Note 140 — Chapter II
Reading edition
The character of Cranmer is summed up in no unfair manner by Mr. C. Butler, Memoirs of English Catholics, vol. i. p. 139; except that his obtaining from Anne Boleyn an acknowledgment of her supposed pre-contract of marriage, having proceeded from motives of humanity, ought not to incur much censure, though the sentence of nullity was a mere mockery of law.—Poor Cranmer was compelled to subscribe not less than six recantations. Strype (iii. 232) had the integrity to publish all these, which were not fully known before.