Archbishop Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1556 and among the leaders of the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. He was born in 1489 and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge where he gained a Fellowship. He was ordained in 1523 and came to the notice of King Henry VIII for whom he became an advocate for his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He absorbed Lutheran ideas in Germany and married a German Margaret Osiander. In 1533 he was appointed the first Archbishop of Canterbury. He declared void the marriage of Henry to Catherine and married Henry to Anne Boleyn. He helped with the translation of the Bible to English, wrote the litany used in the Anglican Church to this day. He was the principal author of the Book of Common Prayer. Edward VI’s untimely death led to a disputed succession to the throne and Cranmer supported the unsuccessful claim of Lady Jane Grey. When the Roman Catholic Queen Mary came to the throne she imprisoned Cranmer for treason. He was tried and forced to recant his support of the reformed church. Nevertheless he was sentenced to death and burned in Oxford at the same spot at which his close colleagues Latimer and Ridley had been burned. He denied the forced recantation of his faith just before he died and in a dramatic gesture he deliberately thrust his right hand, with which he had signed his recantation, into the fire which was to consume him. The Martyrs Memorial now stands in Oxford at the spot where Cranmer was burned.
Size: 3744px × 5303px
Location: Canterbury London England
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