Fryth On The Real Presence.

The next morning he appeared before the bishops and peers appointed to examine him. Cranmer and Lord Chancellor Audley desired his acquittal; but some of the other judges were men without pity.

The examination began:

‘Do you believe,’ they said, ‘that the sacrament of the altar is or is not the real body of Christ?’ Fryth answered, simply and firmly: ‘I believe that the bread is the body of Christ in that it is broken, and thus teaches us that the body of Christ was to be broken and delivered unto death to redeem us from our iniquities. I believe the bread is the body of Christ in that it is distributed, and thus teaches us that the body of Christ and the fruits of his passion are distributed unto all faithful people. I believe that the bread is the body of Christ so far as it is received, and thus it teaches us that even as the outward man receiveth the sacrament with his teeth and mouth, so doth the inward man truly receive through faith the body of Christ and the fruits of his passion.’

The judges were not satisfied: they wanted a formal and complete retraction. ‘Do you not think,’ asked one of them, ‘that the natural body of Christ, his flesh, blood, and bones, are contained under the sacrament and are there present without any figure of speech?’—‘No,’ he answered; ‘I do not think so;’ adding with much humility and charity: ‘notwithstanding I would not have that any should count my saying to be an article of faith. For even as I say, that you ought not to make any necessary article of the faith of your part; so I say again, that we make no necessary article of the faith of our part, but leave it indifferent for all men to judge therein, as God shall open their hearts, and no side to condemn or despise the other, but to nourish in all things brotherly love, and to bear one another’s infirmities.’[[323]]

The commissioners then undertook to convince Fryth of the truth of transubstantiation; but he quoted Scripture, St. Augustine and Chrysostom, and eloquently defended the doctrine of the spiritual eating. The court rose. Cranmer had been moved, although he was still under the influence of Luther’s teaching.[[324]] ‘The man spoke admirably,’ he said to Dr. Heath as they went out, ‘and yet in my opinion he is wrong.’ Not many years later he devoted one of the most important of his writings to an explanation of the doctrine now professed by the young reformer; it may be that Fryth’s words had begun to shake him.

Full of love for him, Cranmer desired to save him. Four times during the course of the examination he sent for Fryth and conversed with him privately,[[325]] always asserting the Lutheran opinion. Fryth offered to maintain his doctrine in a public discussion against any one who was willing to attack it, but nobody accepted his challenge.[[326]] Cranmer, distressed at seeing all his efforts useless, found there was nothing more for him to do; the cause was transferred to the ordinary, the Bishop of London, and on the 17th of June the prisoner was once more committed to the Tower. The bishop selected as his assessors for the trial, Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, and Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester: there were no severer judges to be found on the episcopal bench. At Cambridge, Fryth had been the most distinguished pupil of the clever and ambitious Gardiner; but this, instead of exciting the compassion of that hard man, did but increase his anger. ‘Fryth and his friends,’ he said, ‘are villains, blasphemers, and limbs of the devil.’[[327]]

Fryth Sentenced To Death.

On the 20th of June, Fryth was taken to St. Paul’s before the three bishops, and though of a humble disposition and almost timid character, he answered boldly. A clerk took down all his replies, and Fryth, snatching up the pen, wrote: ‘I, Fryth think thus. Thus have I spoken, written, defended, affirmed, and published in my writings.’[[328]] The bishops having asked him if he would retract his errors, Fryth replied: ‘Let justice have its course and the sentence be pronounced.’ Stokesley did not keep him waiting long. ‘Not willing that thou, Fryth, who art wicked,’ he said, ‘shouldst become more wicked, and infect the Lord’s flock with thy heresies, we declare thee excommunicate and cast out from the Church, and leave thee unto the secular powers, most earnestly requiring them in the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ that thy execution and punishment be not too extreme, nor yet the gentleness too much mitigated.’[[329]]

Fryth was taken to Newgate and shut up in a dark cell, where he was bound with chains on the hands and feet as heavy as he could bear, and round his neck was a collar of iron, which fastened him to a post, so that he could neither stand upright nor sit down. Truly the ‘gentleness’ was not ‘too much mitigated.’ His charity never failed him. ‘I am going to die,’ he said, ‘but I condemn neither those who follow Luther nor those who follow Œcolampadius, since both reject transubstantiation.’[[330]] A young mechanic of twenty-four, Andrew Hewet by name, was placed in his cell. Fryth asked him for what crime he was sent to prison. ‘The bishops,’ he replied, ‘asked me what I thought of the sacrament, and I answered, “I think as Fryth does.” Then one of them smiled, and the Bishop of London said: “Why Fryth is a heretic, and already condemned to be burnt, and if you do not retract your opinion you shall be burnt with him.” “Very well,” I answered, “I am content.”[[331]] So they sent me here to be burnt along with you.’