in John Day's 1569 A christall glasse (depicting 'Envy') that shows a friar pulling a preacher out of his pulpit by his beard, while the fire awaits him outside.

And now, for as much as I am come to the last end of my lyfe, wherupon hangeth all my life paste, and all

my lyfe to come, either to lyue with my Master Christ for euer in ioy, or els to be in payne for euer with wic-