Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

More, who had received the Great Seal When it
was taken from Wolsey, and thrown into the
Tower, heavily loaded with irons. His main crime,
in the eyes of his enemies, was the denial of
transubstantiation. The king nominated six of the
temporal and spiritual peers, of whom Cranmer
was one, to examine him. The power of the stake
had just been taken from the bishops, and Fryth
was destined to be the first martyr under the king.
Cranmer, who still believed in consubstantiation,
loved Fryth, and wished to save his life, that his
great erudition and rare eloquence might profit the
realm in days to come; but all his efforts were
ineffectual. Fryth mounted the stake (4th July,
1533), and his heroic death did much to advance
the progress of the Reformation in England.
About the time that the martyr was expiring at
the stake, the Pope was excommunicating the King
of England. Fortified with the opinion of the
universities, and the all but unanimous approval of
the more eminent of the Roman Catholic doctors,
Henry married Anne Boleyn on the 25th of
January, 1533. [12] On the 10th of May, the
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