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

vouchsafed to those who are called to seal their
testimony with their blood, Ferrar gave him this
sign, that he would stand unmoved amidst the
flames. "And as he said, so he right well
performed," says Fox; "he never moved."
Men contrasted the leniency with which the
Romanists had been treated under Edward VI, with
the ferocious cruelty of Mary towards the adherents
of the Reformed faith. When Protestantism was in
the ascendant, not one Papist had been put to death
for his religion. A few priests had been deprived of
their benefices; the rest had saved their livings by
conforming. But now the Popery had risen to
power, no one could be a Protestant but at the peril
of his life. The highest and most venerated
dignitaries of the Church, the men of greatest
learning and most exemplary virtue in the nation,
were dragged to prison and burned at stakes. The
nation at first was stupefied, but now amazement
was giving place to indignation; and Gardiner, who
had expected to see all men cowering in terror, and
ready to fall in with his measures, began to be
alarmed when he saw a tempest of wrath springing
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