Wolsey had Garret in his own keeping, and declined to surrender him. Ferrars had been taken at the Black Friars, in London,[1] and making his submission, was respited, and escaped with abjuration. But Clark was at Oxford, in the Bishop's power, and the wicked old man was allowed to work his will upon him. A bill of heresy was drawn, which the prisoner was required to sign. He refused, and must have been sent to the stake, had he not escaped by dying prematurely of the treatment which he had received in prison.[2] His last words only are recorded. He was refused the communion, not perhaps as a special act of cruelty, but because the laws of the Church would not allow the holy thing to be profaned by the touch of a heretic. When he was told that it would not be suffered, he said 'crede et manducâsti'—'faith is the communion;' and so passed away; a very noble person, so far as the surviving features of his character will let us judge; one who, if his manhood had fulfilled the promise of his youth, would have taken no common part in the Reformation.
The remaining brethren were then dispersed. Some were sent home to their friends—others, Anthony Dalaber among them, were placed on their trial, and being terrified at their position, recanted, and were sentenced to do penance. Ferrars was brought to Oxford for the
- ↑ Ellis, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.
- ↑ With some others he was cast into a prison where the salt-fish lay, through the stink whereof the most part of them were infected; and the said Clark, being a tender young man, died in the same prison.'—Foxe, vol. iv. p. 615.
March 5, 1527–8: Rolls House MS: and see Ellis, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.
