to consent thereto, in the end his tender heart bursting out into bitter weeping and sobbing, he desired them to be content. Whereof the bishops themselves seeing the king's zeal and constancy, wept as fast as he, and then took leave of his grace; and coming from him, the archbishop took master Cheke, his schoolmaster, by the hand, and said, Ah, master Cheke, you may be glad all the days of your life that you have such a scholar; for he hath more divinity in his little finger than all we have in all our bodies.' Then the Lady Mary's mass for that time was stayed."

Touching as is the scene thus described, it derives a deeper and more thrilling interest from the consideration that the prelates who thus, on political grounds, assailed the pious constancy of their stripling king, who were silenced by his scriptural knowledge, and turned from their purpose by his tears, were themselves also chosen to wear a crown of peculiar glory-that of martyrdom. They who then pleaded for Mary's mass, subsequently gave their bodies to the flames in the cause of that truth which, in a moment of weakness, they would so far have sacrificed to the pestilent doctrine of expediency.

The princess showed a very stout spirit in her correspondence both with the council and the king. The latter she plainly advised not to interfere with spiritual concerns until he should have come to riper years and with the former she pleaded the emperor's interposition; maintaining also her right to have mass said, by her chaplains, whensoever she might appoint them to act, in any house of hers, she being present or absent. One of her chaplains, Mallet, acting on this assumption, was, for his contumacy, committed to the tower. The obstinate bigotry of Mary, evinced in these letters, might in itself have been sufficient to justify, in the king's mind, her exclusion from the succession. They exhibit in the bud that inveterate rancour against the truth, which afterwards filled England with the bitter fruits of sanguinary persecution.

Meanwhile Stephen Gardiner had been opposing with all his might, the king's proceedings. So early as the appointment of the commission for diocesan visitations, he had wilfully and openly disobeyed the injunctions that no other prelate had ventured to resist. For this he was committed to prison, but again released on a promise of conformity, and sent back to his diocese, where he secretly armed his servants and followers, stirring up the prejudiced people to

resistance; and when godly men were sent to preach in any of his churches, he occupied the pulpit himself, openly warning the congregation to beware of new teachers, and to give no heed to their doctrine. Being again sequestered, he obtained, by fair promises, permission publicly to preach, before the king and court, in order to declare his perfect contentment with the recent changes. Instead of so doing, he made a most seditious, inflammatory sermon, which was near occasioning a great tumult: so that, in the end, it was found necessary to commit him to the tower: from which he was removed to the fleet. His business commenced before Bonner's, but his final degradation and imprisonment took place a year later than those of his friend. He wrote many bold letters to the lord Protector Somerset, who answered him again with great force of reasoning, exposing the sinful folly of those things which Gardiner contended for as essential to salvation; and also rebutting his subtle arguments, touching the peril that should accrue to the state, from innovations in religion. These particulars do not, perhaps, come within the precise bounds of a martyrology: but they are worthy to be noted, as showing how actively the popish leaven will ferment and agitate, within a circumscribed sphere, ever ready to burst its boundaries, and extend the same evil influence through undefined space. We here see the mystery of iniquity at work, which, howsoever policy may conceal for a time its operations, is never idle-always busied in preparation for what, as yet, it may lack the power to achieve. These pages in our national history are fraught with instruction to such as will read them aright: with condemnation to those who, refusing to learn wisdom by the past, become accessory to present and future evil.

CHAPTER X.

WILLIAM GARDINER-EDWARD'S DEATH-NATIONAL APOSTASY-LADY JANE GREY-CRANMER, RIDLEY AND LATIMER AT OXFORD.

We must now follow a countryman to another land, where, during the peaceful days of gospel dawn in England, he was called on to suffer for the truth. His name was WILLIAM GARDINER, a native of Bristol, of character irre

proachable, and excellent parts. Removed to Lisbon, in the discharge of his mercantile duties, he acquired the language of the Portuguese, without being defiled by their gross superstition, and its invariable attendant, vice. It came to pass that a royal marriage was celebrated between a prince of Portugal and princess of Spain, to which the whole popu. lation of Lisbon flocked; and young Gardiner, tempted by curiosity, also went to the church, where, of course, high mass was celebrated with the utmost pomp, by a cardinal. Gardiner gazed around: he saw the idol elevated, while the king, with all his royal and noble attendants, the wisest of his senators, the boldest of his captains, looked with no less awe and reverence on the paltry device, than did the meanest and most ignorant of the common people. Nothing was to be seen but kneeling, crossing, knocking on their breasts, and praying to the cake of bread. These things so moved him, that he went home in great sadness of heart, seeking solitude, and there, prostrate before God, in tears and lamentations, bewailing the dishonour done to His great and glorious name; with his own departure from duty in so far participating in the sin; devising how he might do somewhat to recal the people from their impiety and superstition.

His resolution was soon taken: he made an exact settlement of all his worldly accounts, so as not to owe any man a farthing; and then gave himself entirely to prayer and meditation over the Scriptures. He scarcely took any meat by day, and by night allowed himself but one, or at the most two hours' rest. The following Sunday there was to be a repetition of the former scene at the great church, and early in the morning William repaired thither, to secure a place as near as possible to the great altar, where he quietly remained, with a Testament in his hand, reading it, and praying. The king and court being come, the pageant commenced: the cardinal proceeded to solemnize mass, but Gardiner sat still; he consecrated, sacrificed, lifted up on high, showed his god to the people, who all did great reverence to it, but Gardiner stirred not. At length they came to that place in the mass where the host is rapidly moved round and over the chalice, in circles and other figures and here Gardiner could no longer endure the scene, but, starting forward, he ran hastily to the cardinal, and, in the presence of the whole assembly, with one hand, snatched the cake from him, trampling it under his feet, while with the other he overthrew the chalice. After the

first moment of astonishment, all ran together upon him, and he was severely wounded on the shoulder, with a dagger; but the king loudly commanding not to kill him, he was taken without further hurt, and brought into the royal presence. The king inquired what countryman he was, and how he dared so to act? he replied, “Most noble king, I am not ashamed of my country, which am an Englishman, both by birth and religion ;" and proceeded to explain his motives, protesting that he had not done it through irreverence of his majesty's presence, but in horror of the idolatry committed.

His being English led them, through the knowledge of king Edward's zeal in the same cause, to suspect that he was only the agent in an extensive conspiracy; and every effort was made to extort from him a confession of his abettors. His principal friends and fellow-lodgers were also tortured for the same purpose; and Gardiner, notwithstanding his grievous wound, likewise underwent the rack. The particulars of his sufferings are too horrible to be here repeated, but they drew from him nothing beyond his first declaration. He was then deprived of his hands, and brought to the place of execution, where, being hanged over a fire, he was let down and drawn up again, until his feet were consumed, he all the while praying. They then asked him if he did not repent, exhorting him to call upon their lady and the saints: to which he replied, that having done nothing wherof he repented, he had the less need to call upon them. Whatever variety of torments they might use, the truth, he told them, continued ever one and the same: which, as he had confessed it in his life, he could not now deny at his death. He desired them to leave off such vanities and folly, saying that when Christ should cease to be an advocate he would then pray to the virgin. He then prayed again fervently, nor could all their efforts stop him: with a loud voice he recited the forty-third Psalm, until, as they furiously pulled him up and down in the fire, the rope broke before he made an end of it, and he fell into the blazing mass below. A spark from his burning, carried by the wind, set fire to one of the king's ships in the harbour close by, and consumed it. Long did the remembrance of his martyrdom survive, and deeply was it impressed on the minds of many; among whom it is not to be doubted that some were thereby brought to know and to serve the Saviour whose mighty power so wonderfully up

held his zealous servant through sufferings which, if they were here detailed, would harrow up the reader's soul.

In England the sky was now becoming overcast, by the fall of the duke of Somerset, who had been the steady promoter and maintainer of whatever could strengthen the cause of the reformation. In 1552 he was beheaded, the poor young king, who dearly loved his uncle, being unable to save him. He had prospered while the nobles and chief rulers were united; but Satan having prevailed to sow discord among them, the faction of Bonner and Winchester, which they had kept down so long, soon took advantage of their divisions to retrieve what they had lost. Fox observes, "As touching the success of the gospel of peace, while public peace and the gospel did join together, marvellous it was how error and popery were in themselves confounded, and ashamed almost to show their faces." A sad reverse marked the dissolution of this happy union. But it pleased God to recal to himself the spirit of that young royal saint, in whose days, as in those of Hezekiah, it would seem that evil was not suffered to come upon the nation. One of the latest events of his reign left a deep stain on the name of Cranmer: a young woman, named Joan Boucher, of good family and learning, had imbibed some wild unsound doctrine respecting the reality of our Lord's human nature, and when called to answer for it, boldly rebuked her judges with their own inconsistencies, reminding them of Anne Askew, whose friend she had been. Finding her fixed in her heretical notion, they came to the infamous determination of burning her; and it was Cranmer who applied to the king for his warrant, the whole council having failed in persuading him to sign it. Cranmer possessed Edward's affection and respect in a high degree; and was therefore employed in this matter. Edward warmly exclaimed, "What, my lord, will ye have me to send her quick to the devil in her error?" Cranmer con

fessed he never in his life had so much difficulty in any thing as in forcing the king to sign the warrant, which he did at last with many tears, and severe reproaches, saying that he would lay all the guilt of it on Cranmer before God. With this weight of innocent blood on his conscience, no marvel that Cranmer quailed for a time, when his own trial To the sovereign grace of God be all the glory, that he did not utterly fail! The last days of Edward were drawing nigh at the time

came.