Gardiner, whatever may have been his personal wishes, also yielded to the pressure put upon him; and by his dexterity and brilliant talents made himself of inestimable value to the Queen, and by so doing secured for himself supremacy in the Council, and also kept away other pretendants, especially Cardinal Pole, who was a formidable rival.
But if, as the writers who view him favourably assert, the Bishop of Winchester was thus impelled by the temper of his Royal mistress, and by a series of circumstances beyond his control, to acquiesce in actions of which he disapproved, what must be thought of the conscience of a man, who as statesman and Churchman permitted tortures to be inflicted, and executions to take place, that have made the reign of Mary a by-word of bloodshed and cruelty, and have covered the memories of this monarch and her Ministers with indelible disgrace?
The land was deluged in blood. The smoke of burning human beings darkened the air, as it rose in hideous sacrifice to the Almighty Father, and the shrieks of tortured victims, the prayers of martyrs at the stake, ascended daily to heaven in one great agonised cry for mercy—and for vengeance.
For a time England seemed as one stunned by the frequency of such unusual and horrible spectacles, but by degrees the mighty spirit of the nation was roused.
Laymen and Churchmen alike shook off their lethargy. The degrading cruelties of the reign of Catholic Mary placed Protestant Elizabeth more firmly on the throne; and when James II. struggled vainly to restore his Church to England, it was doubtless the remembrance of such scenes that induced many staunch Englishmen to welcome with enthusiasm the advent of the foreign Prince of Orange, and his English wife.
Fox, who describes Gardiner as a monster delighting in torture and blood, declares that the Bishop was stricken down by dreadful and deadly disease, the very day on which he had consigned Bishops Latimer and Ridley to the flames at Oxford.
This historian relates that the Duke of Norfolk came to sup at Winchester House, but that Gardiner would not sit down at table until the messenger from Oxford had arrived to say the sacrifice of the martyrs had been consummated.
As he joyed over the narrative of their sufferings, the hand of Heaven fell heavily upon him, and he died soon afterwards in inexpressible anguish of body and mind.
Other biographers say but little of the malady to which he succumbed, but Fox's account is clearly incorrect in many particulars. The Duke of Norfolk Fox alludes to, had been dead some thirteen months, and Gardiner made a speech in Parliament more than a week after the execution of these Bishops.
It is also a disputed point whether Gardiner really exhibited vindictive eagerness in bringing about the deaths of Latimer and Ridley, or whether, as some say, he endeavoured to save them, straining indeed his authority by offering Latimer a pardon without the knowledge of the Queen or the Council.