out of pain, but Ridley continued to fuffer much longer, his legs. being confumed before the fire reached his vitals.

One Thomas Haukes, when conducted to the ftake, had agreed with his friends, that if he found the torture fupportable, he would make them a signal for that purpose in the midft of the Aames. His zeal for the cause in which he suffered was fo ftrong, that when the fpectators thought him near expiring, by ftretching out his arms, he gave his friends the fignal that the pain was not too great to be borne. This example, with many others of the like conftancy, encouraged multitudes not only to fuffer, but even to afpire after martyrdom.

But women seemed perfecuted with as much. severity even as men. A woman in Guernsey, condemned for herefy, was delivered of a child in the midft of the flames. Some of the fpectators, humanely ran to fnatch the infant from danger; but the magiftrate, who was a papist, ordered it to. be flung in again, and there it was confumed with the mother.

Cranmer's death followed foon after, and ftruck, the whole nation with horror. This prelate, whom we have seen acting fo very confpicuous a part in the reformation, during the two preceding reigns, had been long detained a prifoner, in confequer.ce of his imputed guilt in obftructing the queen's fucceffion to the crown. But it was now refolved to bring him to punishment; and to give it all its malignity, the queen ordered that he fhould be punished for herefy, rather than for treafon. He was accordingly cited by the pope, to ftand his trial at Rome; and though he was kept a prifoner at Oxford, yet upon his not appearing, he was condemned as contumacious. But his enemies were not fatisfied with his tortures, without

adding to them the poignancy of felf-accufation. Perfons were, therefore, employed to tempt him by flattery and infinuation; by giving him hopes of once more being received into favour, to fign his recantation, by which he acknowledged the doctrines of the papal fupremacy and the real prefence. His love of life prevailed. In an unguarded moment he was induced to fign this paper; and now his enemies, as we are told of the devil, after having rendered him completely wretched, refolved to destroy him. But it was determined before they led him out to execution, that they should try to induce him to make a recantation in the church before the people. The unfortunate prelate, either having a fecret intimation of their defign, or having once more recovered the native vigour of his mind, entered the church, prepared to surprise the whole audience by a contrary declaration. Being placed in a confpicuous part of the church, a fermon was preached by Cole, provoft of Eton, in which he magnified Cranmer's converfion as the immediate work of heaven itself. Hie affured the archbishop, that nothing could have been fo pleating to God, the queen, or the people; he comforted him, that in cafe it was thought fit he fhould fuffer, that numberlefs dirges and maffes fhould be faid for his foul; and that his own confeffion of his faith would ftill more fecure his foul from the pains of purgatory. During this whole rhapfody, Cranmer expreffed the utmoft agony, anxiety, and internal agitation; he lifted up his eyes to heaven, he fhed a torrent of tears, and groaned with unutterable anguish. He then began a prayer, filled with the moft pathetic expreflions of horror and remorse: he then faid he was well apprifed of his duty to his fovereign; but that a fuperior duty, the duty which he owed his Maker, obliged him to declare

that

;

that he had figned a paper contrary to his conscience that he took this opportunity of atoning for his error, by a fincere and open recantation he was willing, he faid, to feal 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 fhould undergo the first punishment. The affembly, confifting chiefly of papifts, who hoped to triumph in the last words of fuch a convert, were equally confounded and incenfed at this declaration. They called aloud to him to leave off diffembling; and led him forward amidst the infults and reproaches of his audience to the ftake at which Latimer and Ridley: had fuffered. He was refolved to triumph over their infults by his conftancy and fortitude; and the fire beginning to be kindled round him, he ftretched forth his right hand, and held it in the flames till it was confumed, while he frequently cried out, in the midft of his fufferings, "That "unworthy hand :" at the fame time exhibiting no appearance of pain or diforder. When the fire attacked his body, he feemed to be quite infenfible of his tortures; his mind was occupied wholly upon the hopes of a future reward. After his body was deftroy: d, his heart was found entire; an emblem of the conftancy with which he fuffered.

Thefe perfecutions were now become odious to the whole nation; and, as it may be easily suppofed, the perpetrators of them were all willing to throw the odium from themselves upon others. Philip, fenfible of the hatred which he muft incur upon this occafion, endeavoured to remove the reproach from himfelf by a very grofs artifice. He ordered his confeffor to deliver in his prefence a fermon in favour of toleration; but Bonner in his turn would not take the whole of the blame, and

retorted

retorted the severities upon the court. In fact, a hold step was taken to introduce a court fimilar to that of the Spanish inquifition, that fhould be empowered to try heretics, and condemn them. without any other form of law but its own, authority. But even this was thought a method too dilatory in the prefent exigence of affairs. A proclamation iffued against books of herefy, treafon, and fedition, declaring, that whofoever having such books in his poffeffion did not burn them without reading, fhould be esteemed rebels, and fuffer accordingly. This, as might be expected, was attended with bloody effects, whole crouds were executed, till even the very magiftrates, who had been, inftrumental in thefe cruelties, at laft refufed to lend their affiftance. It was computed, that during this perfecution, two hundred and fe venty-seven perfons fuffered by fire, befides thofe punished by imprisonment, fines, and confifcations. Among thofe who fuffered by fire were five bishops, twenty-one clergymen, eight lay gentle. men, eighty-four tradefmen, one hundred hufbandmen, fifty-five women, and four children.

All this was terrible; and yet the temporal affairs of the kingdom; did not feem to be more fuccessful. From, Philip's firft arrival in England the queen's pregnancy was talked of; and her own extreme defire that it fhould be true, induced her to favour the report. When Pole, the pope's legate, was first introduced to her, fhe fancied the child, ftirred in her womb; and this her flatterers compared to the leaping of John the baptift in his mother's belly, at the falutation of the Virgin. The catholics were confident that he was pregnant; they were confident that this child would be a fon; they were even, confident that heaven would render him beautiful, vigorous, and witty. But it foon turned out that all their confidence

was

was ill founded; for the queen's fuppofed pregnancy was only the beginning of a dropfy, which the difordered ftate of her health had brought upon her.

This opinion of the queen's pregnancy was all along carefully kept up by Philip, as it was an artifice by which he hoped to extend his authority in the kingdom, but he was miftaken: the English parliament, however lax in their principles at that time, harboured a continual jealoufy against him, and passed repeated acts, by which they ascertained the limits of his power, and confirmed the authority of the queen. Ambition was his only ruling paffion; and the extreme fondness of the queen for his perfon was rather permitted by him than defired. He only wanted to make her incli'nations fubfervient to the purposes of his power; but finding her unable to fatisfy him in that hope, he no longer treated her with any return of affection, but behaved to her with apparent indifference and neglect. At length, tired with her importunities and jealoufies, and finding his authority extremely limited in England, he took hold of the first opportunity to leave her, and went over to the emperor his father in Flanders. In the mean time, the queen's paffion increased in proportion to the coolness with which it was returned. She paffed moft of her time in folitude, where the gave vent to her forrows, either by tears or by wri ting fond epiftles to Philip, who, except when he wanted money, feldom returned her any answer. To fupply his demands upon thefe occafions, fhe took feveral very extorting methods by loans, which were forced from feveral whom he thought moft affectionate to her person, or best able to spare it. She offered the English merchants at Antwerp fourteen per cent. for a loan of thirty thoufand pounds, and yet was mortified by a refufal.

She