Archbishop Cranmer Quotes in A Man for All Seasons (1966)

[last lines]

Sir Thomas More: [talking to the witnesses for his execution] I am commanded by the King to be brief, and since I am the King's obedient subject, brief I will be. I die his Majesty's good servant but God's first.

[to the executioner]

Sir Thomas More: I forgive you right readily.

[he gives him a coin]

Sir Thomas More: Be not afraid of your office; you send me to God.

Archbishop Cranmer: You're very sure of that, Sir Thomas?

Sir Thomas More: He will not refuse one who is so blithe to go to him.

[he kneels and puts his head on the chopping block]

Narrator: Thomas More's head was stuck on Traitors' Gate for a month, then his daughter, Margaret, removed it and kept it till her death. Cromwell was beheaded for high treason five years after More. The archbishop was burned at the stake. The Duke of Norfolk should have been executed for high treason, but the king died of syphilis the night before. Richard Rich became chancellor of England and died in his bed.