Historical account of the origin and progress of St. Thomas's hospital, Southwark / By Benjamin Golding.

  • Golding, Benjamin, 1793-1863.
Date:
[1835?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical account of the origin and progress of St. Thomas's hospital, Southwark / By Benjamin Golding. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    63/278 (page 35)
    refused to annul his marriage with Catharine for the advancement of Anna Boleyn) he abolished the Ca- tholic Houses ; and after turning out of those establish- ments upwards of 10,000 monks and nuns, he converted their immense funds to his own use. For this he had a well-grounded pretence; he affected to be disgust- ed with the iniquitous conduct of the religious devotees. A monastic life he found to be one of secret voluptuous enjoyment; and, it is said, many well authenticated proofs were adduced of extensive convents being con- verted into nurseries by the parturient nuns. The sums of money Ilenry thus acquired were prodigious. During the years 1538 and 1540, no less than three hundred and seventy-six lesser monasteries were dissolved, and their vast revenues granted by parliament to the crown; the latter amounting to £. 32,000 per year, besides the goods and chattels, which were valued at £. 100,000 more. The greater monasteries shared a similar fate ; mer, to Oxford, to make his defence before the Popish Commis- sioners ; but, on the refusal of himself and his friends to subscribe to Popery, they were condemned as heretics. In September 1555, he was again arraigned in St. Mary’s Oxford, of blasphemy, perjury, incontinency, and heresy. Cranmer, though firm to his faith, yielded before the terrors of death ; and, in a moment of weakness, was prevailed upon to sign his recantation, and to re-embrace Popery. Notwithstanding this, his en mies resolved to commit him to the flames ; and when brought to Sain' Mary's Church, in order to make a conleflion of his faith, he surprised his persecutors, by an awful appeal to heaven and their consciences, and by a solemn renunciation of the tenets he had, in a moment of eiror, embraced; emphatically exclaiming, “ That, that one thing alone 'wrung his heart, and the hand •which had falsely signed the dishonourable deed, should first perish in the flames /” This conduct enraged his enemies, and he was immediately dragged over against Baiiol College ; where, standing in his shirt, and without his shoes, he was fastened to the strike. The fire was soon kindled, and the venerable maityr, stretching his right hand into the flames, exclaimed, “ This hand bath offended—this umuort/y hand! His miseries were soon over, and his last words were “ Lord Jesus receive my spirit ! This happened in the sixty seventh year of his age [March 21, 1556]. Cranmer, as the great promoter of the reformation, is deservedly respected ; but his learning, his perseverance and zeal, are not more remarkable, than the integrity of his heart, the gentleness of his disposition, and the humane virtues of his character. Lempricre s Universal Biography.