Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
the Redeemer himself is an instance.
The above five persons were burnt at two stakes in one fire, singing hosannahs to the
glorified Savior, until the breath of life was extinct. Sir John Norton, who was present, wept
bitterly at their unmerited sufferings.
Archbishop Cranmer
Dr. Thomas Cranmer was descended from an ancient family, and was born at the village
of Arselacton, in the county of Northampton. After the usual school education he was sent to
Cambridge, and was chosen fellow Jesus College. Here he married a gentleman's daughter,
by which he forfeited his fellowship, and became a reader in Buckingham College, placing
his wife at the Dolphin Inn, the landlady of which was a relation of hers, whence arose the
idle report that he was an ostler. His lady shortly after dying in childbed; to his credit he was
re-chosen a fellow of the college before mentioned. In a few years after, he was promoted to
be Divinity Lecturer, and appointed one of the examiners over those who were ripe to become
Bachelors or Doctors in Divinity. It was his principle to judge of their qualifications by the
knowledge they possessed of the Scriptures, rather than of the ancient fathers, and hence many
popish priests were rejected, and others rendered much improved.
He was strongly solicited by Dr. Capon to be one of the fellows on the foundation of
Cardinal Wolsey's college, Oxford, of which he hazarded the refusal. While he continued in
Cambridge, the question of Henry VIII's divorce with Catharine was agitated. At that time,
on account of the plague, Dr. Cranmer removed to the house of a Mr. Cressy, at Waltham
Abbey, whose two sons were then educating under him. The affair of divorce, contrary to the
king's approbation, had remained undecided above two or three years, from the intrigues of
the canonists and civilians, and though the cardinals Campeius and Wolsey were
commissioned from Rome to decide the question, they purposely protracted the sentence.
It happened that Dr. Gardiner (secretary) and Dr. Fox, defenders of the king in the above
suit, came to the house of Mr. Cressy to lodge, while the king removed to Greenwich. At
supper, a conversation ensued with Dr. Cranmer, who suggested that the question whether a
man may marry his brother's wife or not, could be easily and speedily decided by the Word
of God, and this as well in the English courts as in those of any foreign nation. The king,
uneasy at the delay, sent for Dr. Gardiner and Dr. Fox to consult them, regretting that a new
commission must be sent to Rome, and the suit be endlessly protracted. Upon relating to the
king the conversation which had passed on the previous evening with Dr. Cranmer, his
majesty sent for him, and opened the tenderness of conscience upon the near affinity of the
queen. Dr. Cranmer advised that the matter should be referred to the most learned divines of
Cambridge and Oxford, as he was unwilling to meddle in an affair of such weight; but the
king enjoined him to deliver his sentiments in writing, and to repair for that purpose to the
earl of Wiltshire's, who would accommodate him with books,a nd everything requisite for the
occasion.
This Dr. Cranmer immediately did, and in his declaration not only quoted the authority
of the Scriptures, of general councils, and the ancient writers, but maintained that the bishop
of Rome had no authority whatever to dispense with the Word of God. The king asked him if
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