5 minute read
Rescuing Michael’s Roles Royce
161 inspired his courage, not only placed him beyond the influence of fear, but also enabled him to taste in dying an ineffable thrill of victorious achievement. Ridley he greeted with the words, “Be of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as (I trust) shall never be put out.”
He “received the flame as it were embracing it. After he had stroked his face with his hands, and (as it were) bathed them a little in the fire, he soon died (as it appeared) with very little pain or none.”
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Archbishop Cranmer, on the day of his execution, he dramatically withdrew his recantations, to die a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to others. His legacy lives on within the Church of England through the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, an Anglican statement of faith derived from his work. He renounced the recantations that he had written or signed with his own hand since his degradation and as such he stated his hand would be punished by being burnt first.
He then said, “And as for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ’s enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine”. He was pulled from the pulpit and taken to where Latimer and Ridley had been burnt six months before. As the flames drew around him, he fulfilled his promise by placing his right hand into the heart of the fire and his dying words were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit... I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”[97]
Rescuing Michael’s Roles Royce
(About 1982)
Whilst these things were going on my brother got into serious difficulties. His business was failing and he became very depressed so much so he did not know how to sort some of his problems. He came to me one day explaining he had sold his Roles Royce to a person in Milton Keynes for £7000 and he was still owed £3,500. He was too ill to sort it out. The person kept giving one excuse after another as to why he could not pay the money.
I felt indignant and was not prepared to sit down and see some one-take advantage of my Michael because he was ill and could not sort his problems out.
I said to Michael come on I will go with him and get it sorted. I dressed in my Crombie over coat and suit and looked very official and we went to this person’s house in Milton Keynes. I told Michael not to worry I would deal with any problems. When the person answered the door, early on morning, I said who I was and what we had come for and that I was a Christian and we intended to sort out the issue with the Roles Royce. The bloke looked at me gone out.
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Michael decided he wanted the car back and so it was agreed that he would pay back the £3500 in cash and take the car. I found out that the previous deal had been done between another person as well as this man and the car was in his garage somewhere else. Also a problem with a finance company had arisen. This all seamed straight forward and we left with the intention (or so I thought) to return with the £3500 cash and collect the car that day.
My brother then explained that he understood that these men had raised money through a finance company to buy the car and he only got half the money. I then feared if he gave up the £3500 cash to them he would loose that as well, as the finance company would claim ownership of the car. He had already gone to the police but the police said it was not a problem they could deal with so my brother felt real down about the whole issue. He said he could not remember signing any forms with a finance company but I began to feel the case was not a straight forward, as it first seemed. Michael kept saying he could not remember what had happened.
I got the impression Michael had been party to some deal and was keeping some thing from me and these men had just tucked him up for £3500 and they now had no money to pay. Michael informed me years later that he did not know about this and that these men took him advantage of him, whilst he was ill.
Michael decided to get the car back so he paid a couple of his heavy friend’s £250 to go and collect the car. Sure enough the next day the Roles Royce was in bed in my garage at Bierton, out of the way. I felt much better even though my brother didn’t. This did not stop my brother worrying because apparently there was more to it than first met the eye there was some problem with the finance company.
I felt let down by Michael for not telling me all this. Had he told me all this in the beginning instead of being devious. (Michael now tells me I was wrong) I could have helped him. In the end the finance company contacted Michael and he by then realized the car belonged to the finance company. Michael, through not being able to cope with the worry, agreed to return the car as he realized the deal they had done was not straightforward.
This was all out of my hands and on reflection I think it would have been better to keep the car and give the finance company the £3500, but at the time I was not able to sort the issue out for Michael because he had kept things from me.
I felt upset for my brother because he had lost his car and all that money. We are always wise after an event.
