to make them ready, which they with all meekness obeyed. Master Ridley took his gown and his tippet, and gave them to his brother-in-law, Master Shepside, who all his time of imprisonment, although he might not be suffered to come to him, lay there, at his own charges, to provide him necessaries, which, from time to time, he sent him by the serjeant that kept him. Some other of his apparel that was little worth he gave away: others the bailiffs took. He gave away besides divers other small things to gentlemen standing by, and divers of them pitifully weeping; as to Sir Henry Lee, he gave a new groat, and to divers of my lord Williams's gentlemen, some napkins, some nutmegs, and races of ginger, his dial and such other things as he had about him to every one that stood next him. Some plucked the points of his hose. Happy was he that might get a rag of him *.

Master Latimer gave nothing, but very quietly suffered his keeper to pull off his hose, and other array, which to look unto was very simple: and being stripped unto his shroud, he seemed as comely a person to them that were there present, as one should lightly see; and whereas in his clothes, he appeared a withered and crooked silly old man, he now stood, bolt upright, as comely a father as one might lightly behold.

Then Master Ridley, standing as yet in his truss, said to his brother," It were better for me to go in my truss still?” "No" quoth his brother," it will put you to more pain, and the truss will do a poor man good." Whereunto Master Ridley said, "Be it, in the name of God," and so unlaced himself. Then, being in his shirt, he held up his hands, and said, "Oh heavenly Father, I give unto thee most hearty thanks, for that thou hast called me to be a professor of thee, even unto death. I beseech thee, Lord God, take mercy upon this realm of England, and deliver the same from all her enemies."

Then the smith took a chain of iron, and brought the

*To such a length did popish malice go that the distribution of these little memorials was inveighed against as proof of spiritual pride on the part of the martyr, and of superstition on that of the persons who obtained them.

same about both Doctor Ridley's and Master Latimer's middles and as he was knocking in a staple, Doctor Ridley took the chain in his hand, and shaked the same, for it did gird in his belly, and looking aside to the smith, said, "Good fellow, knock it in hard: for the flesh will have its course." Then his brother did bring him gunpowder in a bag, and would have tied the same about his neck. Master Ridley asked what it was. His brother said gunpowder. "Then," said he, "I take it to be sent of God; therefore I will receive it as sent of him. And have you any," said he, "for my brother," meaning Master Latimer. "Yea, Sir, that I have," quoth his brother. "Then give it unto him," said he, "betime, lest ye come too late." So his brother went and carried of the same gunpowder unto Master Latimer*.

In the mean time, Doctor Ridley spake unto my lord Williams, and said, "My lord, I must be a suitor unto your lordship in the behalf of divers poor men, and specially in the cause of my poor sister. I have made a supplication to the queen's majesty in their behalfs. I beseech your lordship, for Christ's sake, to be a mean to her grace for them. My brother here hath the supplication, and will resort to your lordship to certify you thereof. There is nothing in all the world that troubleth my conscience, (I praise God) this only excepted. Whiles I was in the see of London, divers poor men took leases of me, and agreed with me for the same. Now I hear say the bishop that now occupieth the same room, will not allow my grants unto them made, but contrary unto all law and conscience, hath taken from them their livings, and will not suffer them to enjoy the same. I

* Even this justifiable mode of shortening the dreadful moments of the martyrs has been made use of to vilify the character of the sufferers, and to throw an odium on the cause for which they laid down their lives. Thomas Dorman, a Romish exile, who had been fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, writing against bishop Jewell, in 1564, says that he witnessed the execution of Ridley and Latimer, and saw the gunpowder applied to put them out of their misery, "a practice," he then adds, with bitter irony, "that agreed not with the martyrdom of Polycarp." Wood calls this inhuman wretch, who after the lapse of near twenty years, exulted with savage ferocity over the bloody scene which his eyes had beheld, "a learned and pious man!"-Athen. Oxon. i. 189,

beseech you, my lord, be a mean for them, you shall do a good deed, and God will reward you *."

Then they brought a fagot kindled with fire, and laid the same down at Doctor Ridley's feet; to whom Master Latimer spake in this manner: "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."

And so the fire being given unto them, when Doctor Ridley saw the fire flaming up towards him, he cried with a wonderful loud voice, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum: Domine, recipe spiritum meum; and after repeated this latter part often in English, "Lord, Lord, receive my spirit." Master Latimer, crying as vehemently on the other side, "Oh, Father of Heaven, receive my soul," who received the flame, as it were embracing of it. After that he had stroked his face with his hands, and, as it were, bathed them a little in the fire, he soon died, as it appeared, with very little pain, or none. And thus much concerning the end of this old and blessed servant of God, Master Latimer, for whose laborious travels, fruitful life, and constant death, the whole realm hath cause to give great thanks to Almighty God.

In addition to this account, by Fox, it may be proper to give that of Austin Bernher, who, there is every reason to suppose, was present at the martyrdom of his master. "In the utmost extremity," says he, "the Lord graciously assisted him; for when he stood at the stake, without Bocardo gate, at Oxford, and the tormentors were about to set fire upon him, and that most reverend father, Doctor Ridley, he lifted up his eyes towards heaven, with a most amiable and comfortable countenance, saying these words: Fidelis est Deus, qui non sinit nos tentari supra id quod possumus, God is faithful, which doth not suffer us to be tempted above our strength;' and so afterward, by and by, shed his blood in the cause of Christ, the which blood ran

Thus it appears that the dishonesty of Bonner was equal to his cruelty, for a greater piece of knavery could not well be than that of robbing men of the property which they had obtained by purchase from his predecessor, who had a legal right to grant those leases.

out of his heart in such abundance, that all those present did marvel to see the most part of the blood so to be gathered to his heart, and with such violence to gush out, his body being opened by the force of the fire."

Thus the sufferings of this aged saint, however painful, were but short and light, when compared with those of his brother martyr, the relation of whose torments cannot be read without horror.

"Master Ridley," says Fox, "by reason of the evil making of the fire unto him, because the wooden fagots were laid about the goss, and over high built, the fire burned first, beneath, being kept down by the wood, which, when he felt, he desired them, for Christ's sake, to let the fire come unto him, which, when his brother-in-law heard, but not well understood, intending to rid him out of his pain, as one in such sorrow, not well advised what he did, heaped fagots upon him, so that he clean covered him, which made the fire more vehement beneath, that it burned clean all his nether parts, before it once touched the upper, and that made him leap up and down, under the fagots, and often desire them to let the fire come unto him, saying, ' I cannot burn,' which indeed appeared well for after his legs were consumed, by reason of his struggling through the pain, whereof he had no release but only his contentation in God, he shewed that side towards us clean, shirt and all, untouched with the flame. Yet, in all this torment, he forgot not to call unto God, still having in his mouth, Lord, have mercy upon me,' intermingling this cry, Let the fire come unto me, I cannot burn.' In which pains he laboured, till one of the standers-by, with his bill, pulled off the fagots above, and where he saw the fire blaze up, he wrested himself unto that side. And when the flame touched the gunpowder, he was seen to stir no more, but turned on the other side, falling down at Master Latimer's feet; which some said happened by reason that the chain loosened; others said that he fell over the chain, by reason of the poise of his body, and the weakness of the nether limbs. Some said, that before he was like to fall from the stake, he desired them to hold him to it with their bills. Howsoever it was, surely it moved hundreds to

tears in beholding this horrible sight. For I think there was none, that had not clean exiled all humanity and mercy, which would not have lamented to behold the fury of the fire so to rage in their bodies. Signs there were of sorrow on every side. Some took it grievously to see their deaths, whose lives they held full dear. Some pitied their persons that thought their souls had no need thereof. But whoso considered their preferments in times past, the places of honour that they had sometime occupied in this commonwealth, the favour they were in with their princes, and the opinion of learning they had, could not choose but sorrow with tears, to see so great dignity, honour, and estimation, so necessary members sometime accounted, so many godly virtues, the study of so many years, such excellent learning to be put into the fire and consumed in one moment. Well, dead they are, and the reward of this world they have already. What reward remaineth for them in heaven, the day of the Lord's glory when he cometh with his saints, shall shortly I trust declare."

The dying declaration of Latimer was verified, for the immolation of him and his fellow martyr, instead of extinguishing proved the means of spreading the light of the gospel, both in England and abroad, so that to use the words of Tertullian, the flames with which they were enveloped were to them robes of glory, and the funeral pyre was their triumphal chariot.

One convert we know to have been made by this terrifically magnificent spectacle, and this was Mr. Julius Palmer, fellow of Magdalen College. He had been up to the moment of the present sacrifice, a most rigid papist, insomuch that in the late reign he was deprived of his fellowship on account of his zealous opposition to the reformed liturgy. During the disputations between the bishops and the popish doctors, he still remained unmoved, but when he saw the constancy and heard the dying words of the martyrs, his heart melted, the tears flowed from his eyes, the mist of prejudice was dispelled, and within a few months afterwards he sealed the same truth with his own blood at the stake.

There is reason to think also that some of the Spanish