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

them pity. Wolsey yielded to this appeal; but he
had let them out only to die. The rest remained in
the dungeon.
The death of these four was the means of
opening the doors of the prison to the others. Even
the cardinal, in the midst of his splendors, and
occupied though he was at that moment with the
affairs of England, and other kingdoms besides,
was touched by the catastrophe that had taken
place in the dungeons of his college, and sent an
order for the release of the survivors. Six months
had they sustained life in this dreadful place, the
fever in the blood, and the poison in the air,
consuming their strength day by day; and when
their friends received them at the door of their
living tomb, they seemed so many specters. They
lived to serve the cause into which they had
received this early baptism. Some of them shone in
the schools, others in the pulpit; and others, as
Fryth and Ferrar, subsequently Bishop of St.
David's, consummated at the stake, long years
after, the martyrdom which they had begun in the
dungeon at Oxford.
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