On the 14th of June, 1535, Thomas Bedell and other officers of justice proceeded to the Tower. The bishop would give no answer to the demand that he should recognize the king as head of the Church. Sir Thomas More, when questioned in his turn, replied: 'My only study is to meditate on Christ's passion.'[127] 'Do you acknowledge the king as supreme head of the Church?' asked Bedell. 'The royal supremacy is established by law.'—'That law is a two-edged sword,' returned the ex-chancellor. 'If I accept it, it kills my soul; if I reject it, it kills my body.'[128] Three days later the bishop was condemned to be beheaded. When the order for his execution arrived, the prisoner was asleep: they respected his slumber. At five o'clock the next morning, 22nd of June, 1535, Kingston entering his cell, aroused him and told him that it was the king's good pleasure he should be executed that morning. 'I most humbly thank his Majesty,' said the old man, 'that he is pleased to relieve me from all the affairs of this world. Grant me only an hour or two more, for I slept very badly last night.' Then turning towards the wall, he fell asleep again. Between seven and eight o'clock he called his servant, took off the hair-shirt which he wore next his skin to mortify the flesh, and gave it to the man. 'Let no one see it,' he said. 'And now bring me my best clothes.'—'My lord,' said the astonished servant, 'does not your lordship know that in two hours you will take them off never to put them on again?'—'Exactly so,' answered Fisher; 'this is my wedding-day, and I ought to dress as if for a holiday.'[129] [Sidenote: FISHER'S CHRISTIAN DEATH.] At nine o'clock the lieutenant appeared. The old man took up his New Testament, made the sign of the cross, and left the cell. He was tall, being six feet high, but his body was bent with age, and his weakness so great that he could hardly get down the stairs. He was placed in an arm-chair. When the porters stopped near the gate of the Tower to know if the sheriffs were ready, Fisher stood up, and leaning against the wall opened his Testament, and lifting his eyes to heaven, he said: 'O Lord! I open it for the last time. Grant that I may find some word of comfort to the end that I may glorify thee in my last hour.' The first words he saw were these: _And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent_.[130] Fisher closed the book and said: 'That will do. Here is learning enough to last me to my life's end.'[131]