The mightiest can fall ... and be raised too!

O Father of heaven!

O Son of God, Redeemer of the world!

O Holy Ghost, three persons all one God!

have mercy on me, most wretched caitiff and miserable sinner. I have offended both against heaven and earth, more than my tongue can express.

Whither then may I go, or whither may I flee? To heaven I may be ashamed to lift up mine eyes and in earth I find no place of refuge or succor.

To Thee, therefore, O Lord, do I run;
to Thee do I humble myself, saying,
O Lord, my God, my sins be great,
but yet have mercy upon me for Thy great mercy.

The great mystery that God became man, was not wrought for little or few offences.

Thou didst not give Thy Son, O Heavenly Father, unto death for small sins only, but for all the greatest sins of the world, so that the sinner return to Thee with his whole heart, as I do at present.

Wherefore, have mercy on me, O God, whose property is always to have mercy, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for Thy great mercy.

I crave nothing for my own merits, but for Thy name's sake, that it may be hallowed thereby, and for Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ's sake.

And now therefore,

O Father of Heaven,
hallowed be Thy name, etc.

[Thomas Cranmer, repenting of his denial of Christ before the 'congregation' in St Mary's Church, Oxford, on 21st March, 1556.
Not long after this he was burnt as a heretic near Balliol College]

p 248 Fox's Book of Martyrs