MarginaliaAn. 1556. March.was almost out of his wittes, alwayes hauyng this in his mouth: Non fecisti? diddest thou it not?

But whē he came to the place where the holy Byshops and Martyrs of God, Hugh Latymer and Ridley, were burnt before him for þ^e confession of þ^e truth:MarginaliaThe Archb. brought to the place of execution. kneelyng down, he prayed to God, and not lōg tarying in his Prayers, puttyng of his garmentes to his shyrt, he prepared himselfe to death. His shyrt was made long down to his feete. His feete were bare. Likewise his head, when both his cappes were of, was so bare, that not one heare could be sene vpon it. His beard was long and thicke, coueryng his face with maruailous grauitie. Such a countenaunce of grauitie moued the hartes, both of his frendes and of his enemyes.

Then the Spanish Friers, Iohn and Richard, of whō mention was made before, began to exhorte hym and play their partes with him a freshe, but with vayne and lost la-

bour, Cranmer with stedfast purpose abydyng in the profession of his doctrine, gaue his hand to certaine old men, and other that stode by, biddyng them farewell.

And when hee had thought to haue done so lykewise to Ely,  

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Foxe took the name of Ely and the fact that he was a fellow of Brasenose from 'J. A.' (cf. BL, Harley 422, fo. 51r).

MarginaliaThe Archb. tyed to the stake.Then was an yron chayne tyed about Cranmer, whō whē they perceiued to be more stedfast thē þ^t he could be moued from his Sentence, they cōmaunded the fire to bee set vnto hym.

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The famous scene of Cranmer sacrificing as first oblation to the flames the right hand that had betrayed his heart became one of the best known passages in Foxe's book. The place where 'the holy bishops' Latimer and Ridley had burned is shown much as it was in the woodcut of that earlier event (1583, pp. 1769-70), with the tower over the north gate of Oxford's city wall, from which Cranmer had looked down. His 'long and thick' beard which gave his face 'marvellous gravity' is intact, as is his raised left hand, crumpling in the flames on his stiff horizontal arm. Everything is focused on this guilty index finger, exactly centred in the mid-point of the block - the gesture crudely paralleled by the outstretched left arm of the ugly Spanish friar John, still testing Cranmer's steadfast purpose. Cranmer's burning was one of the four woodcuts of English martyrs illustrated in Foxe's 1559 Latin book, but very differently. There the archbishop, bearded and erect, is still untouched by the roaring fire (tended, as in the Acts and Monuments by a solitary attendant) in which he holds his hand. In 1559 the assembled viewers are in the background, mainly officials. There is no crush of awed spectators filling the space as in the English book, and no banderole for the final words, 'Lord receive my spirit'. As in other cases, the chief persecutor is drawn to the viewer's attention by a label (in roman letters in both 1563 and 1570 - redone - and then in italic in 1576 and 1583. The archbishop's last words were naturally treated with care, the roman lettering of 1563 changing to italic in 1570 and then altered again respectively to roman and italic in 1576 and 1583

MarginaliaCranmer putteth his right hand which subscribed first into the fire.And whē the wood was kindled, & the fire begā to burne neare him, stretchyng out his arme, he put his right hand in to the flame: which he held so stedfast & immoueable (sauing that once with the same hand he wiped his face) that all mē might see his hand burned before his body was touched. His body did so abyde the burnyng of the flame, with such constancie & stedfastnes, that standyng alwayes in one place without mouyng of his body, he seemed to moue no more then þ^e stake to which he was bound: his eyes were lifted vp into heauen, and oftentymes hee repeated, his vnwoorthy right hād, so lōg as his voyce would suffer him: & vsing often the wordes of Steuen, MarginaliaThe last words of Cranmer at his death.Lord Iesus receaue my spirite, in the greatnes of the flame, he gaue vp the Ghost.

This fortitude of mynde, which perchaūce is rare & not vsed among the Spanyardes, when Frier Iohn saw, thinkyng it came not of fortitude but of desperation (although such maner exāples which are of the like constācie haue bene cōmon here in Englād) ran to the Lord Williās of Tame, MarginaliaThe Fryers lying report of Cranmer.crying that the Archb. was vexed in mynde, & dyed in great desperation. But he which was not ignoraūt of the Archb. constācy, beyng vnknowē to the Spanyardes, smiled onely, & (as it were) by silence rebuked the Friers folly. And this was the end of this learned Archb. whō, lest by euil subscribyng he should haue perished, by well recātyng God preserued: & lest he should haue liued longer with shame & reproofe, it pleased God rather to take him away, to the glory of hys name & profit of his church. So good was the Lord both to

his Churche in fortifying the same with the testimony and bloud of such a Martyr: & so good also to þ^e man, with this crosse of tribulatiō to purge his offences in this world, not onely of his recātatiō, but also of his stādyng against Iohn Lābert, & M. Allen, or if there were any other with whose burnyng & bloud his handes had bene before any thyng polluted. But especially he had to reioyce, that dying in such a cause, he was to be numbred amongest Christes Martyrs, much more worthy the name of S. Thomas of Caūterbury then he whom the Pope falsly before did Canonise.

And thus haue you the full story cōcerning the life & death of this reuerēd Archb. & Martyr of God Tho. Cranmer, & also of diuers other the learned sort of Christs martyrs burned in Queene Maries tyme, of whō this Archb. was the last, being burnt about the very middle tyme of the raigne of that Queene, MarginaliaArchb. Cranmer the middle Martyr of all the Martyrs burnt in Q. Maryes tyme.& almost the very middle man of all the Martyrs which were burned in all her raigne besides.

Now, after þ^e life & story of this foresayd Archb. discoursed, let vs adioyne withal his letters, begynnyng first w^t his famous letter writtē to Q. Mary which he wrote vnto her incontinent after hee was cited vp to Rome by Byshoppe Brokes and his fellowes, the tenour wherof here foloweth.

¶ Letters of Doct. Tho. Cranmer Archb.  

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Cranmer's Letters

Given Cranmer's status and pre-eminence among Marian protestants, the amount of epistolary communication he had with his co-religionists was surprisingly small. Apart from his letters to his friend and supporter Joan Wilkinson and to his former protègè Rowland Taylor, his surviving letters dealt with his own legal situation. This was probably partly due to the vigilance with which Cranmer was guarded and probably partly due to the internal struggles Cranmer underwentafter the Oxford disputations in April 1554.

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None of Cranmer's letters are printed in the Rerum. His letters to Mary and to Thomas Martin and John Story were first printed in the 1563 edition as was his letter to a lawyer, written in Latin, about his appeal to a general council. In the 1570 edition, his letter to his lawyer was replaced with a translation of it. Cranmer's letters to Joan Wilkinson and Rowland Taylor were reprinted from the Letters of the Martyrs, where they first appeared, in the 1570 edition. No changes were made to the letters in subsequent editions.

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¶ The Archbyshop of Canterburyes letter to the Queenes hyghnesse.  

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This letter was first printed during Mary's reign in The copy of certain letterssent to the quene (Emden: 1556?), STC 5999. This letter was reprinted in every edition of the Acts and Monuments and in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 3-15. BL, Lansdowne 389, fos. 213v-222r; BL, Harley 417, fos. 69r-78v and ECL 260, fos.261r-265r are copies of this letter.

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