come, and he retired for his last few days of liberty CHAP to his house at Rochester. VII Meanwhile an Act was passing through Parlia- A.D. 1534 ment, in the meshes of which both More and Fisher were destined to be fatally entangled. This was “An Act concerning the King's Succession" [25 Hen. VIII. cap. 22], which was passed on March 30, 1534, nine days after the Act of Attainder by which Fisher and the rest had been condemned, and sixteen before he was sent to the Tower. Boleyn's legiti mated This Statute enacted that the King's marriage Anne with Queen Catherine being invalid, and that with children Queen Anne being established, his children by the latter should be the lawful successors to the Crown. Perhaps there would have been little practical difficulty in gaining a general acquiescence in the Act so far: but there was a sting in its last clause but one in the shape of an enactment that any and every person whatever among the subjects might be called upon to swear that they would "truly, firmly, and constantly, without fraud or guile, observe, fulfil, maintain, defend, and keep, to their cunning, wit, and uttermost of their powers, the whole effects and contents of this present Act." Even this might have been borne, but beyond this a form of oath was contrived which had no legislative authority whatever, which is not in the Act, and which must have been framed at a subsequent date. This form of oath was as follows:2 "Ye shall swear to bear your faith, truth, and obedience The form of the Oath only to the King's Majesty, and to the heirs of his body, 2 This oath is entered in the Journals of the House of Lords at the close of the proceedings of the session a most strange after- VII CHAP according to the limitation and rehearsal within this Statute of succession above specified; and not to any other within this A.D. 1535 realm, nor foreign authority, prince or potentate; and in case any oath be made or hath been made by you to any other person or persons, that then you do repute the same as vain and annihilate and that to your cunning, wit, and utmost of your power, without guile, fraud, or other undue means, ye shall observe, keep, maintain, and defend this Act above specified, and all the whole contents and effects thereof, and all other acts and statutes made since the beginning of this present Parliament, in confirmation or for due execution of the same, or of anything therein contained. And thus ye shall do against all manner of persons, of what estate, dignity, degree, or condition soever they be; and in no wise do or attempt, nor to your power suffer to be done or attempted directly or indirectly, any thing or things, privily or apertly, to the let, hindrance, damage, or derogation thereof, by any manner of means, or for any pretence or cause, So help you God and all Saints." More's view of the Oath 3 Commissions were appointed at once to tender this oath in all parts of the country, and one sat at the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth, before which both the Bishop and Sir Thomas More were called, on Monday the fifteenth of April. For a time the ex-chancellor's legal knowledge foiled the King. The oath was not in the Statute, was different in tenor from that substantially given there : he would swear simply to the succession but not to the new oath now tendered to him, and which he considered to be unlawful. He would not prejudice the mind of any other person, but for his own mind it was made up and nothing should change it. He also intimated that he had certain secret reasons for not taking the oath, which he would disclose only to the King himself. What these were never transpired, 3 See Wordsw. Ecc. Biog., ii. 182, ed. 1814. VII More sent Tower but More was sure to have had good reason for CHAP what he said. And And so, while many came and went, taking the oath readily, More walked in the garden A.D. 1535 of Lambeth palace till the evening, when he was given into the charge of the Abbot of Westminster. Fisher meanwhile had also come to Lambeth, had Fisher and refused the oath, and had been sent straight to to the the Tower, whither, four days after, More followed him. There the two continued for a year, not seeing each other, but occasionally corresponding. On May 4, 1535, More looking out of his prison window saw some of the Charterhouse monks being led to their execution, and wrote to his daughter how much he longed to be of their company anticipating no doubt that he had but a little while longer to wait. Examinations and persuasions could not win over either of these two great "criminals." And as no other way could be found to master the ex-chancellor's law, a fresh Statute was passed [26 Hen. VIII. cap. 2] declaring that the oath tendered was the oath intended by the statute of the previous year! By this ex post facto legislation a show of lawfulness was found for the oath, and it was once more formally tendered to More and Fisher, before a special commission sitting in Westminster Hall, on Thursday June 17, 1535. Of course they refused again, and finally, and were finally declared guilty. Fisher's On the Tuesday following, the Bishop of Ro- Bishop chester ended his life on Tower Hill, a life of much last hours holiness, much service to the crown and country, and of which nothing is known but what is honourable. The good old man's death was worthy of him and of the Master in whose footsteps he was humbly CHAP treading, while he felt for a Light whose brightness VII he did not altogether see on this side the grave. A.D. 1535 Late at night-even in the middle of the night it Fisher's remarks about steward ship of life seems the lieutenant of the Tower came to him with the warrant for his execution on the following day. "At what hour?" asked the aged Bishop, and the reply was "at nine o'clock." On hearing this he said he would sleep for two or three hours, and begged to be called at six in the morning, explaining that he wished to have some sleep, because being so very old and infirm (he was seventy-six), he thought it would be hardly possible otherwise to go bravely through his trial. At that hour he was aroused, spent most of the interval in devotion, and then took a slight breakfast. When the time drew near, and the lieutenant had again made his appearance, "Reach me hither," said the old man, "my furred tippet, to put about my neck." Sir William Kingston remonstrated with him for thinking of such a trifle when he had so few minutes to live: but he was rebuked by the answer, that it was one's duty to keep to the last minute, by all reasonable means and ways, the life given in trust to us by God, even though there may be no fear whatever of death. So the aged Bishop wore his amess until it was taken off by the headsman. As soon as he had received it, he put a New Testament into his pocket, made the sign of the cross upon his forehead, in remembrance of his Master's dying hour, and then tottered down-stairs. But as it was impossible for him to walk so far as Tower Hill, they seated him in a chair, and carried him as far as the gate of the Tower, to wait there 4 This "furred tippet" is a con- like portrait at St. John's College, spicuous object in Holbein's life Cambridge. VII A.D. 1535 waiting for tioner for the sheriffs, whose duty it was to receive him CHAP thence into their custody. As they waited, he rose from his chair, leaned against the wall, and taking the little New Testament out of his pocket, lifted up his eyes to Heaven, and prayed, "O Lord, this is the last time that ever I shall open this book, let some comfortable place now chance unto me, whereby I Thy poor servant may glorify Thee in this my last hour." Looking into the book as he Fisher opened it, the first words that met his eyes were, the execu"This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me, with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.' "25 When he had read thus far, he shut the book, saying, "Here is even learning enough for me to my life's end." The sheriffs came, the procession moved on, and when it came to "the scaffold on Tower Hill, otherwise called East Smithfield," the Bishop once more tottered up the steps that lay between him and his rest, saying, "Accedite ad Eum, et illuminamini, et facies vestræ non confundentur;' they had an eye unto Him, and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed." Then he said Te Deum, and the psalm "In Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust," remembering that his compline hour had come, and gave himself up to be disrobed by the executioner. When the crowd His emaci. ated body 29 66 saw what a poor withered skeleton of humanity was 5 John xvii. 3-5. 6 The Tower Hill scaffold was a few yards north of the great bonded warehouses at the All-Hallows Church corner of Trinity Square, 7 Ps. xxxiv. 5. 8 Ps. xxxi. 1-6. |