ARCHBISHOP THOMAS CRANMER
Posted: 21 May 2026, 01:17
ARCHBISHOP THOMAS CRANMER
26 March 2006
‘Cranmer, Thomas, 1489–1556, English churchman under Henry VIII; archbishop of Canterbury. A lecturer at Jesus College, Cambridge, he is said to have come to the attention of the king in 1529 by suggesting that Henry might further his efforts to achieve a divorce from Katherine of Aragon by collecting opinions in his favour from the universities. Cranmer went to Rome in 1530 to argue the king's case and in 1532 was ambassador to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In 1533 Henry named him Archbishop of Canterbury and as soon as the appointment was confirmed by the pope Cranmer proclaimed that Henry's marriage to Katharine was invalid. A few days later he crowned Anne Boleyn as Henry's queen. Completely subservient to the king's will Cranmer declared Anne's marriage invalid in 1536. He promoted Henry's marriage in 1540 to Anne of Cleeves and the divorce from her, and in 1542 was one of the accusers of Catherine Howard. Cranmer was strongly influenced by the German Reformation. With his friend Thomas Cromwell he endorsed the translation of the Bible into English and was influential in procuring a royal proclamation in 1538 providing for a copy in every parish church. However, as long as Henry VIII lived, the archbishop could promote no significant doctrinal changes. The situation changed with the accession in 1547 of the young Edward VI during whose reign Cranmer shaped the doctrinal and liturgical transformation of the Church of England. He was responsible for much of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and compiled the revision of 1552, which contains the most famous examples of his sonorous prose, with the aid of prominent Continental reformers. His Forty-two Articles of 1553, though never formally adopted, formed the basis of the Thirty-nine Articles. Cranmer supported the claims of Lady Jane Grey after Edward's death. Upon the accession (1553) of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I he was tried for treason, convicted of heresy, stripped of his preferments, and condemned. A few days before his death he recanted, but when asked to repeat the recantation at the stake, he refused and thrust the hand that had written it into the fire’. [Columbia University Encyclopaedia]”
Right, you might be wondering why I am quoting the Columbia Encyclopaedia at you. As some of you may remember I have often facetiously remarked that one of the reasons they burned Cranmer might be something to do with him writing the Marriage Service where he mentioned love, comfort and mutual support as being part of the contract. I heard a man talking about Cranmer on R4 this morning and he mentioned that Cranmer was the first prelate of the English church to be married.
It has puzzled me for years that a man so obviously entrenched in the male dominated world of the 16th century should use such lyrical language when describing the marriage contract. Much of the prose in the Book of Common Prayer was lifted and adapted from the Bible and previous versions of the liturgy but the marriage service seems to have been total Cranmer, he could have been writing from the heart. We forget now, but until Cranmer voiced these concepts in the prayer book the accepted view of marriage was that it was a legal device for legitimising succession and status and was essentially a property settlement enabling the husband to become legal owner of his wife’s inheritance. The fact that Cranmer was married sheds a whole new light on this for me. He actually knew about comfort, mutual support and perhaps even love and it may be that this explains why he wrote the marriage service as he did. In fact it sounds as though he had a pretty good marriage himself and was recommending that happy state to others.
So, one small fact dropped into my pond this morning and triggered a re-assessment. The good news is that I feel even more confident now that if challenged about my theory that putting love into the marriage service was one of the things that upset his peers, I shall have a small nugget of information to back me up.
26 March 2006
26 March 2006
‘Cranmer, Thomas, 1489–1556, English churchman under Henry VIII; archbishop of Canterbury. A lecturer at Jesus College, Cambridge, he is said to have come to the attention of the king in 1529 by suggesting that Henry might further his efforts to achieve a divorce from Katherine of Aragon by collecting opinions in his favour from the universities. Cranmer went to Rome in 1530 to argue the king's case and in 1532 was ambassador to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In 1533 Henry named him Archbishop of Canterbury and as soon as the appointment was confirmed by the pope Cranmer proclaimed that Henry's marriage to Katharine was invalid. A few days later he crowned Anne Boleyn as Henry's queen. Completely subservient to the king's will Cranmer declared Anne's marriage invalid in 1536. He promoted Henry's marriage in 1540 to Anne of Cleeves and the divorce from her, and in 1542 was one of the accusers of Catherine Howard. Cranmer was strongly influenced by the German Reformation. With his friend Thomas Cromwell he endorsed the translation of the Bible into English and was influential in procuring a royal proclamation in 1538 providing for a copy in every parish church. However, as long as Henry VIII lived, the archbishop could promote no significant doctrinal changes. The situation changed with the accession in 1547 of the young Edward VI during whose reign Cranmer shaped the doctrinal and liturgical transformation of the Church of England. He was responsible for much of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and compiled the revision of 1552, which contains the most famous examples of his sonorous prose, with the aid of prominent Continental reformers. His Forty-two Articles of 1553, though never formally adopted, formed the basis of the Thirty-nine Articles. Cranmer supported the claims of Lady Jane Grey after Edward's death. Upon the accession (1553) of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I he was tried for treason, convicted of heresy, stripped of his preferments, and condemned. A few days before his death he recanted, but when asked to repeat the recantation at the stake, he refused and thrust the hand that had written it into the fire’. [Columbia University Encyclopaedia]”
Right, you might be wondering why I am quoting the Columbia Encyclopaedia at you. As some of you may remember I have often facetiously remarked that one of the reasons they burned Cranmer might be something to do with him writing the Marriage Service where he mentioned love, comfort and mutual support as being part of the contract. I heard a man talking about Cranmer on R4 this morning and he mentioned that Cranmer was the first prelate of the English church to be married.
It has puzzled me for years that a man so obviously entrenched in the male dominated world of the 16th century should use such lyrical language when describing the marriage contract. Much of the prose in the Book of Common Prayer was lifted and adapted from the Bible and previous versions of the liturgy but the marriage service seems to have been total Cranmer, he could have been writing from the heart. We forget now, but until Cranmer voiced these concepts in the prayer book the accepted view of marriage was that it was a legal device for legitimising succession and status and was essentially a property settlement enabling the husband to become legal owner of his wife’s inheritance. The fact that Cranmer was married sheds a whole new light on this for me. He actually knew about comfort, mutual support and perhaps even love and it may be that this explains why he wrote the marriage service as he did. In fact it sounds as though he had a pretty good marriage himself and was recommending that happy state to others.
So, one small fact dropped into my pond this morning and triggered a re-assessment. The good news is that I feel even more confident now that if challenged about my theory that putting love into the marriage service was one of the things that upset his peers, I shall have a small nugget of information to back me up.
26 March 2006