The Children's Book of LondonMitton, G. E. (Geraldine Edith)
History
The Children's Book of London
Mitton, G. E. (Geraldine Edith)
London (England) -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Sir Thomas More knew quite well what this meant, that it was only a plan
to get hold of him, for he could not sign what he did not think. It was
on a spring morning that he left his house to go down to Lambeth Palace,
where the paper was lying ready to be signed, and he knew quite well
that it was very likely he should never come back; and he was quite
right: he never did come back. He said good-bye to his children and
stepped into his barge. When he got to Lambeth he found that all the men
there assembled had signed except one called Bishop Fisher. Now, Fisher
and More were Roman Catholics; that is to say, that they still believed
in the power of the Pope--and they could not sign the paper without
signing what they thought a lie. They had been taught this, and so they
believed it, and they acted bravely according to their own consciences.
More was given five days to think it over, but he did not go back to
Chelsea, and at the end of five days he was taken to the Tower with old
Bishop Fisher.
When he landed at the Traitor's Gate, of which you shall hear more
presently, the porter asked him for his outside clothes, according to a
very bad custom of the time, which allowed the porters to rob the
prisoners thus. More gave him his cap, but the man was not content with
that, and he had to give his outside coat as well.
It was just the beginning of the summer when the two men went to the
Tower, and they were put in separate cells. At first they were not
treated badly, and were allowed pens and paper to write letters; but
afterwards these were taken from them, and More had to write his letters
with a coal. However, he had one great consolation--his daughter was
sometimes allowed to come to see him. Perhaps the King thought that she
would persuade him to give in and sign the paper so that he might go
back home.
When the summer had passed and the weather grew colder, More and Fisher
both suffered from the cold, but especially poor old Bishop Fisher,
whose clothes were in rags. And it was not until a whole year after they
had been sent to the Tower that they were brought up to be tried. More
was taken on foot through the streets to Westminster, a very long
way--more than three miles. He was dressed in common clothes and
surrounded by a guard. Then he was tried at Westminster, and accused of
treason in not acknowledging the King's authority, but the real reason
was that he would not say the King was right in marrying Anne Boleyn.
He was condemned to death. There was a custom in those days that when a
man was condemned to death the executioner walked out of the
judgment-hall before the prisoner with the sharp edge of the axe turned
backwards towards him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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