Robin Tremayne: A Story of the Marian PersecutionHolt, Emily Sarah
History
Robin Tremayne: A Story of the Marian Persecution
Holt, Emily Sarah
Great Britain -- Church history -- 16th century -- Fiction; Historical fiction
"It was a foul and rainy day," he went on; "so Austin told me. My Lord
Archbishop was led from Bocardo to Saint Mary Church, betwixt two friars
that mumbled certain Psalms, and at the church door they began the _Nunc
Dimittis_. My Lord was ill-favouredly clad, in a bare and ragged gown,
and an old square cap. Dr Cole preached, and more than twenty times
during the sermon, the Archbishop was seen to have the water in his
eyes. Then they did desire him to get up into the pulpit, and openly to
retract his preaching, and show all the people that he was become a true
Catholic."
"And did he that?"
"`Fair and softly go far in a day.' Have a little patience, I pray you.
Well, he spake a long season, first, against the world; _item_, unto
obedience; _item_, to brotherly love; _item_, against money-love; and
lastly, he said over the Creed. `And now (quoth he) I come to the great
thing which so much troubleth my conscience.' He said his hand had
offended against God, in signing his recantation; and when he should
come to the fire, it should be first burned. And so he spake bravely,
renouncing the Pope as Antichrist, and Christ's enemy and his, and that
he utterly abhorred all his false doctrine. And touching the Sacrament,
the doctrine `which (saith he) I have taught in my book is true, and
will stand at the last day before the judgment of God, when the
Papistical doctrine contrary thereto shall be ashamed to show her head.'
"Well, like Paul, they gave him audience unto this word, and then cried
out, Away with such a fellow from the earth! They cried that he was
false, and dissembled. `Ah, my masters!' quoth our good Archbishop, `do
you take it so? Always since I lived hitherto, I have been a hater of
falsehood, and a lover of simplicity, and never before this time have I
dissembled.' The water stood in his eyes; and he would have spoken more
against the Pope and the mass, but Cole crieth out, `Stop the heretic's
mouth! Take him away!' Then the friars set upon him, and pulled him
down out of the pulpit, and so hurried him away to the place where, five
months before him, Dr Ridley had died.
"Then there he knelt and prayed, and made him, ready; and stood on the
stones robed in his long white shirt, barefoot, and his head (whenas his
cap were off) without one hair thereon, though his beard was long and
thick. Then (he giving the hand to such as he knew about the stake),
they bound the chain around him, and lit the fire. And until it was
full burned, he held forth his right hand in the fire, crying ever and
anon, `This unworthy right hand!' At last he saith, `Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit!' And so he yielded it up to Him. But afterward,
when his ashes were cold, amid the charred faggots his heart was found
entire.
"So passed that great heart away from us, that perchance we knew not
fully how to prize. Beshrew my weak eyes! I am but a fool; yet 'tis
hard to think that we shall see his reverend countenance no more."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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