Thomas Cranmer

Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII of England, is nicknamed “Bloody Mary,” for her rule saw large numbers of Christians put to death for their acceptance of Protestantism.

Three squares in Christchurch, New Zealand are named after some of these martyrs, men who are foremost in the history of the Reformation in England. These squares are Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley. (Ridley being the original name of “Cathedral Square”)

Thomas Cranmer had tremendous influence on the development of the Reformation in England. He was an advisor to the Catholic Henry VIII, and to his Protestant son, the young Edward VI.

As a young man between 1520 and 1532 his views were becoming more and more reformed through his study of Luther, but it was political events that changed his ambitions for reform from the academic to the practical. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Cranmer approached this question from the Scriptural view of forbidding marriage to the wife of a deceased brother. (Catherine was the widow of Henry’s elder brother)

In 1533 Cranmer was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury and resolved the matter for the King against the opinion of the Pope, with this Scriptural argument, pronouncing Catherine’s marriage void, and Anne’s valid. This paved the way for future events, for Catherine was the mother of Mary I, an avid Roman Catholic, while Anne gave birth to Elizabeth I who was brought up Protestant.

The King had no desire to change the shape of the Church of England, he rejected Reformed teachings while Cranmer was conforming more and more to the Reformation. Yet Henry both liked and trusted Cranmer for he was not greedy, devious or self seeking like so many that opposed him. This “curious attachment” of King Henry’s saved Cranmer from at least three plots on his life.

During the short reign of Henry’s only son, Edward VI, Cranmer continued his work of transforming the worship of the Church of England but the death of Edward VI in his twenties and Cranmer’s support of Lady Jane Grey brought his downfall. Mary’s upon her succession tried to destroy the Reformation in England. She was determined that Cranmer should die for promoting Protestantism.

Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer were all tried for heresy. Cranmer was forced to witness the first two being burnt at the stake and was then persuaded to sign a recantation of his beliefs, in faint hope of mercy. This recantation was published in the hope that it would wreck Protestantism in England, but it did not save his life. On March 21, 1556 he was taken out to be burnt. Here though, the Queen’s representatives over-reached themselves. They required Cranmer to confirm his recantation publicly. To the shock of his enemies, Cranmer instead boldly withdrew his recantation, reasserting that the pope had no right to power in the realm of England, and that transubstantiation was untrue. Then he steadfastly held what he considered as his ‘traitorous’ right hand in the flames, so that this hand, which had offended by signing his previous recantation, should be consumed first by the flames.
“His brave and dignified end made an enormous impression... and at one blow, Cranmer undid all that government propaganda had achieved, and restored heart to the surviving reformers.”