The memorial was decorated after the manner of the Eleanor
Crosses erected by King Edward I in memory of his wife, the Queen
Eleanor, and the inscription on the base was as follows:
_To the Glory of God and in grateful commemoration of His
servants--Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, prelates of
the Church of England; who near this spot yielded their bodies to be
burned, bearing witness to the sacred truths which they had affirmed
and maintained against the errors of the Church of Rome, and
rejoicing that to them it was given not only to believe in Christ,
but also to suffer for His sake. This monument was erected by public
subscription in the year of our Lord God MDCCCXLI_.
Ridley and Latimer were burned together on the slope of the city near
Balliol College, where stakes had been placed to receive them. On the
day of their execution they were brought from their prison and compelled
to listen to a sermon full of reproaches and uncharitable insinuations
from the preacher, Dr. Smith, who took his text from the thirteenth
chapter of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians: "If I give my
body to be burned, and have not charity, it availeth me nothing.
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