The light of truth and freedom had been kindled into a new and brighter flame all through England by the moral shock and indignation which the burning of the martyrs evoked.
This was greatly increased by the admiration of the martyrs themselves, for those who had suffered had to a man borne the pains of death in splendid triumph. And would it not be so in the case of Cranmer? For of all men in the country, recantation would be for him the most unthinkable. He was chief and captain of the English Reformation and had sought to guide it step by step with all the authority of his great place. He who advised his friends to fly the land without hint of reproach chose for his own part to remain, and he braved the fear of prison and death by his resolute confession of faith and his declaration against the Mass. Nor did he show the least sign of yielding until he had suffered imprisonment for well over two years, and the fires of persecution had for 12 months burnt round many of his closest colleagues. And yet he did falter.
