1489-1556 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, an important figure during the Reformation in England, friend and counsellor of Henry VIII, was born on July 2, 1489. He was sent to Cambridge at the age of fourteen, where he entered Jesus College. He was made a fellow of his college in 1510. It must be considered a mere accident that transferred Cranmer from the quiet seclusion of university life to the din and bustle of the Court of his King. Cranmer's opinion on the validity of Henry's marriage with Catharine of Aragon was reported to the King, and his views being entirely favorable to the King, dispensing, moreover, with the appeal to Rome, Henry sent for Cranmer with the well-authenticated summons: 'I will speak to him. Let him be sent for out of hand. This man, I trow, has got the right sow by the ear." Cranmer was now ordered to devote himself entirely to this question of divorce. He was to draw up a treatise defending the position he had taken by arguments from Scripture, the fathers, and decrees from general councils. He then was ordered to plead and defend his arguments before the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. But he was soon sent to plead before a higher tribunal. The King, still hoping to obtain the consent of Pope Clement VII to his plans of divorce, sent Cranmer to Rome. His visit, however, bore no practical results. He went on a similar mission as ambassador to the Emperor Charles V, achieving no greater success with this monarch than with the Pope. During his stay in Germany Cranmer met the German theologian, Osiander, whose niece he married early in 1532. He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533. During the succeeding years Cranmer invalidated successively the marriages of Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, and Catharine Howard. Cranmer thus became the tool of Henry and involved in the most scandalous transactions of his reign. He renounced his allegiance to Rome in 1535, and in 1548 was at the head of the commission appointed to compose the English prayer-book. He was persuaded by Edward VI to sign the patent which conferred the crown on Lady Jane Grey to the exclusion of Mary and Elizabeth, and on the accession of Mary he was committed to the Tower for treason. He was tried subsequently for heresy, and in spite of many recantations (which he repudiated at the stake) he was burned at the stake, March 21, 1556. Cranmer used his great influence with the King to the spread of the English Bible among the people, being himself a profound scholar of the Scriptures. In the midst of the many difficulties around him and the controversies that engaged him, Cranmer found time to devote himself to theological speculations. On the subject of his "Defence of Transubstantiation," he became involved in animated discussions with the Bishops of Winchester and the Catholic theologian, Richard Smith. To Cranmer, as one of the eminent prose writers of his time, this tribute has been paid by a distinguished writer and critic on English literature: "His compositions are characterized, if not by any remarkable strength of expression or weight of matter, yet by a full and even flow both of words and thought. On the whole Cranmer was the greatest writer among the founders of the English Reformation." Cranmer's speech at the stake has a peculiar pathos of its own and a sincerity that is at once eloquent and convincing. G SPEECH AT THE STAKE OOD people, I had intended indeed to desire you to pray for me; which because Mr. Doctor hath desired, and you have done already, I thank you most heartily for it. And now will I pray for myself, as I could best devise for mine own comfort and say the prayer, word for word, as I have here written it. [And he read it standing; and afterwards kneeled down and said the Lord's Prayer, and all the people on their knees devoutedly praying with him. His prayer was thus:] O Father of heaven; O Son of God, redeemer of the word; O Holy Ghost, proceeding from them both, three persons and one God, have mercy upon me, most wretched caitiff and miserable sinner. I, who have offended both heaven and earth, and more grievously than any tongue can express, whither then may I go, or whither should I fly for succor? To heaven I may be ashamed to lift up mine eyes; and in earth I find no refuge. What shall I then do? shall I despair? God forbid. O good God, thou art merciful, and refusest none that come unto thee for succor. To thee, therefore, do I run. To thee do I humble myself saying, O Lord God, my sins be great; but yet have mercy upon me for thy great mercy. O God the Son, thou wast not made man, this great mystery was not wrought for few or small offences. Nor thou didst not give thy Son unto death, O God the Father, for our little and small sins only, but for all the greatest sins of the world, so that the sinner return unto thee with a penitent heart, as I do here at this present. Wherefore have mercy upon me, O Lord, whose property is always to have mercy. For although my sins be great, yet thy mercy is greater. I crave nothing, O Lord, for mine own merits, but for thy Name's sake, that it may be glorified thereby, and for thy dear Son, Jesus Christ's sake. |