Writings And Disputations Of Thomas Cranmer Relative To The Sacrament Of The Lord's Supper

by Thomas Cranmer

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584 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

About the author

Thomas Cranmer was born in 1489 in Aslockton in Nottinghamshire, England. His parents, Thomas and Agnes (née Hatfield) Cranmer, were of modest wealth and were not members of the aristocracy. Their oldest son, John, inherited the family estate, whereas Thomas and his younger brother Edmund were placed on the path to a clerical career. Today historians know nothing definite about Cranmer’s early schooling. He probably attended a grammar school in his village. At the age of fourteen, two years after the death of his father, he was sent to the newly created Jesus College, Cambridge. It took him a surprisingly long eight years to reach his Bachelor of Arts degree following a curriculum of logic, classical literature and philosophy. During this time, he began to collect medieval scholastic books, which he preserved faithfully throughout his life. For his master's degree he took a different course of study, concentrating on the humanists, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples and Erasmus. This time he progressed with no special delay, finishing the course in three years.[7] Shortly after receiving his Master of Arts degree in 1515, he was elected to a Fellowship of Jesus College

A leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I, Cranmer helped build a favorable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

During Cranmer's tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, he was responsible for publishing the first officially authorized vernacular service, the Exhortation and Litany. When Edward came to the throne, Cranmer wrote and compiled the first two editions of the "Book of Common Prayer."

Cranmer was tried for treason and heresy after Mary I, came to the throne. Imprisoned for over two years, he made several recantations but, on the day of his execution, he withdrew his recantations, to die a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to Protestants.

Reviews

[Aaron Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't lie. Read the marginal notes, skimming the text as I went through. The refutation of the bishop of Winchester is repetitive, and quite dry. Far more engaging are the recorded dialogues toward the end of the book. These dialogues were taken by stenography while he was a prisoner on trial, and would be interesting to a student of debate. Folks in that day debated a little differently than we did.

The final dialogue, however, is worth the price of admission. Cranmer was brought out to interview a candidate for the ministry. Fascinating exchange.

This book would be of interest only to those studying debates of the sacrament in reformation England. No general interest book here, and that's okay.