IMPOSSIBILITIES OF HISTORY.
"That unworthy hand."
I am not aware that the fact of Cranmer's holding his right hand in the flames till it was consumed has been questioned. Fox says:
"He stretched forth his right hand into the flames, and there held it so stedfast that all the people might see it burnt to a coal before his body was touched."—P. 927. ed. Milner, London, 1837, 8vo.
Or, as the passage is given in the last edition,—
"And when the wood was kindled, and the fire began to burn near him, he put his right hand into the flame, which he held so stedfast and immovable (saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face), that all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched."—Acts and Monuments, ed. 1839, vol. viii. p. 90.
Burnet is more circumstantial:
"When he came to the stake he prayed, and then undressed himself: and being tied to it, as the fire was kindling, he stretched forth his right hand towards the flame, never moving it, save that once he wiped his face with it, till it was burnt away, which was consumed before the fire reached his body. He expressed no disorder from the pain he was in; sometimes saying, 'That unworthy hand;' and oft crying out, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' He was soon after quite burnt."—Hist. of the Reformation, vol. iii. p. 429., ed. 1825.
Hume says:
"He stretched out his hand, and, without betraying either by his countenance or motions the least sign of weakness, or even feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed."—Hume, vol. iv. p. 476.
It is probable that Hume believed this, for while Burnet states positively as a fact, though only inferentially as a miracle, that "the heart was found entire and unconsumed among the ashes," Hume says, "it was pretended that his heart," &c.
I am not about to discuss the character of Cranmer: a timid man might have been roused under such circumstances into attempting to do what it is said he did. The laws of physiology and combustion show that he could not have gone beyond the attempt. If a furnace were so constructed, that a man might hold his hand in the flame without burning his body, the shock to the nervous system would deprive him of all command over muscular action before the skin could be "entirely consumed." If the hand were chained over the fire, the shock would produce death.
In this case the fire was unconfined. Whoever has seen the effect of flame in the open air, must know that the vast quantity sufficient entirely to consume a human hand, must have destroyed the life of its owner; though, from a peculiar disposition of the wood, the vital parts might have been protected.
The entire story is utterly impossible. May we, guided by the words "as the fire was kindling," believe that he then thrust his right hand into the flame—a practice I believe not unusual with our martyrs, and peculiarly suitable to him—and class the "holding it till consumed" with the whole and unconsumed heart?
I may observe that in the accounts of martyrdoms little investigation was made as to what was possible. Burnet, describing Hooper's execution, says, "one of his hands fell off before he died, with the other he continued to knock on his breast some time after." This, I have high medical authority for saying, could not be.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.