Birth of Thomas Cranmer ~ Archbishop of Canterbury

 

 On this day ~ 2nd July 1489 
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 Birth of Thomas Cranmer ~ Archbishop of Canterbury 

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 Thomas Cranmer is one of the most influential religious characters of his time.

Along with Thomas Cromwell, he supported the principle of royal supremacy, in which the king was considered sovereign over the Church within his realm.

A Protestant martyr in the reign of Mary I, Thomas Cranmer was a significant figure, serving as the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury.

 Thomas Cranmer was born on 2nd July 1489, in Aslockton in Nottinghamshire, England
Historians know nothing definite about Cranmer's early years.

At the age of fourteen 14, he was sent to the newly created Jesus College, Cambridge.
During this time, he began to collect medieval scholastic books, which he preserved faithfully throughout his life.

 When Cardinal Wolsey, the king's Lord Chancellor, selected several Cambridge scholars, to be diplomats throughout Europe, Cranmer was chosen as the resident ambassador at the court of Charles V ~ Holy Roman Emperor.

It was there, Cranmer had contact with many reformers.
The ideas extolled by Martin Luther began to resonate with Cranmer.

 When Henry VIII’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon was in decline, the king was keen to find support for his annulment.
Cranmer stood up and accepted the task.

His attempt at garnering support for Henry VIII's annulment, did not go so well.

Nevertheless, this did not appear to have an adverse effect on his career, as he was then appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury.

It's without doubt, that this role was secured largely due to the influence of Anne Boleyn’s family, who had a vested interest in seeing Henry's annulment secured.

 With his newly acquired role as Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer would lay the foundations of the Church of England.

With the position bringing him prestige and status, Cranmer remained undeterred in his pursuit of annulment for the king.

This became even more important after Anne Boleyn’s pregnancy.

With much urgency, the king and Cranmer looked into the legalities for ending the royal marriage.
On 23rd May 1533, Cranmer announced that King Henry VIII’s marriage with Katharine of Aragon, was against the law of God.

 Whilst Henry could not have been happier with this outcome, back in Rome, Pope Clement VII was incandescent with rage, and had Henry excommunicated.

In September the same year, Anne gave birth to a baby girl, Elizabeth.

Cranmer himself performed the baptism ceremony, and served as godparent to the future queen.

 After Anne Boleyn was arrested for treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London, Cranmer wrote a letter to Henry VIII expressing his doubts about her guilt, and highlighting his own esteem for her.

However, Cranmer resigned himself to the fact that the end of Anne's marriage was inevitable, and that she would ultimately be ex3cuted.

 This was a time of great change in religious, social and cultural terms, with Cranmer fast becoming one of the influential figureheads at this time.

Cranmer’s position of authority continued when Henry VIII’s son Edward VI succeeded to the throne.

Cranmer continued with his plans for the reformation, and was able to promote some major religious reforms.

In this time he produced the Book of Common Prayer.

 When Edward VI passed away only a few months later, his sister Mary I, a devout Roman Catholic, restored her faith to the country.

She banished the likes of Cranmer, and his Book of Prayer, to the shadows.

As Cranmer was a significant and well-known figurehead of the English Reformation, he became a prime target for the new Catholic queen.

 In the autumn, Queen Mary ordered his arrest, placing him on trial on the charges of treason and heresy.

Desperate to survive his impending fate, Cranmer renounced his ideals and recanted his faith ~ but to no avail.

Imprisoned for two years, Mary had no intentions of saving this Protestant figurehead ~ his destiny was his ex3cution.

 On 21st March 1556, 66 year old Cranmer boldly withdrew his recantation.

Cranmer vowed that his right hand, the hand that he had used to write his recantations, and written for fear of death, would be the first part of him burned in the fire.

"This is the hand that wrote it, and therefore shall it
suffer first punishment."

Proud of his beliefs, he embraced his fate, burning at the stake ~ dying a heretic to the Roman Catholics, and a martyr for the Protestants.

 As the flames licked around him, Cranmer stretched out his right hand and thrust it into the flames, crying with a loud voice ~

"This hand hath offended!!"

He held it in the fire till it was burnt to a cinder, even before his body was injured.

 The last words from a man who changed the course of history in England forever, were ~

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
I see the heavens open and Jesus
standing at the right hand of God."

Cranmer was buried in St Mary Magdalen's Church, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.

Cranmer's legacy lives on within the Church of England, through his 'Book of Common Prayer'

The Tudor Intruders (and more)

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 Source ~ historic-uk/HistoryofEngland/Thomas-Cranmer.
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 Portrait of Cranmer painted by an unknown artist after Henry VIII's death.

It was said that his beard signified his mourning of the king, and his rejection of the old Church.