Thomas Cranmer: Archbishop, Reformer, and Anglican Founder

Introduction

As the Archbishop of Canterbury during the tumultuous reign of Henry VIII, Thomas Cranmer was in an extraordinary position to effect changes in England's political and religious direction. Through his writings, Cranmer laid the foundations for establishing the Church of England and moved England along the path of the growing European Reformation Movement.

By facilitating the numerous divorces of Henry VIII, he helped to weaken the authority of the Pope in England and contributed to the greater hold of the King over ecclesiastical affairs.

Cranmer and Henry VIII

This paper examines the effects of Cranmer's developing theology on the history of Tudor England. The first part looks at the role Cranmer played in justifying the theological bases of Henry VIII's numerous divorces. The next part examines Cranmer's religious convictions, as enshrined in the Ten Articles and later in the two versions of the Book of Common Prayer. The final section evaluates Cranmer's continuing legacy in the areas of English culture, literacy, and especially in the flourishing of the Anglican faith in England.

Cranmer enjoyed a close, though definitely unequal, relationship with Henry VIII. This relationship stemmed from Henry VIII's desire to dissolve his marriage to Catherine of Aragon due to her failure to provide him a male heir. Upon being released from his marital vows, the monarch was determined to marry the palace lady Anne Boleyn. Only the specific disapproval and warnings of the Pope prevented Henry VIII from consummating his divorce and second marriage.

By this time, Cranmer — then a fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge — had expressed the opinion that there was a solid theological basis for dissolving the King's marriage to Catherine. Catherine had previously been married to Henry VIII's brother, and as a result, Cranmer argued that the monarch's marriage to his brother's former wife was null and void from the very beginning, based on Leviticus 20:21 (Tucker).

These views attracted the attention of Henry VIII, who promptly appointed Cranmer as chaplain to the King. Cranmer was then sent to Italy to argue the case for the monarch's divorce directly to Pope Clement. The appeals, however, failed, as the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII the divorce.

Despite this failure, Henry VIII appointed Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest office in the Church of England. In his position as Archbishop, Cranmer drafted an influential treatise aimed at convincing academic leaders of the case for divorce. The treatise again argued based on Leviticus 20:21. Though the treatise was ignored by most European universities, Cranmer's writings managed to convince the scholars of Oxford University and the University of Paris to side with the King.

After assuming the post of Archbishop, Cranmer convened an ecclesiastical court on May 23, 1533, to invalidate the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine. A few days later, he declared the marriage of the monarch to Anne Boleyn to be lawful. This ecclesiastical decision had two immediate effects. First, it earned Cranmer the enduring affection of Henry VIII, who made the Archbishop godfather to his daughter Elizabeth — the future Elizabeth I. Second, the decision earned the enduring enmity of Henry and Catherine's daughter Mary, a devout Catholic who was rendered illegitimate by Cranmer's ruling.

However, Cranmer's actions concerning Henry VIII's subsequent marriages and divorces represent a troubling chapter in his career. While his earlier ecclesiastical rulings concerning Catherine were based on his interpretation of Leviticus and his growing suspicion of papal authority, Cranmer's later dispensations could not be justified on the same grounds.

In 1536, when Anne herself failed to produce a male heir, Cranmer was forced to declare Henry's second marriage void based on allegations of Anne's sexual dalliances with several men, including her own brother. Because the divorce was granted on grounds of sexual infidelity, Cranmer played an important role in the beheading of the former queen. This decision also served to bastardize Elizabeth.

Cranmer continued to grant Henry VIII dispensations for divorce. After the death of Jane Seymour — who had finally provided the male heir — Cranmer presided over Henry VIII's marriage to Anne of Cleves, a marriage he was forced to dissolve just three years later. In 1541, Cranmer again granted the monarch a divorce after allegations of infidelity and loose morality were levied against Catherine Howard. The Archbishop's ruling thus paved the way for the execution of yet another of Henry VIII's wives.

Many historians view Cranmer's actions regarding the divorces as a weakness. Biographer Diarmaid MacCulloch, for example, wrote that the decision regarding Anne Boleyn was "a stain on Cranmer's reputation, the unacceptable face of his loyalty to the Supreme Head" (MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer 158).

Others, however, recognize that Cranmer arrived at the divorce decisions based on his conviction of the irrelevance of papal authority in England, and that his acquiescence was the only cautious course of action in the face of Henry VIII's erratic moods. Merle d'Aubigné argued that "the natural timidity of his character, the compromises he thought it his duty to make with regard to the hierarchy, his fear of Henry VIII" were in keeping with the Archbishop's moderate temperament (212). These clerical concessions, in turn, enabled Cranmer to pursue his other reformist agendas, particularly the reform of canon law.

Cranmer's Teachings and Writings

Even before assuming the office of Archbishop, Cranmer had already begun to drift away from Catholicism. In 1532, for example, he rejected the Catholic Church's doctrine of priestly celibacy when he secretly married Margaret, the twenty-year-old niece of a Lutheran reformer. His choice of marriage partner — a young citizen of a reformist-oriented country — also signaled his growing acceptance of continental Protestant doctrine.

By 1536, Cranmer convened a doctrinal commission and released the Ten Articles, the first declaration of faith made by the Church of England. These articles collectively reflected a drift toward reformist positions, and Cranmer's actions further aligned England with the Lutheran churches of Germany and Switzerland — an alliance that Henry VIII actively pursued in 1538 by opening negotiations with representatives of German Lutherans.

In 1537, the revised version of the Ten Articles was codified into the Bishop's Book. The Bishop's Book revealed its Catholic roots in its discussions of the sacraments of baptism, penance, and the Lord's Supper. However, it was conspicuously silent on the sacraments of matrimony, confirmation, holy orders, and last rites. The Bishop's Book also condemned many of the Catholic Church's traditional doctrines, even some underlying rituals that the Church of England had adopted (MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer).

By August 1537, Cranmer turned his attention to the creation of an English Bible, petitioning Thomas Cromwell for permission to sell copies to the public. Earlier, in 1534, Cranmer had petitioned the King to convene a group of scholars to translate the Bible into English. The new version was completed in 1541. Known as the Great Bible on account of its size, it was distributed throughout churches across England. Though its distribution was also made possible by Thomas Cromwell's political efforts, the Great Bible was alternatively known as Cranmer's Bible.

It should be noted that during this period, reading the Bible was considered a sacred and restricted activity. In fact, Parliament passed a law in 1543 forbidding women and those of lower social rank from reading the Bible at home.

However, in the preface to the Great Bible, Cranmer specifically wrote that this Bible was intended for:

"men, women, young, old, learned, rich, poor, priests, laymen, lords, ladies, officers, tenants and mean men, virgins, wives, widows, lawyers, merchants, artificers, husbandmen — and all manner of persons, of what estate or condition soever they be — may in this book learn... what they ought to believe, what they ought to do, and what they should not do."

The preface is significant because it expresses Cranmer's conviction that salvation lay not in devotion to the Catholic Church's pronouncements, catechisms, and proposals, but rather in a person's understanding of and devotion to the Verbum Dei — the "Word of God."

Cranmer thus instructed readers of the Great Bible to bring "a firm and stable purpose to reform his own self according thereunto; and so to continue, proceed, and prosper from time to time, showing himself to be a sober and fruitful hearer and learner." In this passage, Cranmer argued against looking toward Rome for guidance and salvation, urging members of the Church of England to study the Verbum Dei themselves.

By the mid-1530s, the Reformation Movement in England was in full swing, and Cranmer had made several enemies due to his unorthodox religious views. In 1536, he abolished holy days, including the feast of St. Thomas à Becket. He forbade the veneration of relics and sacred images, and further scandalized Catholic traditionalists by eating meat on the eve of important religious feasts.

Despite making powerful enemies, Cranmer remained protected from heresy charges by King Henry VIII. In 1543, Cranmer produced a replacement for the Bishop's Book called A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man. Though nearly identical to its predecessor, it departed in several ways. Against Cranmer's advice, Henry VIII included a declaration that individuals needed faith in addition to devotion to the Verbum Dei in order to achieve salvation, and additionally decreed that reading the Bible was not necessary if it proved inconvenient. It was on the basis of these statements that Parliament passed the 1543 law forbidding anyone below the rank of gentleman and merchant from reading the Bible.

By 1546, Cranmer made another important departure from Catholicism by shifting from a Lutheran to a Reformed view of the Lord's Supper — also called the sacrament of communion. He came to believe that transubstantiation — the doctrine that the communion wafer and wine actually transform into the body and blood of Christ — was nothing more than symbolic. He therefore became convinced that Christ did not have a "real presence" during the Sacrament of Communion. This was a significant development, given that transubstantiation is a cornerstone of the Catholic faith and that Cranmer had previously presided over councils where those who challenged it were sent to the stake.

While Henry VIII supported a church free from Roman control, he did not want a fully Protestant church. This resulted in the stop-and-go nature of the Reformist movement in England. Shortly before his death, Henry VIII even considered re-pledging allegiance to Rome.

Upon Henry VIII's death, Cranmer felt more free to preach his reformist doctrine. In 1547, he released a book of homilies written for dissemination in parish churches throughout the country. This volume included sermons on salvation, good works, and the importance of true Christian faith. Cranmer's objective was to teach his constituents that salvation was a free gift given by God through a person's faith, as expressed by an acceptance of the Verbum Dei. A favorite example was Dismas, the thief who was saved not by good works but by professing faith as he was dying on the cross. Through these sermons, Cranmer criticized "papistical superstitions and abuses" such as holy water, holy bread, and the prohibition against clerical marriage.