Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/604

584 the object of intense detestation without uneasy pangs; and as such thoughts came and went, a window might seem to open, through which there was a return to life and freedom. His trial was not greater than hundreds of others had borne, and would bear with constancy; but the temperaments of men are unequally constituted, and a subtle intellect and a sensitive organization are not qualifications which make martyrdom easy.

Life, by the law of the Church, by justice, by precedent, was given to all who would accept it on terms of submission. That the Archbishop should be tempted to recant, with the resolution formed, notwithstanding, that he should still suffer, whether he yielded or whether he was obstinate, was a suspicion which his experience of the legate had not taught him to entertain.

So it was that Cranmer's spirit gave way, and he who had disdained to fly when flight was open to him, because he considered that, having done the most in establishing the Reformation, he was bound to face the responsibility of it, fell at last under the protraction of the trial.

The day of his degradation the Archbishop had eaten little. In the evening he returned to his cell in a state of exhaustion: the same night, or the next day, he sent in his first submission, which was forwarded on