Laymen were treated with greater severity. Bibles, it is known, had been placed in all the churches, and were fastened by chains to the pillars. A crowd of people used to gather about one of these pillars. On one occasion a young man of fine figure, possessed of great zeal, and gifted with a powerful voice, stood near the pillar holding the Bible in his hands, and reading it aloud so that all might hear him. His name was Porter. Bonner sharply rebuked him. 'I trust I have done nothing against the law,' said Porter; and this was true. But the bishop committed him to Newgate. There this young Christian was put in irons; his legs, his arms, and his head were attached to the wall by means of an iron collar. One of his kinsmen, by a gift of money, induced the jailer to deliver him from this punishment; and the favor they accorded him was to place him in the company of thieves and murderers. Porter exhorted them to repent, and taught them the way of salvation. The unhappy man was then cast into the deepest dungeon, was cruelly treated, and loaded with irons. Eight days afterwards he died. Cries and groans had been heard in the night. Some said that he had been subjected to the torture called the devil, a horrible instrument by which, in three or four hours, the back and the whole body were torn in pieces.[387]
CONSPIRACY AGAINST CRANMER.
Meanwhile, a far more formidable blow was preparing. Cromwell, the lay protector of the Reformation, had already been sacrificed; its ecclesiastical protector, Cranmer, must now fall in the same way. This second blow seemed easier than the first. Since the fall of Cromwell, men of the utmost moderation thought 'there was no hope that reformed religion should any one week longer stand.'[388] All those of feeble character sided with the opposite party. Cranmer alone, amongst the bishops and the ecclesiastical commissioners of the king, still upheld evangelical truth. This obstacle in the way of the extension of English Catholicism must be utterly overthrown. A commission of from ten to twelve bishops and other competent men was formed to deliberate as to the means of inducing the primate to make common cause with them. Two bishops, Heath and Skyp, who enjoyed his confidence, 'left him in the plain field.'[389] All these bishops and laymen, proud of their victory, met at Lambeth palace, the abode of Cranmer, in order to prosecute their scheme. After a few words exchanged to no purpose, the two last-named bishops begged the archbishop to go down with them into the garden, and there, as they paced up and down the paths, they plied him with such reasons as they thought most urgent to induce him 'to leave off his overmuch constancy and to incline unto the king's intent.' One or two friends of the primate joined them, and they made use of all the resources of their eloquence and their policy for the purpose of shaking his resolution. But Cranmer was like the river which flowed quietly past his dwelling, which nothing can turn from its course. He even took the offensive. 'You make much ado to have me come to your purpose,' said he; ... 'beware, I say, what you do. There is but one truth in our articles to be concluded upon, which if you do hide from his highness ... and then when the truth can not be hidden from him, his highness shall perceive how that you have dealt colorably with him ... he will never after trust and credit you.... As you are both my friends, so therefore I will you to beware thereof in time, and discharge your consciences in maintenance of the truth.'[390]
CHARGES AGAINST HIM.
This was far from pacifying the bishops. Doctor London and other agents of the party which looked up to Gardiner as its head, took in hand to go over the diocese of the archbishop with a view to collecting all the sayings and all the facts, true or false, which they might turn to account as weapons against him. In one place a conversation was reported to them; in another a sermon was denounced; elsewhere neglected ritual was talked about. 'Three of the preachers of the cathedral church,' they were told, namely, Ridley, Drum and Scory, 'are attacking the ceremonies of the church.' Some of the canons, opponents of the primate, brought various charges against him, and strove to depict his marriage in the most repulsive colors. Sir John Gostwick, whose accounts as treasurer of war and of the court were not correct, accused Cranmer before the parliament of being the pastor of heretics. All these grievances were set forth in a memorial which was presented to the king. At the same time, the most influential members of the privy council declared to the king that the realm was infested with heresies; that thereby 'horrible commotions and uproars' might spring up, as had been the case in Germany; and that these calamities must be chiefly imputed to the archbishop of Canterbury, who both by his own preaching and that of his chaplains had filled England with pernicious doctrines. 'Who is his accuser?' said the king. The lords replied: 'Forasmuch as Cranmer is a councillor, no man durst take upon him to accuse him. But if it please your highness to commit him to the Tower for a time, there would be accusations and proofs enough against him.' 'Well then,' said the king, 'I grant you leave to commit him to-morrow to the Tower for his trial.' The enemies of the archbishop and of the Reformation went away well content.[391]
Meanwhile, Henry VIII. began to reflect on the answer which he had given to his councillors. There is nothing to show that it was not made in earnest; but he foresaw that Cranmer's death would leave an awkward void. When Cranmer was gone, how should he maintain the conflict with the pope and the papists, with whom he had no mind to be reconciled? The primate's character and services came back to his memory. Time was passing. At midnight the king, unable to sleep, sent for Sir Antony Denny and said to him, 'Go to Lambeth and command the archbishop to come forthwith to the court.' Henry then in a state of excitement, began to walk about in one of the corridors of the palace, awaiting the arrival of Cranmer. At length the primate entered and the king said to him: 'Ah, my lord of Canterbury, I can tell you news.... It is determined by me and the council, that you to-morrow at nine o'clock shall be committed to the Tower, for that you and your chaplains (as information is given us) have taught and preached, and thereby sown within the realm such a number of execrable heresies, that it is feared the whole realm being infected with them no small contentions and commotions will rise thereby amongst my subjects, ... and therefore the council have requested me, for the trial of this matter, to suffer them to commit you to the Tower.'
THE KING'S INTERVENTION.
The story of Cromwell was to be repeated, and this was the first step. Nevertheless, Cranmer did not utter a word of opposition or supplication. Kneeling down before the king, according to his custom, he said: 'I am content, if it please your grace, with all my heart to go thither at your highness's commandment, and I most humbly thank your majesty that I may come to my trial, for there be that have many ways slandered me, and now this way I hope to try myself not worthy of such a report.' The king, touched by his uprightness, said: 'Oh Lord, what manner of man be you! What simplicity is in you!... Do you not know... how many great enemies you have? Do you consider what an easy thing it is to procure three or four false knaves to witness against you? Think you to have better luck that way than Christ your master had? I see it, you will run headlong to your undoing, if I would suffer you. Your enemies shall not so prevail against you, for I have otherwise devised with myself to keep you out of their hands. Yet, notwithstanding, to-morrow when the council shall sit and send for you, resort unto them; and if in charging you with this matter they do commit you to the Tower, require of them... that you may have your accusers brought before them and that you may answer their accusations.... If no entreaty or reasonable request will serve, then deliver unto them this ring'—the king at the same time delivered his ring to the archbishop—'and say unto them: If there be no remedy, my lords, but that I must needs go to the Tower, then I revoke my cause from you and appeal to the king's own person by this his token to you all. So soon as they shall see this my ring, they know it so well, that they shall understand that I have resumed the whole cause into mine own hands.' The archbishop was so much moved by the king's kindness that he 'had much ado to forbear tears.' 'Well,' said the king, 'go your ways, my lord, and do as I have bidden you.'[392] The archbishop bent his knee in expression of his gratitude, and taking leave of the king returned to Lambeth before day.
On the morrow, about nine o'clock, the council sent an usher of the palace to summon the archbishop. He set out forthwith and presented himself at the door of the council chamber. But his colleagues, glad to complete the work which they had begun by putting the vicegerent to death, were not content with sending the primate to the scaffold; but were determined to subject Cranmer to various humiliations before the final catastrophe. The archbishop could not be let in, but was compelled to wait there among the pages, lackeys, and other serving-men. Doctor Butts, the king's physician, happening to pass through the room, and observing how the archbishop was treated, went to the king and said: 'My lord of Canterbury, if it please your grace, is well promoted; for now he is become a lackey or a serving-man, for yonder he standeth this half hour without the council-chamber door amongst them.' 'It is not so,' said the king, 'I trow, nor the council hath not so little discretion as to use the metropolitan of the realm in that sort, especially being one of their own number; but let them alone, and we shall hear more soon.'