Yet this same self-contained Sir Thomas More did in his after controversies with Tyndale use such talk of him--about his “whyning and biting and licking and tumbling in the myre,” and “rubbing himself in puddles of dirt,”--as were like anything but the courtesies of Utopia. Indeed it is to be feared that theologic discussion does not greatly provoke gentleness of speech, in any time; it is a very grindstone to put men’s wits to sharpened edges. But More was a most honest man withal;--fearless in advocacy of his own opinions; eloquent, self-sacrificing--a tender father and husband--master of a rich English speech (his _Utopia_ was written in Latin, but translated many times into English, and most languages of Continental Europe), learned in the classics--a man to be remembered as one of the greatest of Henry VIII.’s time; a Romanist, at a date when honestest men doubted if it were worthiest to be a King’s man or a Pope’s man;--not yielding to his royal master in points of religious scruple, and with a lofty obstinacy in what he counted well doing, going to the scaffold, with as serene a step as he had ever put to his walks in the pleasant gardens of Chelsea. _Cranmer, Latimer, Knox, and Others._ A much nobler figure is this, to my mind, than that of Cranmer,[73] who appears in such picturesque lights in the drama of Henry VIII.--who gave adhesion to royal wishes for divorce upon divorce; who always colored his religious allegiances with the colors of the King; who was a scholar indeed--learned, eloquent; who wrought well, as it proved, for the reformed faith; but who wilted under the fierce heats of trial; would have sought the good will of the blood-thirsty Mary; but who gave even to his subserviencies a half-tone that brought distrust, and so--finally--the fate of that quasi-martyrdom which has redeemed his memory. He stands very grandly in his robes upon the memorial cross at Oxford: and he has an even more august presence in the final scene of Shakespeare’s play, where amidst all churchly and courtly pomp, he christened the infant--who was to become the Royal Elizabeth, and says to the assembled dignitaries: “This royal infant Tho’ in her cradle, yet now promises Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, Which time will bring to ripeness: She shall be A pattern to all princes living with her, And all that shall succeed her. Truth shall nurse her, Holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her: She shall be loved and feared. A most unspotted lily shall she pass To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her.”[74]