Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church. Along with Thomas Cromwell, he supported the principle of royal supremacy in which the king was considered sovereign over the Church within his realm.
During Cranmer's tenure as archbishop, he was responsible for establishing the first doctrinal and liturgical structures of the Church of England. Under Henry's rule, Cranmer did not make many radical changes in the Church due to power struggles between religious conservatives and reformers. However, he succeeded in publishing the first officially authorised vernacular service, the Exhortation and Litany.
When Edward came to power, Cranmer was able to promote major reforms. He wrote and compiled the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, a complete liturgy for the English Church. With the assistance of several Continental reformers to whom he gave refuge, he developed new doctrinal standards in areas such as the eucharist, clerical celibacy, the role of images in places of worship, and the veneration of saints. Cranmer promulgated the new doctrines through the Prayer Book, the Homilies and other publications.
Cranmer was tried for treason and heresy when Mary I came to the throne. Imprisoned for over two years and under pressure from the Church authorities, he made several recantations and reconciled himself with the Catholic faith. When the church burned Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley at the stake...they made Thomas Cranmer watch from a nearby tower located in, of all places, St. Mary's Church.
On the day of his execution, he church gathered...they chained Thomas Cranmer to a pillar inside the church and the priest took his position on the opposite side in the pulpit.
The people wept for Cranmer, who was to deliver a recantation and lead the people to follow the Catholic faith. The people also worshiped with music and song. When Cranmer was given the opportunity to speak, he opened with a prayer and an exhortation to obey the king and queen. However, he then ended his message totally unexpectedly, deviating from the prepared script.
He renounced the recantations that he had written or signed with his own hand since his degradation and as such he stated his RIGHT hand would be punished by being burnt first.
He then said, "And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine."
The same people that cried for him then pulled from the church and took him to where Latimer and Ridley had been burnt six months before. As the flames drew around him, he fulfilled his promise by placing his right hand into the heart of the fire and his dying words were, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit... I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
Let it be known that Thomas Cranmer dramatically withdrew his recantations and died as a Protestant martyr. His legacy lives on within the Church of England through the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, an Anglican statement of faith derived from his work.
