but one who was content to do his duty day by day without the fear of man
before his eyes. Latimer, though he was looked upon as a Protestant in the
earliest years of the English Reformation, believed in the Real Presence up
to a short time before his death. But of all English ecclesiastics Thomas
Cranmer was perhaps most to Froude's liking. Cranmer was, like Froude
himself, an artist in words. The English liturgy owes its charm and beauty
to his sense of style, his grace of expression, and his cultured piety.
That he was a great man few will be found in these days to maintain; fewer
still will believe that he deserved the scathing invective of Macaulay. But
no one can read the account given by Froude of his last years without
feeling that the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury was neither
saint nor martyr. If ever there was one, he was a timeserver. He pronounced
the divorce of Catherine of Arragon, though he had sworn fealty to the
Pope. He never raised a protest against any of the political murders of
Henry VIII.--with the notable exception of his courageous attempt to save
his friend, Thomas Cromwell. Even in that case, however, he lies under the
suspicion of having interfered through fear that his own fate was involved
in that of the _malleus monachorum_. In the days of Edward VI. he aimed at
the liberty, if not at the life, of Bonner and Gardiner, without semblance
of legal right: He recanted in the reign of Mary when he thought he could
purchase his miserable life. It was only when all hope of pardon was past
that he re-affirmed his belief in the reformed faith. Indeed, he waited
until the day of his execution before withdrawing his recantation, and
confounded his enemies on the way to the stake. To a master of dramatic
narrative the last scene of Cranmer's life came as a relief and an
inspiration. "So perished Cranmer," wrote Froude, in a memorable passage:
"he was brought out, with the eyes of his soul blinded, to make sport for
his enemies, and in his death he brought upon them a wider destruction than
he had effected by his teaching while alive. Pole was appointed the next
day to the See of Canterbury; but in other respects the court had