back to back to the same stake. “Play the man, Master Ridley,” said Latimer, “we shall this day light such a candle in England as by the grace of God shall never be put out.” Then came the most noted of all the victims, Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer had taken a leading part in all the changes in religion made in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and he had also been party to the plan to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne. He was now called to answer for his deeds, and to save his life, recanted. Then finding his life was not to be given him, he recanted back again. Taken to the stake at Oxford, he thrust his right hand first into the flames, because that hand had basely signed his recantation. Nearly three hundred people it is said perished in three years for religion’s sake, most of the burnings taking place at Smithfield, near London. Bishop Bonner of London got most of the blame; but Mary and Gardiner, Mary most of all, deserve the odium attached to these cruelties. The Pope, Philip of Spain, and Cardinal Pole, all tried to lessen her zeal, but to no purpose.
7. Loss of Calais.—The people were becoming horror-stricken at these burnings, and many fled to Geneva for safety. Mary’s health was rapidly failing, and as her disease grew, so did her wrath and bitterness. Her husband visited her in 1557, to get her aid in a war against France, and Mary foolishly consented to join him. England was in no condition to go to war, her treasury was empty, her people discontented, and her army and navy a wreck. What was looked upon then as a great national disaster and disgrace befell the country. Calais, the last possession of England in France, was surrounded by French troops, and Mary, too intent on punishing heretics, failed to send it relief. In 1558 it surrendered, and England lost the last remnant of her conquests in France. Mary, like a true Englishwoman, felt the loss keenly, and in the same year died, worn out by sorrow and disease.
