burn them, on showing them to any other person, should be esteemed rebels; and without any farther delay be executed by martial law."

In the space of three years, it is computed, that two hundred and seventy-seven persons were brought to the stake; besides those who were punished by imprisonment, fines, and confiscations. Among those who suffered by fire were five bishops, twenty-one clergymen, eight lay gentlemen, eighty-four tradesmen, one hundred husbandmen, servants, and labourers, fifty-five women, and four children.

The burning of heretics was. a very natural method of reconciling the kingdom to the Roman communion; and little consideration was requisite to persuade the pope to receive the strayed flock. Yet Paul IV. insisted that the possessions of the church should be restored to the uttermost farthing. Though his demand had little influence on the English in general, it operated powerfully on the queen, who was determined, in order to ease her conscience, to restore all the church lands which were still in the possession of the crown; and the more to display her zeal, she erected anew some convents and monasteries, notwithstanding the low condition of the exchequer. When this measure was debated in council, some members objected, that if such a considerable part of the revenue were dismembered, the dignity of the crown would fall to decay; but the queen replied, that she preferred the salvation of her soul to ten such kingdoms as England.

Persecution had now become extremely odious to the nation; and the effects of the public discontent appeared in the new parliament summoned to meet at Westminster. A bill was passed, restoring to the church the tenths and firstfruits, and all the appropriations which remained in the hands of the crown; but though this matter directly concerned none but the queen herself, great opposition was made to the bill in the house of commons. An application being made for a subsidy during two years, and for two fifteenths, the latter was refused by the commons; and mahy members observed, that while the crown was thus despoiling itself of its revenue, it was in vain to bestow riches upon it. The queen finding the intractable humour of the commons, thought proper to dissolve them.

This spirit of opposition in the parliament, was the more vexatious to Mary, as Philip, tired of her importunate love and jealousy, and finding his authority limited in England, had gone over to Flanders. His indifference, added to the disappointment in her imagined pregnancy, threw her into deep melancholy; and she gave vent to her spleen, by daily enforcing the persecutions against the protestants, and even by expressions of rage against all her subjects, by whom she knew herself to be hated, and whose opposition, in refusing an entire compliance with Philip, was the cause, she believed, why he had alienated his affections from her, and afforded her so little of his company. The less return her love met with, the more it increased; and she passed most of her time in solitude, where she gave yent to her passion, either in tears, or in writing fond epistles to Philip, who seldom deigned to return her any answer. The chief part of government to which she attended was the extorting money from her people, in order to satisfy his demands; and as the parliament had granted her but a scanty supply, she had recourse to expedients the most violent and irregular. By her own authority, she levied loans or extorted contributions with unexampled rapacity; and this at a time when she was at peace with all the world, and had no other occasion for money, but to supply the demands of a husband who detested her.

By the voluntary resignation of Charles V. Philip was now become master of the wealth of the new world, and of the richest dominions in Europe; but finding himself threatened A. D. with a war with France, he was desirous 1556. of embarking England in the quarrel; and Mary, though extremely averse to the measure, was incapable of resisting her husband's importunity. But she had little weight with her council, and still less with her people; and a new act of barbarity tended to increase the unpopularity of her government.

Cranmer had long been detained prisoner; but the queen now determined to bring him to punishment; and in order the more fully to satiate her vengeance, she resolved to punish him for heresy, rather than for treason. He was cited by the pope to stand his trial at Rome; and though he was known to be kept in close custody at Oxford, he was, upon his not appearing, condemned as contumacious. Bonner bishop of London, and Thirleby of Ely, were sent to degrade him; and the former executed the melancholy ceremony with all the joy and exultation of a savage. The implacable spirit of the queen, not satisfied with the execution of that dreadful sentence to which he was condemn.

ed, sought the ruin of his honour, and the infamy of his name. Persons were employed to attack him, by flattery, insinuation, and address ; by representing the dignities to which his character still entitled him, if he would merit them by a recantation; and by giving hopes of long enjoying those powerful friends, whom his beneficent disposition had attached to him during the course of his prosperity. Overcome by the fond love of life, and terrified by the prospect of those tortures which awaited him, he allowed, in an unguarded hour, the sentiments of nature to prevail over his resolution, and agreed to subscribe the doctrines of the papal supremacy, and of the real presence. The court, equally perfidious and cruel, were determined that this recantation should avail him nothing; and they sent him orders that he should be required to acknowledge his errors in church, before the whole people, and that he should thence be immediately carried to execution. Cranmer, however, surprised the audience by contrary declaration. He said, that he was well apprised of the obedience which he owed to his sovereign and the laws; but this duty extended no farther than to submit patiently to their commands, and to bear, without resistance, whatever hardships they should impose upon him; that a superior duty, the duty which he owed to his Maker, obliged him to speak truth on all occasions, and not to relinquish, by a base denial, the holy doctrine which the Supreme Being had revealed to mankind: that there was one miscarriage in his life, of which, above all others, he severely repented, the insincere declaration of faith to which he had the weakness to consent, and

which the fear of death alone had extorted from him: that he took this opportunity of atoning for his error, by a sincere and open recantation; and was willing to seal, with his blood, that doctrine which he firmly believed to be communicated from heaven; and that, as his hand had erred, by betraying his heart, it should first be punished by a severe but just doom, and should first pay the forfeit of its offences. He was thence led to the stake, amidst the insults of the catholics; and bore their scorn, as well as the torture of his punishment, with singular fortitude. He stretched out his hand; and, without betraying, either by his countenance or motions, the least sign of weakness, or even of feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed, several times exclaiming, "this hand has offended." Satisfied with that atonement, he then discovered a serenity in his countenance; and when the fire attacked his body, he seemed to be quite insensible of his outward sufferings, and, by the force of hope and resolution, to have collected his mind altogether within itself, and to repel the fury of the flames. It is even pretended, that after his body was consumed, his heart was found entire and untouched amidst the ashes; an event which, as it was the emblem of his constancy, was fondly believed by the zealous protestants. Cranmer was adorned with candour, sincerity, and beneficence, and all those virtues which were fitted to render him useful and amiable in society. His moral qualities procured him universal respect; and his learning and capacity reflected a lustre on the age in which he lived.

Pole, who was now installed in the see of Can