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Thomas Cranmer Biography

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CRANMER, Thomas (1489–1556). Reformer of the English church and the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. [see Reformation] He was born at Aslacton, in the County of Nottingham, on July 2, 1489. In his fourteenth year he went to Jesus College, Cambridge, of which he was elected a fellow in 1510, but lost his position temporarily by marriage, being reëlected on his wife's death. In 1523 he took his degree of D.D. and was appointed lecturer on theology. In 1529, during the prevalence of the sweating sickness in Cambridge, he retired with two pupils to Waltham Abbey; and Henry VIII, in company with Gardiner and Fox, afterward bishops of Winchester and Hereford, happening to be in the neighborhood, the event proved a turning point in the life of Cranmer. The King was then taking steps to secure his divorce from Catharine of Aragon, and in conversation on the subject with Gardiner and Fox, Cranmer suggested that if the universities could be induced to declare that, in their opinion, the first marriage was unlawful, the King would be free to marry again. Henry was greatly pleased with this idea, and is said to have sworn, "by the Mother of God, that man hath the right sow by the ear." Cranmer was asked to reduce his suggestion to writing and to have it submitted to the European universities. After this he was appointed archdeacon of Taunton and one of the royal chaplains. He was also sent to Rome on a special embassy in the matter of the divorce, but met with little success. Subsequently he was dispatched to the Emperor Charles V on the same errand; and while in Germany he married a second time, a niece of the German divine Osiander. Shortly afterward, on the death of Archbishop Warham, he was recalled to fill the vacant see of Canterbury. He was consecrated Archbishop March 30, 1533. Under his auspices Henry's divorce was speedily carried through the Archbishop's Court at Dunstable, and on May 28 he announced the legality of the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn, which had taken place four months before. In Anne's subsequent disgrace, and again in the affair of Anne of Cleves, the Archbishop took a part not very creditable to him. His position was no doubt a difficult one; but his character was naturally pliable and timid rather than resolved and consistent. The same spirit characterizes the measures of religious reform which were promoted by him. On the one hand he joined actively with Henry in restricting the power of the Pope, though he seems to have had less to do with suppressing the monasteries; but, on the other hand, he was no less active in persecuting men like Frith, Forrest, and others, who on matters of religious faith were disposed to advance further than himself or the King. The key to the dilemma probably lies in Cranmer's idea of the royal supremacy. To his mind the power of the King in ecclesiastical affairs was absolute, and the duty of the Archbishop was to carry out the views of his royal master. Hence his advocacy of the "via media" under Henry, his advanced Protestantism under Edward VI, and, perhaps, his recantations under Mary. He did what he could, however, to resist the reactionary movement which took place in 1539, and which is known by the institution of the six articles. He was also instrumental in promoting the translation and circulation of the Scriptures. On Henry VIII's death Cranmer was appointed one of the regents of the kingdom and, along with Latimer and others, largely contributed to the advance of the Protestant cause during the reign of Edward VI. He assisted in the compilation of the service book and the articles of religion. The latter are said to have been chiefly composed by him. He was also the author of four of the homilies.

On the accession of Mary he was committed to the Tower, together with Latimer and Ridley. In March, 1554, they were removed to Oxford and confined there in the common prison, called the "Bocardo." Latimer and Ridley bore their cruel fate with magnanimous courage; but the spirit and principles of Cranmer temporarily gave way under the severity of his sufferings. He was induced to sign no fewer than seven recantations, though there is no ground for supposing that a hope of pardon was held out to him. On March 21, 1556, he suffered martyrdom, as his fellow reformers had done, opposite Balliol College. His courage returned at the end, and he showed an unexpected fortitude in the midst of the flames.