CRANMER'S MARTYRDOM.
(Vol. ix., p. 392.)
The long-received account of a very striking act in the martyrdom of Cranmer is declared to involve an "impossibility." The question is an important one in various ways, for it involves moral and religious, as well as literary and physiological, considerations of deep interest; but as I think the pages of "N. & Q." not the most appropriate vehicle for discussion on the former heads, I shall pass them over at present with a mere expression of regret that such a subject should have been so mooted there. With reference, then, to the literary evidence in favour of the fact, that the noble martyr voluntarily put forth his hand into the hottest part of the fire which was raging about him, and burnt it first, the historians quoted are entirely agreed, differing as they do only in such details as might seem rather to imply independent testimony than discrepant authority. But the action is declared to be "utterly impossible, because," &c. Why beg the question in this way? "Because," says H. B. C., "the laws of physiology and combustion show that he could not have gone beyond the attempt;" adding, "If the hand were chained over the fire, the shock would produce death." Leaving the hypothetical reasoning in both cases to go for what it is worth, it would surely be easy to produce facts of almost every week from the evidence given in coroners' inquests, in which persons have had their limbs burnt off—to say nothing of farther injury—without the shock "producing death." The only question then which I think can fairly arise, is, whether a person in Cranmer's position could voluntarily endure that amount of mutilation by fire which many others have accidentally suffered? This may be matter of opinion, but I have no doubt, and I suppose no truly Christian philosopher will have any, that the man who has faith to "give his body to be burned," and to endure heroically such a form of martyrdom, would be quite able to do what is attributed to Cranmer, and to Hooper too, "high medical authority" to the contrary notwithstanding. I might, indeed, adduce what might be called "high medical authority" for my view, i. e. the historical evidence of the fact, but I think the bandying of opinions on such a subject undesirable. It would be more to the point, especially if there really existed any ground for "historic doubt" on the subject, or if there was any good reason for creating one, to cite cotemporaneous evidence against that usually received. With respect to the heart of the martyr being "entire and unconsumed among the ashes," I must be permitted to say that, neither on physiological nor other grounds, does even this alleged fact, taken in its plain and obvious meaning, strike me as forming one of the "impossibilities of history."
J. H.
Rotherfield.
Your correspondent H. B. C. doubts the possibility of the story about Cranmer's hand, and says that "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." Now, this last assertion I doubt. The following is an extract from the account of Ravaillac's execution, given with wonderfully minute details by an eye-witness, and published in Cimber's Archives Curieux de l'Histoire de France, vol. xv. p. 103.:
"On le couche sur l'eschaffaut, on attache les chevaux aux mains et aux pieds. Sa main droite percée d'un cousteau fut bruslée à feu de souphre. Ce misérable, pour veoir comme ceste exécrable main rotissoit, eut le courage de hausser la teste et de la secouer pour abattre une étincelle de feu qui se prenoit à sa barbe."
So far was this from killing him that he was torn with red-hot pincers, had melted lead, &c. poured into his wounds, and he was then "longuement tiré, retiré, et promené de tous costez" by four horses:
"S'il y eut quelque pause, ce ne fut que pour donner temps au bourreau de respirer, au patient de se sentir mourir, aux théologiens de l'exhorter à dire la vérité."
And still:
"Sa vie estoit forte et vigoureuse; telle que retirant une fois une des jambes, il arresta le cheval qui le tiroit."
I fear your correspondent underrates the power of the human body in enduring torture. I have seen a similar account of the execution of Damiens, with which I will not shock your readers. The subject is a revolting one, but the truth ought to be known, as it is (most humanely, I fully believe) questioned.
G. W. R.
Oxford and Cambridge Club.