Thomas Cranmer

Thomas Cranmer
Installed	30 March 1533
Term ended	13 November 1555
Predecessor	William Warham
Successor	Reginald Cardinal Pole
Personal details
Born	2 July, 1489
Died	21 March, 1556
Buried	Ashes scattered after execution

Thomas Cranmer (July 2, 1489 – March 21, 1556) was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of the English kings Henry VIII and Edward VI. He was an influential theologian who, with Richard Hooker and Matthew Parker, was a co-founder of Anglican theological thought.

He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and guided the English Reformation, which denied papal authority over the English Church, during its earliest days. Following Henry's death, Cranmer became a key figure in Edward's regency government.

Scholars credit Cranmer with writing and compiling the first two Books of Common Prayer, which established the basic structure of Anglican liturgy for more than four centuries. Many phrases from its services passed into the English language, either as deliberate quotations or as unconscious borrowings.

Cranmer was executed in 1556 for heresy after Queen Mary I reunited the Church of England with the Roman Catholic Church. Anglican culture, particularly the literature of John Foxe, later celebrated Cranmer as a martyr. His impact on religion in the United Kingdom was profound and lasting.

Early years (1489–1536)

Details of Cranmer's early life are scarce. Cranmer was born in 1489 in Aslacton, now Aslockton, near Nottingham. His parents, Thomas and Agnes (Hatfield) Cranmer, were from the lesser gentry and had only enough wealth and land to support their eldest son upon their death. Without the financial support of their parents, the scholarly Thomas and his younger brother entered the service of the Roman Catholic Church. Cranmer went to Jesus College, Cambridge in 1510. When he married a woman named Joan, the daughter of a local tavern-keeper, he lost his fellowship, but following his wife's death during childbirth, Cranmer was able to continue his studies and was ordained in 1523. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree of divinity and soon after he took his doctorate in divinity.

In 1528, an outbreak of sweating sickness forced Cranmer to leave Cambridge for Essex. While in the country, he came to the attention of the family of Anne Boleyn, who found Cranmer a willing advocate for the annulment of the king's marriage from Catherine of Aragon. Cranmer also met two distinguished clerics, Stephen Gardiner and Bishop Edward Foxe, by chance, both of whom were close to Henry. The three keenly discussed the possible arguments for a proposed annulment and Cranmer's compelling case impressed his companions, to the degree that when Henry heard the case, he invited Cranmer to London.

Along with Bishop Foxe and others, Cranmer helped compile the Collectanea Satis Copiosa (the sufficiently abundant collection) in 1530, giving legal and historical precedent of cases such as Henry's, allowing the king to build an academic case to break with Rome. With the legal arguments in hand, Cranmer was sent as part of the embassy to Rome to seek sympathy for Henry. In the same year, Cranmer received a clerical promotion to become Archdeacon of Taunton. The embassy failed to secure an annulment for the king, and further progress toward getting one seemed impossible.

Cranmer in Europe

In the summer of 1531, the king sent Cranmer to the Holy Roman Empire as England's sole ambassador to the Emperor. Although his task was to obtain the removal of restrictions on English trade, the main benefit of this post for Cranmer was that it put him in contact with German Lutherans. While in Nuremberg, he became acquainted with the Lutheran scholar Andreas Osiander. Both men were convinced that a true reform of the Church was needed, but neither knew what form the new Church should take. They strengthened their bond in an unexpected fashion when Osiander became Cranmer's 'uncle-in-law'. Despite being an ordained Roman Catholic priest – an archdeacon – and thus celibate, Cranmer secretly married Osiander's niece, Margaret. Cranmer was a widower and this was his second surreptitious marriage.

Archbishop of Canterbury

In August 1532, Archbishop William Warham died. Henry arranged for Cranmer to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury to Cranmer's astonishment; Cranmer had held no major position in the Church previous to this extraordinary promotion. Much later, Cranmer would discover that his friendship to the Boleyn family had been crucial. Henry later told Cranmer that it was Anne whom he had to thank for his appointment. Cranmer tried to refuse and he had no desire to accept the position. As Cranmer was still on the Continent at the time with his new wife Margaret, he had an excuse to delay and duly did. Cranmer brought his wife Margaret with him to England, keeping her presence secret even from the king.

Pope Clement VII excommunicated Cranmer in 1533.

Cranmer arrived back in England in January 1533, just before Henry found out that Anne Boleyn was pregnant. The pregnancy added urgency to the matter of the king's annulment, and the king and Anne were married secretly in that same month, on 25 January 1533. Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, pressed the King's case for annulment through convocation while Henry rushed Cranmer into Lambeth Palace. Without the annulment, Anne's child would be born illegitimate and thus refused the throne. Henry cleverly used the fact that the pope and the papal nuncio in England were desperate to avert a final break between England and Rome. Thus, both suitably pressurized and influenced by money – Henry financed the huge cost of the papal bulls out of his own pocket – the pope issued the bulls and thus the papal authority needed to make Cranmer archbishop. The papal bulls of confirmation were dated February and March 1533 and the consecration took place on 30 March 1533. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer declared Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon void. On 25 May 1533 – two days later – the secret marriage to Anne Boleyn was declared lawful. Henry and Cranmer had successfully negotiated the impossible in five months.

On 1 June 1533, Cranmer then crowned Anne in Westminster Abbey. Pope Clement VII responded to the marriage by excommunicating both Henry and Cranmer from the Roman Catholic Church. On 7 September 1533, the new queen gave birth to Henry's second daughter Princess Elizabeth; Cranmer was made her godfather.

In 1536, Queen Anne miscarried a boy, which led to the king's decision to remove her from the throne. The court created a fictional case against her involving charges of adultery and other offences. Seeing that Anne was doomed, Cranmer, who owed his position to Anne's initial support, claimed that she had misled him. He refused to come to her defence and declared Henry's marriage to Anne to be void, like Catherine's before her. Anne was executed on 19 May 1536.

Definition of the English Church

In 1537, Henry VIII ordered Cranmer to relinquish Otford Palace, which had long been a seat of the archbishop.

In 1536 it became clear that guidelines were needed for the Church of England as it became independent of Rome. Cranmer was the primary author of the Ten Articles – each article was a brief doctrinal statement of the new English Church; today, the phrase 'ten points' or 'ten arguments' would convey the same meaning.

Issued with the approval of the Convocation, the articles denounced both Roman and Protestant practices. The first five articles dealt with doctrine and stated that the Bible, the three creeds – Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed – and the decisions of the Four Great Councils were the basis of faith. They went on to affirm three sacraments (baptism, the Eucharist, and penance) as being instituted by Christ. This was a Lutheran innovation and eliminated the additional Roman Catholic sacraments of confirmation, matrimony, Holy Orders and the Anointing of the Sick. The second five articles were very Catholic in tone, being concerned with maintaining ceremonies under attack on the continent. They permitted the use of icons, allowed invocation of the saints, and encouraged prayers for the dead.

The Articles were anti-papal and reforming in nature. They denounced Roman abuses connected with Purgatory and indulgences and pressed for royal supremacy over papal supremacy. They unified reforming and Catholic currents of thought in a pleasant linguistic style which showed Cranmer's considerable talent as a writer. Cranmer was forced to mediate between radical Protestant reformers, many of whom he would not tolerate, and reactionary Catholic conservatives who would ultimately execute him. The Articles, like the later Prayer Books Cranmer would largely author, provided unity without requiring uniformity.

These reforms deeply divided the kingdom. Both Cranmer and the king's court were shocked when Catholics revolted in the Pilgrimage of Grace, and the court began to see Roman Catholicism not simply as a religion but rather as treason against the state. Henry and Cranmer strongly feared another revolt, which caused them to target as "superstitious" any religious practices that brought together large numbers of people. For this reason, they banned pilgrimages, saints' days, and the display of relics. They were also certain that an army loyal to Rome would soon invade England. To raise funds for the defence of the kingdom, they looted the shrines of Walsingham, St Thomas Becket and others. This did not provide enough money, however, and the monasteries became the next target. Despite having little to do with imposing the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, Cranmer influenced public opinion against the monks. He preached, in his sermons at St. Paul's Cross, if the abbeys went down, the king would never want any taxes again.

Later under Henry VIII (1537–47)

A committee of bishops headed by Cranmer wrote The Institution of the Christian Man (also called The Bishops' Book), which was published in 1537. It was an official formulary of the new Anglican faith in England, and functioned as the next step beyond the Ten Articles. The following year, three German theologians – Francis Burkhardt, vice-chancellor of Saxony; George von Boyneburg, doctor of law; and Friedrich Myconius, superintendent of the church of Gotha – were sent to London and held conferences with the Anglican bishops and clergy in the archbishop’s palace at Lambeth for several months. The Germans presented, as a basis of agreement, a number of Articles based on the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg. Bishops Tunstall, Stokesley and others were not won over by these Protestant arguments and did everything they could to avoid agreement. They were willing to separate from Rome, but their plan was to unite with the Greek church and not with the evangelical Protestants on the continent. The bishops also refused to eliminate what the Germans called the "Abuses" (e.g., private Masses, celibacy of the clergy, invocation of saints) allowed by the reformed English Church. Stokesley considered these customs to be essential because the Greek Church, as it was called at that time, practiced them. In opposition, Cranmer favoured a union with the Germans. It was a confused issue for some of the bishops:

The bishop of Chichester, driven in one direction by the bishop of London and in the opposite by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was much embarrassed, and did not know which way to turn. His decision was for [the bishop of London]. The...Doctors at this period...felt it incumbent upon them to cross all Europe for the purpose of finding in the Turkish empire the Greek rite, which was for them the Gospel.

— J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, The Reformation In England

The German doctors had nothing more to propose and finally Henry, unwilling to break with Catholic practices, dissolved the conference.

Reforms reversed and the Bible in English

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (c. 1485–40), Henry VIII's chief minister 1532–40.

Henry VIII felt uneasy about the appearance of the Lutheran doctors and their theology within his kingdom. The Six Articles, issued in June 1539, was an Act of the Parliament of England which reaffirmed the general national leaning towards Catholicism. The articles reaffirmed six key Catholic doctrines, such as transubstantiation, clerical celibacy and the importance of confession to a priest, and prescribed penalties if anyone denied them. Penalties under the Act ranged from imprisonment and fines, to death. An act of 1540, however, reduced its severity and retained the death penalty only for denial of transubstantiation; a later act limited the original Six Articles' arbitrariness. The secretly-married Cranmer opposed the Six Articles and laid low to avoid punishment. The reforming bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Shaxton resigned their sees in response to the act, and thereafter spent time in custody. Many other arrests under the Act followed.

While Cranmer opposed the Six Articles, he supported a new translation of the Bible. With Thomas Cromwell, the king's chief minister, Cranmer oversaw the translation of the Bible for the laity. He felt strongly, however, that there should be only one edition of the Bible in English, as authorised and overseen by the Church and State.

The Great Bible (so named for its large size) was published in 1539 to accomplish that goal. The Great Bible went through 30 editions (the last printed in 1569) and was used as the authorized Bible of the Anglican Church until it was superseded by the Bishops' Bible in 1568. Since Thomas Cromwell directed its publication, some knew the Great Bible as the Cromwell Bible; others called it the Cranmer Bible because he wrote the preface in the edition of 1540 and perhaps convinced the king to commission the authorised version of 1568. Cranmer’s preface would later be included in the front of the Bishops' Bible.

Royal marriages and executions

Cromwell supported Henry VIII's disposal of Anne Boleyn and subsequent marriage to Jane Seymour. Jane gave birth to Henry's only male heir, Edward VI, on 12 October 1537 and died shortly thereafter. Cranmer encouraged the king to re-marry, which proved to be a serious error. Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves on 6 January 1540, a political alliance that Cranmer and Cromwell had both urged, was a disaster. Cromwell was arrested in May, while Cranmer had the marriage speedily annulled on 9 July. Cranmer turned his back on Cromwell almost as quickly as he had on Anne Boleyn; Cromwell was executed later that year, but Cranmer was spared.

File:HowardCatherine02.jpg

Cranmer told the king of the accusations against Catherine Howard.

Henry waited only a few weeks after the divorce from Anne to marry Catherine Howard, who was rumored to be pregnant with his child, on 28 July 1540. Henry's lifelong, urgent drive to secure the Tudor succession by begetting healthy sons was threatened. Henry was rapidly nearing the age of 50, expanding in girth, and suffering from a number of ailments. The Reformation had cost him much of the goodwill of his people. To make matters worse for the king, Catherine's rumored pregnancy was false and she found marital relations unappealing because she was repulsed by her husband's grotesque body. In late 1541, a religious reformer named John Lascelles presented information to Cranmer about Catherine's marital indiscretions. Lascelles learned of these youthful liaisons from his sister, Mary Hall, who was a royal chambermaid.

Cranmer gave Henry a letter with the accusations against Catherine on 2 November 1541, as they attended an All Souls' Day Mass. Henry at first refused to believe the allegations, thinking the letter was a forgery, and requested Cranmer to investigate further the matter. Within a few days, Cranmer found corroborative proof, including the confessions issued from two men after they were tortured in the Tower of London; as well as a love letter written distinctively in Catherine's handwriting to one of them. The Crown arrested Catherine on 12 November. They ignored her pleas to see Henry, and Cranmer interrogated her regarding the charges. Even the staunch Cranmer found Catherine's frantic, incoherent state pitiable, saying, "I found her in such lamentation and heavyness as I never saw no creature, so that it would have pitied any man's heart to have looked upon her." He ordered the guards to remove any objects that she may use to commit suicide. Catherine was executed on 13 February, 1542.

Final years of Henry VIII

Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was one of Cranmer's most vocal opponents.

Cranmer largely wrote the King's Book, which defended transubstantiation and the Six Articles, and published it in 1543. He also authored the Exhortation and Litany, the earliest English-language service book of the Church of England. It was no mere translation of a Roman service from Latin; the role of the saints was drastically reduced, compressing what had been a major part of the Mass into three petitions. Published in 1544, it was the only service finished within the lifetime of Henry VIII. Cranmer's political influence was in decline, however, and conservatives like Bishop Stephen Gardiner held more sway over the king.

Bishops Gardiner and Edmund Bonner attempted to destroy Cranmer as a heretic on various occasions. In 1543, the conservatives laboured together with Kentish colleagues to remove Cranmer by formal complaint, in what became known as the Prebendaries Plot. In 1545, another conspiracy was formed to effect Cranmer's overthrow. The king, however, refused to part with Cranmer and all conspiracies against the archbishop failed.

Shortly before the king's death, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (Jane Seymour's brother) managed to gain control over the Privy Council, through alliances with influential figures such as John Dudley, Viscount Lisle. Seymour then set himself to the task of persuading Henry to change his will to replace the conservatives named as the king's executors with reformers. Henry was once more heavily influenced by Archbishop Cranmer and the king agreed to the changes.

Despite their tumultuous history, Cranmer greatly admired the king. On Henry's death in 1547, he declared he would never again shave his beard as a sign of mourning.

Archbishop under Edward VI (1547–53)

After Henry's death, Cranmer became an indispensable advisor to the king's son and successor, Edward VI. As a nine-year-old child, Edward was at the mercy of self-serving and unscrupulous regents, such as his uncle, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (1547–49) and John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. During Edward's reign, Cranmer would perform the great liturgical reforms he had hoped for. Bishops who resisted, like Gardiner, were removed from their sees and imprisoned.

Concerned about the need for good preaching and the lack of literate clergy, Cranmer compiled and wrote the first Book of Homilies, which contained twelve sermons and focused strongly upon the character of God. The homilies were collected and published in 1547.

Book of Common Prayer

Cranmer next contributed to an English language liturgy of a more Protestant character than the traditional Roman Mass. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), as it came to be known, was heavily influenced by continental theologians, such as Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer (both of whom Cranmer hosted in England), and Hermann of Wied. Cranmer was credited with the first two editions of the BCP. The first edition, published in 1549, was very Catholic in its outlook. The communion service, lectionary, and collects in the liturgy were all based, with some changes, on the Sarum Rite as practised in Salisbury Cathedral. One change was due to an order of Convocation of the previous year, which dictated that Communion was to be given as both bread and wine.

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King Edward VI of England, in whose reign the reform of the Anglican Church continued.

The full prayer book included several liturgical texts, including the following: a daily office; readings for Sundays and Holy Days; the Communion Service; services for public baptism, confirmation, matrimony, and visitation of the sick; rites for burials; and the Ordinal (added in 1550). The preface to this edition, which contained Cranmer's explanation as to why a new prayer book was necessary, began: "There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted."

Although Cranmer is credited with the overall editorship and structure of the BCP, its detailed origins are obscure. A group of bishops and divines, drawn from both conservatives and reformers, met first at Chertsey and then at Windsor in 1548 and agreed only that "the service of the church ought to be in the mother tongue". Cranmer was a great plagiarist; even the opening of Preface (quoted above) was borrowed.

At the time of its introduction, popular rebellions by Roman Catholics, such as the Prayer Book Rebellion, took place in Devon, Cornwall, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and East Anglia. Rather than slowing the pace of reform, these revolts emboldened Cranmer. Use of the Prayer Book was enforced by an Act of Uniformity 1549 but it served only to antagonise Protestants and Roman Catholics in the realm. Outside of bloody reprisals in Cornwall, the Duke of Somerset and Cranmer did not encourage persecution. They refrained from it, as they feared invasion by Europe's powerful Catholic monarchs, especially Emperor Charles V.

Cranmer's second edition of the Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1552. This new edition was more Protestant in nature, greatly toning down the sacrificial element in the Eucharist, removing prayers for the dead, and removing many ceremonies, including the admixture of water with the wine at Communion, the exorcism of the salt and the triple immersion in baptism. At this time, Cranmer encouraged the destruction of art work, statues, and relics. More than 450 years later, these first editions of the BCP remain largely intact and authoritative for much of the Anglican world.

Other works

A Portrait of Thomas Cranmer by an unknown artist – Lambeth Palace, London

Cranmer published Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, which propagated a new doctrine of the Eucharist, in July 1550. Cranmer disagreed with the view that the elements are simply ordinary bread and wine and did not require respect, but he denied transubstantiation. The exact wording of his opinions in the book, however, has created many differences of opinion as to his precise belief about the nature of the Eucharist. Throughout the book, Cranmer referred to a book written by Bishop Gardiner in 1546. Gardiner wrote this book as a retort to Cranmer while imprisoned in the Tower of London during the summer and autumn of 1550. It was severely critical of all of Cranmer's arguments and successfully cited a range of sources supporting the doctrine of the Real Presence, such as the Book of Common Prayer, Martin Luther, Cranmer's own Catechism, and other Lutheran writers.

The Forty-Two Articles were largely Cranmer's work. Like Cranmer's earlier attempts, he intended that the Articles would summarise Anglican doctrine. They were to be short formularies, which would demonstrate the faith revealed in Scripture and the Catholic creeds. Completed in 1552, Cranmer issued them on 19 June, 1553. It was claimed that the Articles received the authority of a Convocation, although this is doubtful.

Final years (1553–56)

Against his better judgement, Cranmer sided with Northumberland and endorsed Lady Jane Grey as queen after young Edward's death on 13 April, 1553. Within days of Jane's perceived usurpation of the throne, Mary Tudor became queen. Mary was the child of Henry VIII's first marriage to Catherine of Aragon and was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. In line with her Catholic beliefs, she began the process of restoring the old ties with Rome. Inevitably, this had a profound effect on Cranmer and the institutions of church and state with which he was inextricably associated.

Cranmer’s martyrdom, from John Foxe’s book (1563)

Cranmer was first charged and convicted of treason for his support of Lady Jane Grey, but Mary spared his life. Mary resolved to have Cranmer tried for heresy, and he remained in prison until charges were brought against him in February 1556. Cranmer remained the Archbishop of Canterbury, however, because the negotiations for reunion with Rome were not yet complete.

In 1554, Reginald Cardinal Pole, the papal legate, was sent to England to receive the kingdom back into the Roman fold. Queen Mary and her cousin, Emperor Charles V, however, deliberately delayed his arrival until 20 November 1554, due to apprehension that Pole might oppose the Queen's forthcoming marriage to Charles' son, Philip II of Spain. On 30 November, St Andrew's day, the Church of England was again united with the Church of Rome.

Pole's arrival was followed by an Act of Parliament, the Revival of the Heresy Acts. This revived three former Acts against heresy; the letters patent of 1382 of King Richard II, an Act of 1401 of King Henry IV, and an Act of 1414 of King Henry V. All three of these laws had been repealed under Henry VIII and Edward VI. On 13 November, 1555, Cranmer was officially deprived of the See of Canterbury. Weakened by more than two years in prison, Cranmer signed several recantations affirming his belief in transubstantiation and papal supremacy. This should have absolved him under Mary’s own Heresy Act, but the queen could not forget Cranmer's responsibility for her mother's unhappy divorce. Cranmer was sentenced to death by burning.

Death at the stake

Stained glass window depicting martyrdom of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer – Christ Church (Episcopal), Little Rock, Arkansas

According to John Foxe, on 21 March 1556, Cranmer was brought in procession to St. Mary’s Church in Oxford, where he was to make a public statement affirming his recantation. Instead, Cranmer withdrew his recantation and denounced Catholic doctrine and the pope from the pulpit, reportedly stating, "And as for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine." After this Cranmer was taken to be burned at the stake. According to Foxe's Book of Martyrs:

Then was an iron chain tied about Cranmer and fire set unto him. When the wood was kindled and the fire began to burn near him, he stretched forth his right hand, which had signed his recantation, into the flames, and there held it so the people might see it burnt to a coal before his body was touched. In short, he was so patient and constant in the midst of his tortures, that he seemed to move no more than the stake to which he was bound; his eyes were lifted up to heaven, and often he said, so long as his voice would suffer him, "this unworthy right hand!" and often using the words of Stephen, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit", till the fury of the flames putting him to silence, he gave up the ghost.

— John Foxe, Foxe's Book of Martyrs

This is confirmed by an account from a Roman Catholic observer known only as J.A.. Reginald Cardinal Pole was officially consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury the following day. Cranmer's Forty-Two Articles had not been enforced by Act of Parliament and there was no need to repeal them. They would never be enforced. After Mary's death, they would become the basis of the Thirty Nine Articles.

Recognition and legacy

Six months before Cranmer's own burning, Bishops Ridley and Latimer were burnt at the stake on 16 October 1555 and Cranmer had been forced to watch the executions from Bocardo prison in Cornmarket. These three Oxford martyrdoms are commemorated by the Victorian Martyrs' Memorial.

The subservience with which Cranmer met Henry's uncontrolled demands, as well as the timorousness which made him sell out his friends and be complicit in acts of intolerance and religious violence, are scars on his legacy. Nevertheless, it was largely due to Cranmer that the Church of England emerged from the English Reformation retaining the ancient Christian faith and the Apostolic Succession, which had largely been lost by continental Protestants. Cranmer is commemorated by the Church of England on 21 March. The Episcopal Church in the United States of America commemorates him with the other Oxford martyrs on 16 October.

The current official Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England (1662) was based on Cranmer's earlier editions, as are numerous other Prayer Books in use through out the Anglican Communion. To this day, clergy in the Church of England are required to acknowledge the Thirty-Nine Articles as one of the historic formularies of the faith.

Mrs Cranmer's box

Mrs. Cranmer's box is a ribald reference to the hidden existence of Cranmer's second wife, Margaret, and her means of concealment. The story is more apocryphal than historical and describes her travelling method between Cranmer's houses. Diarmaid MacCulloch traces one branch of this particular legend to a Roman Catholic source some 58 years later, which made up the story as an odd attack against Cranmer. Another branch appears to have originated at a fire at Canterbury where Cranmer showed excess concern for crates of books, so much so that on-lookers thought his wife must be in one. The tale arose that:

He kept his woman very close, and sometimes carried her about with him in a great chest full of holes, that his pretty nobsey might take breath at.

Fictional portrayals

Cranmer has appeared as a character in several plays and movies which depict the Tudor period. He is a supporting character in William Shakespeare's Henry VIII and Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. In the film version of the latter, he was played by Cyril Luckham. He was portrayed by Bernard Hepton in the TV miniseries, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970). James Frain portrays Cranmer in the Showtime television series The Tudors.

See also

• List of archbishops of Canterbury

Further reading

• Ayris, Paul. God’s Vicegerent and Christ’s Vicar: the Relationship Between the Crown and the Archbishopric of Canterbury, 1533–53. Pages 115–56 in Thomas Cranmer: Churchman and Scholar. Edited by Paul Ayris & David Selwyn. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1993

• Bromiley, G. W. Thomas Cranmer: Archbishop and Martyr. London: The Church Book Room Press, 1956.

• Brooks, Peter N. Cranmer from His Correspondence. The Expository Times 101/1 (1989): 8–12.

• Brownell, Kenneth. Thomas Cranmer: Compromiser or Strategist?. Pages 1–16 in The Reformation of Worship: Papers Read at the 1989 Westminster Conference. London: Westminster Conference, 1989

• Elliott, Maurice. Cranmer, a Man Under Authority: An Introduction. Churchman 109/1 (1995): 61–65.

• _______. Cranmer’s Attitude to the Bible: “Lucerna Pedibus Meis Verbum Tuum”. Churchman 109/1 (1995): 66–76.

• _______. Cranmer’s Attitude to the Monarchy: Royal Absolutism and the Godly Prince. Churchman 109/3 (1995): 238–49.

• _______. Cranmer’s Attitude to the Papacy: “And as for the Pope, I Refuse Him as Christ’s Enemy”. Churchman 109/2 (1995): 132–42.

• Kastan, David S. The Noyse of the New Bible: Reform and Reaction in Henrician England. Pages 46–68 in Religion and Culture in Renaissance England. Edited by Claire McEachern and Debora Shuger. Cambridge: University Press, 1997

• MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Archbishop Cranmer: Concord and Tolerance in a Changing Church. Pages 199–215 in Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation. Edited by Ole P. Grell and Bob Scribner. Cambridge: University Press, 1996

• Null, Ashley. Thomas Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love. Oxford: University Press, 2000.

• Rafferty, Oliver P. Thomas Cranmer and the Royal Supremacy. The Heythrop Journal 31 (1990): 129–49.

• Redworth, Glyn. A Study in the Formulation of Policy: The Genesis and Evolution of the Act of Six Articles. Journal of Ecclesiastical History 37/1 (1986): 42–67.

External links

• "The Book of Common Prayer". The Church of England. Retrieved 2007-09-27. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)

• "The execution Archbishop of Thomas Cranmer,1556". Primary sources @ EnglishHistory.net. Retrieved 2007-09-27. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)

• "Historic figures:Thomas Cranmer (1489 - 1556)". BBC. Retrieved 2007-09-27. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)

• "Letter of Thomas Cranmer on Henry VIII's divorce, 1533". Internet Medieval Sourcebook @ Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies. Retrieved 2007-09-27. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)

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