Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, shaper of the
Anglican Way
-an article for the Light Magazine
By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird
If you have ever been to a wedding service, you
can thank Archbishop Thomas Cranmer for his contribution of these new
words: ‘to love and to cherish.’ Cranmer
beautifully translated from the Latin Sarum rite these now familiar vows: “to
have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for
poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love and to cherish, till death
us depart.” He had a liturgical gift, a
poetic ability to develop English-language worship services, marriage services,
and funeral services that still speak to people over five hundred years
later.
Cranmer birthed an English Reformation that was
not only the via media (middle way) between Catholic and Protestant, but also
the via media between Luther and Calvin.
Cranmer was not the first Archbishop of Canterbury, but rather the 67th
and the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. As of today we have had 105
Archbishops of Canterbury. The Anglican Church was not created by Cranmer, but
rather reformed and renewed. He has been described as the most mysterious
person in the English Reformation.
Born in 1489 at Aslockton Nottinghamshire, he
was sent at age 14 to Jesus College, Cambridge after the death of his
father. During his Master's degree, Cranmer
studied the Renaissance humanists, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples and Erasmus.
Shortly after receiving his Master of Arts degree in 1515, he was elected to a
Fellowship of Jesus College. Many are unaware that Cranmer had initially been kicked
out of Cambridge University in 1515 for the ‘sin’ of getting married. To support his new wife, he worked as a reader
at Buckingham Hall in Cambridge. After
his first wife Joan died in childbirth, all was forgiven and Cranmer was
allowed to return as a lecturer at Jesus College in Cambridge. In 1520, Cranmer was ordained as an Anglican
priest. Continuing his studies, he
received his Doctor of Divinity in 1526. Cranmer was a brilliant scholar who read not
only Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, but also French, German and Italian. As one of the most learned men of his age, he
had a private library larger than the Cambridge Library, with nearly all the
writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers.
King Henry 8th, who needed a divorce
in order to marry Anne Boleyn, liked Cranmer’s idea of consulting with leading
European university theologians. After unsuccessfully appealing to Rome, Cranmer
was appointed the resident ambassador at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor,
Charles V. While negotiating in 1532 with
the Lutherans on behalf of King Henry 8th, Cranmer married his
second wife, Margaret, the niece of the famous Lutheran theologian Andreas
Osiander. Unexpectedly, King Henry 8th chose Cranmer as the new
Archbishop of Canterbury, a position in which he served for twenty-three years. With the implicit knowledge of Henry 8th,
Margaret was smuggled into England. King Henry 8th kept changing his
mind about whether clergy could be married, so Margaret was smuggled back to
Germany when it was too dangerous. Given
King Henry 8th’s extreme volatility, it was a miracle that Cranmer
survived, especially with so many enemies seeking to take him out. In 1543, Henry 8th denounced
Cranmer as ‘the greatest heretic in Kent’, alluding to his secret marriage, and
allowed the opponents to charge Cranmer with heresy. Then he put Cranmer in
charge of the investigation, after personally giving him his royal signet ring
of protection. After Edward 6th
became the next King, Margaret was allowed to openly be Cranmer’s wife with
their two children Margaret and Thomas.
Cranmer wrote the English Prayer Book in two
versions, 1549 and 1552, the first one more catholic, the second more
protestant. He brought change slowly and
cautiously. The compulsory usage of the
new English Prayer Book, however, resulted in a Prayer Book rebellion in Devon
and Cornwall where Cornish was spoken rather than English. Queen Elizabeth, after the death of her
sister Queen Mary in 1558, combined her late godfather’s two prayer books into
one: “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy
body and soul unto everlasting life (1549); Take and eat this in remembrance
that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy heart by faith with
thanksgiving (1552).” Cranmer affirmed the presence of Jesus by the Holy Spirit
in Holy Communion, which must be fed on in the heart by faith with thanksgiving:
“Doth not God’s Word teach a true presence of Jesus Christ in the sacrament is
a spiritual presence?”
In the Prayer Book, Cranmer
restored the giving of both bread and wine to the congregation, not just the
clergy. He also wrote a healing service in the Prayer Book, focused directly in
praying to Christ, rather than to the saints. Cranmer wrote 25 of the 70
collect prayers in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. This helped people meditate
on the Word of God, ‘to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest his Word.’ Professor
Simeon Zahl of Cambridge recently described Cranmer’s Prayer Book as a
‘technology of the heart’ that helps us psychologically experience the
consolation of the Holy Spirit.
Cranmer wrote the preface for the Great Bible,
the first English bible ever used in English Churches, an adaptation of William
Coverdale’s translation. To protect the bible, it was chained to the lectern
desk.
He gave refuge to many European Protestant
scholars like Martin Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Bernardino Ochino who were
invited to teach at English universities.
In March 1552, Cranmer invited the foremost Continental reformers, Heinrich
Bullinger, John Calvin, and Philip Melanchthon to come to England and to
participate in an interdenominational council. Sadly, none were able to come.
The death of 15-year-old King Edward 6th
from tuberculosis left a leadership vacuum. First cousin Lady Jane Gray only
lasted as a Protestant Queen for nine days.
Then Mary was made Queen, and Imprisoned Cranmer for over two years. He
was charged by Mary with sedition, treason, and heresy. During that time, she burned over 300
protestants at the stake, giving her the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’, the same as
the drink. Forced to watch the burning
of his two fellow bishops Latimer and Ridley, Cranmer renounced the prayer book
six times before he was burned at the stake.
Was Cranmer a weak-willed, flipflopping, compromiser,
or was his real issue his strong allegiance to obey the King/Queen? Was this what caused him to recant the Prayer
Book? Was he much like the Apostle Peter who denied Jesus three times, yet
turned back and helped others? (Luke 22:32)
In his final sermon, he renounced his
renunciation, before being rushed off to be burnt at the stake at the same
location as his fellow Protestant Bishops Ridley and Latimer. As he was being
burnt, he intentionally put his right hand in the fire so that it would be
burnt first: “And forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my
heart, it shall first be burned…” Cranmer's
death was immortalized in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, placed beside the Bible by
Queen Elizabeth the First in every English Cathedral. The Anglican Communion
commemorates Thomas Cranmer as a Reformation Martyr on 21 March, the
anniversary of his death.
As he was being burned at the stake, he prayed:
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Cranmer finished well on a fiery stake,
faithful to God at the end, despite his vacillating. Perhaps this is a hopeful metaphor for the
struggles of contemporary Anglicanism. May
the rediscovery of Cranmer help both Anglican Christians and the wider
Christian community to also finish well.
Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird
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