On This Day March 21

The Protestant Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was accused of high treason by the Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary I. He was brought to trial, found guilty and condemned to death. Cranmer made several recantations of his Protestant beliefs. However as he was being burnt at the stake on March 21, 1556, he thrust his right hand which he signed the form and watched the fire shrivel it crying, “This hand hath offended.” Cranmer's death was immortalized in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

Cranmer's martyrdom, from John Foxe's book (1563)

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