3-056-947 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The burning of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1556, (1563). As he is burned alive, Cranmer says 'L. [Lord] receive my spirit'. He renounced the recantations that he had written or signed with his own hand, and he stated that, in consequence, his hand would be punished by being burnt first. As the flames drew around him, he fulfilled his promise by placing his right hand into the heart of the fire, calling it 'that unworthy hand'. His dying words were, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.' From "Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church", popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe.