"If you don't know what to die for, for what will you live?"

Detailed Synopsis

Act I.

PROLOGUE. OCTOBER 1555

i. Winkle and Wells build the stake

Two jailers from the Bocardo prison, Oxford are building the stake in preparation for Latimer and Ridley's execution. Winkle is interested in the significance of their work, but the brutish Wells shuts him up, telling him "we're responsible for the practicalities of this job, not the justice of it." Wells then juggles with the firewood and ties Winkle to the stake in menacing play.

PART ONE. LONDON. SUMMER 1553

ii. King Edward's funeral

It is two years before the execution of Latimer and Ridley. The country, its church and its government are in turmoil at the death of the boy-king Edward, the failure of the Protestant coup and the ascension of the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII, Queen Mary. Two councillors from Edward's reign express their fear at the shift of power and try to decide the safest course of action. The wily Arundel convinces the insecure Paulet they must switch allegience, even if it means betraying their old archbishop. When Thomas Cranmer brings the king's casket into the Abbey, they fail to alarm him into flight or compromise. He tells them unhesitatingly, "I will do what I've always done. I will stay."

iii. Cranmer returns home

Cranmer's wife, Margaret, precocious daughter Meg, and son Thomas greet Cranmer as he returns home from the funeral. Until the children have gone to bed, he will not let on how dangerous the climate has become, trying hard to keep up family appearances. His friend, the Oxford Protestant scholar, Peter Vermigli, has come to say goodbye before leaving for the Continent. Cranmer makes arrangements for his family to go abroad with Vermigli. When His wife questions why he will not join them, Cranmer is forced to explain, "I cannot turn my back on the queen", even if she is so hostile to his person.

iv. Queen Mary's introduction

There's been a riot in London, because Gilbert Bourne, one of the queen's impetuous chaplains, has been highly insensitive to the precarious political situation. Before Stephen Gardiner, England's new chancellor, can resolve the situation, Mary enters to take control. Though various statesmen compete for her ear, including the bombastic Edmund Bonner and more humane Nicholas Heath, she will only listen to her Spanish councillor, Simon Renard. Careful not to provoke further unrest, the queen still authorizes the arrest of all Protestant preachers. When the statesmen withdraw, she collapses and reveals her lifelong suffering at Cranmer's hands, the man who divorced her parents and bastardised the young princess.

v. Latimer's arrest

During an evensong sermon on "the God of the poor", Hugh Latimer is arrested.

vi. The sentencing of Cranmer and Latimer

Cranmer and Latimer are brought before Mary's Privy Council, including the traitorous Arundel and Paulet. Latimer is sentenced to the Tower of London for his unlicensed preaching, Cranmer for his refusal to switch allegiance.

vii. Cranmer bids farewell to his family

Accompanied by soldiers, Cranmer collects his things and shares a final meal with his family. Despite putting a brave face on the bleak situation, Meg's persistent, passionate questioning forces her father to justify his stance. Concluding, "finally, it's not a matter of wit; it's a matter of love", Cranmer bids farewell to his children for the last time.

PART TWO. TOWER OF LONDON. AUTUMN 1553

viii. Bradford joins Ridley

Nicholas Ridley, having already been in the Tower for a few months, is joined by his chaplain, John Bradford. Below their cell (while their conversation is stilled) Cranmer is given a guided tour of the prison by the caustic Warden, who reminds him of the many public figures Cranmer himself had sent to the tower during his shady past. When they have left, Bradford explains to Ridley how he had managed to settle the crowd stirred by Bourne. Ridley's indignation at the Londoners' lack of discipline is then checked by Bradford, who questions their own complicity in the political agitation of the people.

ix. Cranmer is visited by his wife

At Christmas, Mrs Cranmer is finally permitted to see her husband. Both of them striving not to upset the other, they quietly accept the fact of their ultimate separation. Cranmer expresses his fear of insurrection, declaring, "one rebellion is the thread which unravels the whole reformation" and Mrs Cranmer reasserts her confidence in her husband and in his costly decision to stay and suffer in England. When she has left, Cranmer writes a letter to the Queen explaining his innocence of the charge of sedition.

x. Queen Mary receives Cranmer's letter

Cranmer's protestations fail to move the angry and implacable queen.

xi. Cranmer joins the cell of Ridley, Latimer and Bradford

To their great surprise, Cranmer is transferred from his private cell to join his friends. However, their jovial displays of affection and pleasure at seeing each other again are cut short by an interruption from outside. From their window of the cell they see dozens of men being brought into the Tower by Traitor's Gate. When the Warden informs Cranmer that the prisoners have been arrested for their participation in Wyatt's rebellion, a major uprising against the queen, Ridley fears lest their cause be mixed up with that of the rebels. Latimer's hope that the insurrection does prove successful, and the Catholic queen is indeed "cut down", receives a vociferous chiding from Cranmer, who insists upon the reformers' "unquestioning obedience" to the royal authority which God himself has appointed. Latimer and Ridley then ask why Cranmer, if he is so loyal, he doesn't simply recant his unfashionable beliefs and side with the queen. Bradford, while appreciating the wrong of civil revolt, ends the heated argument by questioning whether the monarch really can be their sole, absolute authority.

xii. Queen Mary authorizes the persecutions

In hushed tones, Gardiner and Heath discuss the impact Wyatt's rebellion has had on the fraught queen. When they meet with her to decide the necessary course of action, the queen breaks down, ignoring Heath's plea for caution and relenting to Bonner's proposition that the government (once they have revived the medieval heresy laws) begin popular persecutions. Still desperate to display her legitimacy, Mary postpones Cranmer's Oxford trial until he can be properly tried by a representative from the Pope.

PART THREE. OXFORD. SPRING 1555.

xiii. Latimer and Ridley receive news of the first executions

In the Bocardo, Winkle and Wells convey the passing of time by recording a list of all their prisoners' Oxford charges. Ridley and Latimer then awake to overhear the jailers' mention of the revival of the medieval heresy laws and the first executions, including that of Bradford. As Ridley begins to despair, he is comforted by the stoic Latimer.

xiv. The trial of Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer

After Ridley and Latimer are swiftly sentenced to death for their refusal to recant, Cranmer receives a more complicated questioning at the hands of Arundel, Paulet and the Papal delegate. Sidestepping the question of Cranmer's theology, the committee investigate his career's "inconsistencies", reducing him to an embarrassed silence.

xv. The execution of Ridley and Latimer

As Latimer and Ridley are finally subjected to the stake, Latimer exhorts his friend to "Be of good cheer, and play the man."

Act II.

PART FOUR. OXFORD. AUTUMN 1555.

i. Woodson attends Cranmer in the Bocardo

His friends dead and his family gone, Cranmer is left to solitary confinement in the Bocardo prison, Oxford. After he has castigated the jailer, who he thinks has not been passing on his wife's letters, Nicholas Woodson enters and explains that he has come not only to attend but befriend the prisoner. He responds to Cranmer's suspicion by telling the story of the death of his wife and loss of his land. He then exhorts Cranmer to courage, telling him that "a mind is not changed by place of time; it can make a palace of prison, or prison of a palace" before reading the Queen's condemning letter to Cranmer.

ii. Cranmer is transferred to Christchurch

To his surprise, Cranmer is moved to Christchurch, where he is to held under the supervision of Woodson. Appreciating the contrast in his conditions, Woodson suggests that "all this could still be yours" if he could courageously admit his mistake. Woodson tells him he is to be questioned by Oxford's new Spanish theologian, Juan de Villagarcia.

iii. Villagarcia's interview with Cranmer

Cranmer is brought to dinner in Villagarcia's residence in Christchurch. Remembering Cranmer's admissive silence during his trial, Villagarcia forces him once again to defy the Pope's authority in favour of the monarch's. The theologian then asks Cranmer, "what would it take for you to be proven wrong?" Under pressure, Cranmer abandons the royal authority and blurts out his complaint against abuses which the church still defends. His desperate attack on the Chantries, however, is ended as Villagarcia intimidates him into hesitation and, once again, silence.

iv. Woodson secures Cranmer's first recantation

Woodson accuses Cranmer of arrogance because, though he's again been defeated in argument, he refuses to admit his error and accept the queen's pardon. Storming out, Cranmer begs his attendant to stay. Woodson concedes on the condition that he recant.

v. Cranmer's dream and full recantation

Back in the Bocardo, Woodson reports that despite Cranmer has accepted the pope again, the royal writ for his execution has still been issued. Cranmer falls asleep, only to be haunted by the voices of the past. He awakes terrified, agreeing to repent everything.

vi. Woodson's reading

The morning before his execution, Cranmer asks Woodson to read Isaiah's account of the suffering servant. In response to Woodson's cynicism that he aligns himself with Christ, Cranmer confesses, "I couldn't even play that man!"

vii. Cranmer's public recantation

In St. Mary's, the University Church, Bonner preaches a condemnation of Cranmer before the prisoner reads out his recantations but then proceeds to discuss "the one thing that grieves my conscience more than all the rest." Stunningly renouncing all he recounted in prison, Cranmer is pulled down from the pulpit by the angry officials.

viii. The execution of Cranmer

After exchanging words with the cynical Villagarcia, Cranmer is tied to the stake. As the stake is lit, Cranmer holds up "the hand that hath offended" and stretches it into the fire.

EPILOGUE. MARCH 1556

ix. Winkle and Wells dismantle the stake

Wells clears the ashes and dismantles the stake, while Winkle records the charges for the instruments of the execution. As they exit, Winkle sings to Wells the lyrics he has written for their tune, "Three blind mice / See how they burn."