Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/562

542 persons: Cardmaker and Bradford alone were in any way celebrated: and the greater prisoners, the three bishops at Oxford, the Court had paused upon—not from mercy—their deaths had been long determined on; but Philip, perhaps, was tender of his person; their execution might occasion disturbances; and he and his suite might be the first objects on which the popular indignation might expend itself. Philip, however, had placed the sea between himself and danger, and if this was the cause of the hesitation, the work could now go forward.

A commission was appointed by Pole in September, consisting of Brookes, Bishop of Gloucester; Holyman, Bishop of Bristol; and White, Bishop of Lincoln; to try Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, for obstinate heresy. The first trial had been irregular; the country was then unreconciled. The sentence which had been passed therefore was treated as non-existent, and the tedious forms of the Papacy continued still to throw a shield round the Archbishop.

On Saturday, the 7th September, the commissioners took their places under the altar of St Mary's Church, at Oxford. The Bishop of Gloucester sat as president, Doctors Story and Martin appeared as proctors for the Queen, and Cranmer was brought in under the custody of the city guard, in a black gown and leaning on a stick.

'Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury,' cried an officer