Thomas Cranmer 1489 – 1556
Archbishop of Canterbury Martyr and Liturgist

Sermon preached at St.Mark's, The Gap
On 19 March 2000, (7.30am and 9.00am)
by Michael Gourlay

In today's Gospel reading Jesus said

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it”

Mark 8:34b-36

Introduction – The Memorial

When I was a University student I attended a meeting one evening in the Chapter House beside St. Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney. The speaker was a well known Bible teacher and scholar. I had heard him speak many times and was well acquainted with his ability to expound the scriptures, and with the distinctive sound of his voice and his command of the English language.

On this occasion his address was based on some historical research he had recently completed. I have no specific recollection of most of what he said but what I do remember is his account of a visit he had made to a particular place in England where there is a memorial to some of the men who were leaders in the English church when it was undergoing fundamental renewal and reform. What remains indelibly written on my mind is the sense of disappointment the speaker expressed as he told us how he entered an Anglican church a short distance away in full view of the memorial and found the congregation there participating in a form a service which was in complete contradiction to the principles for which the men commemorated by the memorial had lived and died.

This morning I want to take you back to England almost 500 years ago. It was

• a time of new learning and new ideas;
• a time of emerging nationalism when Kings were challenging the international authority of the Pope and the Church of Rome;
• a time of new technology in which the printing press facilitated the proliferation of books, allowing more people to read and to question established beliefs and practices;
• a time of spiritual awakening as more and more men and women read and understood the scriptures.

Don't worry if dates give you indigestion.

• just remember that the events being described took place in the 1500s, that is almost 500 years ago;
• the actual span of history that we will be talking about is 40 years and the person on whom we will be focusing our attention died when he was 67 years old.

If the younger members of the congregation have difficulty in imagining how old 67 is – that is the same age as I will be next birthday.

The Academic, his Wife and Scripture

Our story begins with a young academic, about 27 years old, who had given up his position as a College Fellow at Cambridge University, in order to marry the woman whom he loved. His wife, Joan, was related to the wife of the proprietor of the local pub, the Dolphin Inn, where, I assume, the Fellows and their students met to socialize and discuss the affairs of the time.

In those days College Fellows were required to be celibate, that is not marry, although many merely paid lip service to this rule and kept a mistress rather than a wife. But Joan's young man had a higher standard of honour and morality than many of his contemporaries. Nor did the couple have to get married, since it was almost a year before their first child was due to be born. Sadly, both wife and child died and the young academic had sacrificed his career for nothing.

But God had other plans and, in a most unusual decision, the college restored the young widower's Fellowship and within three years he was ordained Priest. The Dutch scholar Erasmus had just published his first edition of the Greek New Testament and, as the young widower struggled to cope with his loss and grief, he also began to study the Bible.

When I spoke here more than a year ago, I introduced you to William Tyndale, translator of most of the Bible into English and arguably the man who most influenced English-speaking Christianity. Today I want you to meet the man who was most influential in defining the character of the Anglican Church – Thomas Cranmer - first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and principal author of the Book of Common Prayer.

Cranmer's story is a long and complicated one and I will be able only to give you an outline of some of the more important aspects of his life. It is possible that I will raise more questions than provide answers for you!

A year of two after Cranmer's wife died, the movement for renewal and reform in the church which had been smouldering for more than a century was fanned into flame when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses for reform to the church door in the German city of Wittenberg. Luther's ideas spread to England, sparking controversy and stimulating the growing number of people who had been questioning the abuses and unscriptural beliefs and practices of the official church.

Cranmer began to make a thorough academic study of the issues involved. He spent three years studying the scriptures and then turned to the writings of both old and new theologians which could help him understand Luther's ideas. He read slowly and carefully with pen in hand to make copious notes. And this he continued to do, not just for a few months, but for many years – quietly studying both sides of each question.

In due course he received the Degree of Doctor of Divinity and as an examiner of candidates for Degrees in Divinity insisted that they show first-hand knowledge of the Scriptures – this was not popular with some students who were far better acquainted with the ideas of medieval philosophers than with the word of God.

Cranmer's academic career was undistinguished and in 1529, when he was 40 years old, he did not hold any important positions in the University or elsewhere.

But this situation was about to change dramatically.

The King's Matter

There was an outbreak of the plague at Cambridge and Fellows and scholars took themselves to more healthy places. At the same time, King Henry VIIIth was making a royal progress through the country. It so happened that Cranmer was at Waltham north of London when the King and his party arrived there and two of the King's advisors stayed at the same house as Cranmer. All three were academics and, after discussing University matters over dinner one evening, they turned to the subject that everyone in England was discussing – the King's divorce.

Briefly, Henry had married Catherine of Aragon twenty years previously but there was no male heir – the only surviving child was a daughter, Mary.

The King thought he had found the reason for Catherine's inability to bear him a son. He had married his brother's wife and that was forbidden in the scriptures (Leviticus 20:21). Indeed he had required a dispensation from the Pope before his marriage could take place but now he asked himself,
“Could the Pope set aside God's law?”

A genuine concern perhaps – but everyone also knew that Henry had been, in his own words, “bewitched” by a young lady with black eyes and raven hair – Ann Boleyn!

So Henry had applied to the Pope, not for a divorce, but an annulment, that is a statement that his marriage had never been valid. Normally he probably would have got it, the Roman Church at that time was very accommodating to kings in marriage matters. Unfortunately for Henry, Pope Clement VIIth was a prisoner in the hands of one of Catherine's relatives – so he stalled Henry's application for two years.

As the three academics discussed the matter, Cranmer the theologian admitted that he had not studied the problem. Nevertheless, he gave his opinion as to what the King should do. The Courts were the wrong way. There was only one truth on the matter which must be discovered by study of scripture. The King should refer the matter to theologians in the Universities and, having received their advice, could bypass the church courts. It was a very unorthodox suggestion!

However, when Cranmer's comments were reported to the King a day or so later, Henry immediately realised that he had found a way to solve his problem. Cranmer was required to put his views in writing and argue the King's case with academics from Oxford and Cambridge. He and three others were sent to Europe as ambassadors to argue the King's case in universities and at Rome.

A couple of years later Cranmer was appointed ambassador to the Court of emperor Charles V in Germany. While there he went to Saxony where he met and married Margaret, a niece of the Lutheran reformer Osiander.

This was a “bold step for one who was now in Priests' Orders and on the King's business.” It also provided Cranmer with a direct personal link with the Lutheran reformers.

Thomas and Margaret's honeymoon was hardly over when he received a summons from the King to return to England. He was to be consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.

This was not a popular appointment

• others wanted the position and their disappointment embittered their relationships with Cranmer for life;
• Cranmer was not happy about it. He wrote later “There was never a man came more unwillingly to a bishopric than I did to that.”

but he dared not refuse the King's command.

Cranmer was duly consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in March 1533, the Pope having complied promptly with the King's request to approve the appointment.

ortly afterwards Cranmer's Court considered the King's matter and pronounced the King's marriage to have been void from the beginning on the grounds that the Pope did not possess the powers of dispensation that he had used to allow Henry to marry Catherine.

Events took their inevitable path.

• the Pope excommunicated King Henry;
• Henry recalled his ambassadors and appealed to a General Council,
• The Pope's authority in England was rejected and the King was declared to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

The King plays the Reformers and Conservatives against each other

For the next 13 years the King's supremacy was to be the means through which Cranmer sought to reform religion in England, and also the conservatives, led by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, sought to stamp out Lutheran heresy. The King held the balance of power between the two parties and moved from one side to the other as private or political need dictated.

Cranmer's approach to reform was initially cautious:

• he wanted to restore knowledge of the Scriptures among both lay persons and clergy;
• he believed that change in conduct was more important than change in doctrine;
• he was on the side of mercy where people differed from him and, when others fell from the King's favour, he interceeded for them.

He made slow progress – his greatest success was obtaining in August 1537 the King's consent for a copy of the Bible in English and Latin to be placed in every parish church for every man to read “as being the Word of God.”

Two years later the King wanted a uniform standard of faith drawn up but the committee appointed to do so could not agree. The King came to The House of Lords and argued the case of the conservatives. Cranmer opposed the King's views but eventually he and other reforming bishops had to accept the new Statue when it became law. Among the six articles of this statute, which all opposed reform, was one enforcing celibacy of the clergy with defaulters to be punished by death. Cranmer's wife departed for an extended holiday with her relatives in Germany.

Some time later there was a plot against Cranmer by his enemies on the King's Council who wanted to imprison him in the Tower of London, but the King intervened to save him. Indeed throughout Henry's reign, men rose and fell in his favour but there was one man towards whom the King's attitude never seemed to change – that man was Thomas Cranmer.

Why? According to one writer Cranmer possessed “that sweet blend of learning and virtue, and guileless fidelity”, which suited the King's plans. Moreover, he had no ambitions for himself but chose to serve God and the King. He believed that the law of God required him to obey and not resist the King. Sometimes his public loyalty to the King conflicted with his personal loyalty to God and his conscience. Nevertheless, he was quite prepared to tell the King privately when he did not agree with him.

On the other hand his enemies and critics have considered him to be an unprincipled man who would do anything to retain his position and save his life.

Opportunity for Reform

In January 1547 King Henry died clasping the hand of his chosen Archbishop, specially summoned to attend him. The crown passed to Henry's only son Edward, the 9 year old son of his third wife Jane Seymour.

Political power shifted, as those who governed in the name of King Edward VIth saw that the future lay with the reformers and not the conservatives. Cranmer now had a free hand to reform the church.

He had been quietly preparing for this opportunity. His views had developed slowly as he weighed the different points of view against the teaching of the scriptures. Towards the end of his life he wrote:

“Little by little I put away my former ignorance. As God of His mercy gave me light, so through grace I opened mine eyes to see it.”

In King Henry's later years Cranmer had drawn up some drafts for new church services and published some prayers in English. He had compiled an English Litany of intercessory prayers which had received the King's approval – it was his first significant liturgical achievement.

Reform now began to move slowly but with increasing speed.

• At Edward's coronation Cranmer preached against image worship and soon afterwards orders were given for the removal of images from churches.
• The conservative Six Articles of Henry VIIIth and all the other heresy laws going back 150 years or more were repealed.
• Communicants now received both bread and wine, previously the cup had been with-held from the people.
• An order of communion in English was inserted into the Latin mass.

Then in January 1549, two years after Henry's death, the Act of Uniformity passed the House of Lords and at Easter that year Cranmer's first prayer book in the English language was used for the first time for worship in the Church of England.

Cranmer's first prayer book was not popular. Of necessity there had been compromises to get it approved. The conservatives thought it went too far and many ordinary people did not want change. The reformers on the other hand were disappointed that it did not go far enough. Moreover, it soon became clear that the Holy Communion service in the new prayer book could be interpreted differently by the two parties with opposing views on Eucharistic doctrine.

Within a year Cranmer had published a book in which he set out the reformed sacramental theology he now believed.

Briefly, there were two important issues where the reformers and conservatives disagreed

• The sacrifice of the mass
• The nature of Christ's presence in the sacrament

On All Saints Day 1552 Cranmer's second Book of Common Prayer was used for the first time in old St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The Communion Service had been completely revised and the Mass had been transformed into the Lord's Supper, in which we remember Jesus' once only sacrifice on the cross for our sins and feed on Him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

This book with a few changes is essentially the one which became the pattern for worship in the Church of England for four hundred years and, in its later 1662 version, remains the liturgical standard for the Anglican Church of Australia.

It was Cranmer's major achievement.

However, it was not accepted by everyone.

Many, indeed most people, at that time would have preferred no change, and, if they had known the phrase, would have complained about the “theologically correct” bishops and their elite colleagues who were imposing their views on the nation.

Political change was on the way and those who opposed reform were to be returned to power on a wave of popular reaction against, not only the new prayer book, but also the policies and actions of the self-serving political leaders who supported reform for convenience rather than conviction.

Reversal of Reform

On 6 July 1553 the young King Edward died. Two weeks later his elder half sister Mary, the embittered and bigotted daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was proclaimed Queen after an attempt was made to install Jane Grey in her place. Mary was intent on removing not only the reforms made in Edward's reign but also the changes to the English church brought about by her father.

Shortly afterwards there were rumours that Cranmer had restored the mass in his cathedral. Cranmer issued a statement denying this and other rumours and offering, if the Queen would permit him, to prove in public debate that all the recent religious reforms were “more pure and according to God's Word than any other that hath been used in England these thousand years.”

Two weeks later he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. In November he was tried along with others for his reluctant involvement in the affair of Jane Grey. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. However, he could not be executed since Church law required that he be degraded from his orders as archbishop and priest. He remained in prison.

In April 1554 Cranmer and two other reforming bishops, Nicolas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, were required to engage in a disputation about Eucharistic doctrine with conservative theologians. The official purpose was not to debate the truth of the issue but “to confound the detestable heresy” of the reformers on the sacrament.

Cranmer affirmed his belief in the spiritual presence of Christ in the sacrament perceived by faith.

As the proceedings drew to a close his accusers, while not agreeing with him, acknowledged his courtesy.

“Your wonderful gentle behaviour and modesty, good Master Doctor Cranmer, is worthy of much commendation.”

All three bishops refused to recant, that is refused to give up their reformed views on the sacrament, and all were condemned as heretics for which the punishment was death by being tied to a wooden post or stake and burnt alive.

However, they could not be put to death as there was no law against their particular heresy – it had been repealed during King Edward VIth's reign and had not yet been re-enacted. So Cranmer and his colleagues remained in prison at Oxford until they could be put to death legally.

In January 1555 the authority of the Pope, together with all the unscriptural doctrines of the Church of Rome, was reinstated in England and the laws for punishing the heretic reformers were restored – shortly afterwards the burnings began. In the first six months two bishops and about 50 other persons who believed the reformed faith died at the stake.

Since Cranmer had been appointed archbishop with the Pope's authority he had to be tried by that authority. The Queen had him denounced before the Pope. In September Cranmer defended himself resolutely before the Pope's representative who sent his report to Rome for the Pope's verdict.

Bishops Ridley and Latimer were tried, condemned and burnt at Oxford in October. Cranmer was made to watch their deaths. By now he had been in prison for over two years, sometimes in isolation. While the sentence from Rome was being awaited, he was taken to one of the Oxford colleges where he was allowed to live a restrained but normal life for a few weeks before being returned to prison when the Pope's verdict was received. He was condemned as a heretic and sentenced to degradation and death.

At this time Cranmer was being subjected to continuing and increasing pressure to recant and renounce the principles of the Reformation. In the end he gave in and recanted, signing several increasingly submissive documents repudiating his reformed beliefs.

Cranmer's recantations brought no joy to Queen Mary and Reginald Pole, who was now archbishop of Canterbury, for they were determined that Cranmer would burn no matter what occurred.

Cranmer's Last Stand

Cranmer signed his sixth and last recantation on 18 March 1556. He then wrote a statement to be read at the stake three days later. During his last evening on 20 March he went over that statement and in a separate copy made some changes.

The morning of 21 March 1556 was cold and wet and it was necessary to hold the pre-execution ceremonies in St. Mary's Church rather than at the stake itself. Cranmer was brought in procession from the prison to the church. He was clothed in a ragged and thread-bare gown with an old square cap on his head. He was exhibited on a raised platform where he stood – the very picture of shame and remorse.

The official sermon was preached and then Cranmer was asked to speak to the people and give proof that he now believed in the “true” Catholic faith.

He prayed for the congregation and for himself. Then he began to read the prepared statement until he came to the crucial passage where he diverged from the official text to read the one he had written the night before.

“And now”, he said, “I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more than any other thing that ever I said or did in my life, and that is the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth: which here now I renounce and refuse, as things written with my hand contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death and to save my life if it might be; and that is, all such bills which I have written or signed with mine own hand since my degradation: wherein I have written many things untrue. And foreasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire, it shall be first burned.  And as for the Pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy and anti-Christ, with all his false doctrine. And as for the Sacrament ---“

At that point all hell broke loose as the enemies of the reform realised that they had been defeated.

He was ordered to reflect on his Recantations, and to refrain from dissembling.

“Alas my Lord”, Cranmer replied, “I have been a man that all my life loved plainness and never dissembled till now against the truth: which I am most sorry for.”

He seized the opportunity to say what he really believed about the sacrament.

“I believe as I have taught in my book against the Bishop of Winchester: the which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of the Sacrament that it shall stand at the last day before the judgement of God”.

Cranmer was dragged from the stage and hurried off to the stake at the same place where Ridley and Latimer had died and where the martyr's memorial now stands.

During his final agony he held out his right hand in the flames, withdrawing it once to wipe his face, then extending it again, until it was burned. Otherwise he did not move but cried out “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

So died Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, martyr and liturgist, 444 years ago next Tuesday (21 March 2000).

In the words of a twentieth century Anglican bishop -

Yes, it will be an evil day for the Anglican Church generally and for St. Mark's, The Gap, if they should ever be forgotten.

Sources

Loane, M.L.. Thomas Cranmer: Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, In Masters of the English Reformation. Church Book Room Press, London, 1954, pp 179-242

Neil, S. Anglicanism, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1958, pp 52-96

Ridley, J., Thomas Cranmer . Oxford University Press, 1962 (Paperback edition 1966)

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the Revd Ron Bundy for the opportunity to speak to the congregation of St. Marks, The Gap about Thomas Cranmer and his significance in the history of the Anglican Church.; He has been encouraged by the positive response of many members of that congregation to this address and he is grateful to one of them, Averell Robins, for her work in preparing the text for a wider audience.