Thomas Cranmer and the Church of England
Thomas Cranmer was an English theologian and reformer who lived from 1489 to 1556. Cranmer was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532 after the death of archbishop William Warham. King Henry VIII pushed for the appointment of Cranmer due to his loyalty to the royal family. During this time, King Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon, his brother’s widow. King Henry VIII was childless causing him to believe that he was being punished according to Leviticus 20:21, “If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” King Henry VIII was also had an affair with Mary Boleyn, Catheryn’s assistant or lady-in-waiting. King Henry VIII therefore wanted to annul the marriage with Catherine, however the Roman Church would not allow it. King Henry VIII created a new church with Cranmer being the head of the new Church of England, and Cranmer permitted the divorce between King Henry VIII and Catherine.
The reason for the formation of the Church of England was not the most positive of situations. However due to the split from the Roman Church, the Church of England was able to bring forth a more reformed theology to England. During the reign of King Henry VIII, Cranmer did not change much of the service due to country in general was still faithful to the way the Roman Church functioned as a whole, and it was not Cranmer’s wish to stir up controversy. However, Cranmer authorized the first service in the vernacular during King Henry VIII’s reign.
In 1539, Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell created the first English Bible under the authority of King Henry VIII. The Bible was created for the purpose of public readings during the church services. The Bible is commonly known as the Great Bible. The Great Bible uses much from the Tyndale Bible, which was a partial English translation. The Great Bible translates the remaining books from the Latin Vulgate and miscellaneous German translations rather than using the original texts from the original languages.
After King Henry VIII died in 1547 and his son Edward VI became the King of England and Ireland. Partially because King Edward VI was a sickly and weak king, this allowed Cranmer to further change the Liturgy of the Church of England.
In 1548, Cranmer completed his revision of the English Communion rite, and it put into practice the year following. The Roman Rite of the Mass did not allow the congregation to participate in Communion due to their beliefs that the bread and wine become the body of Christ. If they allowed the congregation to take part that would allow more risk of losing part of the bread or wine, therefore believing that they would have wasted or lost part of Jesus. Cranmer, however, believed the Lord’s Supper was memorial; that there was not a transformation of the bread and wine, rather it was just symbolic of Christ’s sacrifice.
In 1549, the English Communion rite, along with many other practices, were compiled in the first Book of Common Prayer. The most important contribution from Thomas Cranmer was the creation of the Book of Common Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer created uniformity through the Church of England by explicitly describing how worship should appear.
However, Edward VI died in 1553, only six years after he began his reign, and was succeeded by Lady Jane Grey. Jane Grey only remained queen for nine days before being removed and replaced by Mary I. Mary I was a devout Roman Catholic and rejected the reformed practices of the Church of England and made Cranmer formerly renounce the protestant beliefs he put into practice. Even though Cranmer made recantations, Mary I had him executed as a heretic. Before Cranmer was executed he withdrew his recantations, and it is believed that he placed his hand in the flame first as a symbol of punishment for him rejecting his previous teachings. Cranmer was then recorded into Actes and Monuments, commonly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
