Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/598

578 haVe known. Thirlby said sadly that the appeal could hot be received; his orders were absolute to proceed.

The robes were stripped off in the usual way. The thin hair was clipped. Bonner with his own hands scraped the finger points which had been touched with the oil of consecration; 'Now are you lord no longer,' he said, when the ceremony was finished. 'All this needed not,' Cranmer answered; 'I had myself done with this gear long ago.'

He was led off in a beadle's threadbare gown, and a tradesman's cap; and here for some important hours authentic account of him is lost. What he did, what he said, what Was done or what was said to him, is known only in its results, or in Protestant tradition. Tradition said that he was taken from the cathedral to the house of the Dean of Christ Church, where he was delicately entertained, and worked upon with smooth words, and promises of life. 'The noblemen,' he was told, 'bare him good-will; he was still strong, and might live many years, why should he cut them short?' The story may contain some elements of truth. But the same evening, certainly, he was again in his cell; and among the attempts to move him which can be authenticated, there was one of a far different kind; a letter addressed to him by Pole to bring him to a sense of his condition.

'Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,' so the legate addressed a prisoner in the expectation of death, 'hath not God. He that