Today In Church History: The Death Of Cranmer

Cranmer, Thomas (1489–1556). A theologian and leader in the Church of England. Cranmer was born in Aslockton, England on July 2, 1489. His father was also named Thomas Cranmer and his mother was Agnes Hartfield. Cranmer studied at Cambridge University where he became a doctor of divinity in 1526.

Cranmer is known for being an instrumental leader in the Church of England. He became the archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 and in the same year annulled King Henry VIII’s (1491–1547) marriage with Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536). Following the 1534 Act of Supremacy, which declared King Henry VIII as head of the church in place of the pope, the Church of England was connected to the Protestant cause through Cranmer’s leadership. Although this reform movement continued to seek the reformation of the church in England throughout the remainder of Henry VIII’s reign, which ended in 1547, it only became clearly dominant during Edward VI’s (1537–1553) reign from 1547 to 1553. During this time, Cranmer worked on the production of the Book of Common Prayer (1549) and the Forty-Two Articles (1553), the latter of which was to become the basis of the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563).

Following the death of Edward VI in July 1553, Lady Jane Grey (1537–1554), a Protestant and Edward’s cousin, ruled from July 10 to July 19, 1553, when she was deposed with the Privy Council’s proclamation of Mary I (1516–1558), Edward’s half-sister, as queen. Mary I, a steadfast Roman Catholic, began a vicious persecution of the Protestants. Since Cranmer had supported the rule of Lady Jane Grey, Cranmer was charged with treason and was arrested in September 1553. Over the next three years Cranmer underwent both physical and psychological torture and recanted of being a Protestant. Yet, at the formal declaration of his recantation, on March 21, 1556, he turned back to the Protestant faith. He was subsequently burned at the stake that same day.

Cleland, J. N. (2022). Cranmer, Thomas. In M. A. G. Haykin (Ed.), The Essential Lexham Dictionary of Church History. Lexham Press.