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Thomas Cranmer, b. July 2, 1489, d. March 21, 1556, was one of the principal figures in the English Reformation. After studying at Cambridge, he taught theology and was ordained (1523) a priest. When King Henry VIII sought the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cranmer suggested (1529) that he obtain the opinion of the universities of Europe to strengthen his position. Henry commissioned Cranmer to carry out this plan and subsequently (1531) sent him to Germany to win the support of the Protestant princes. There, despite his priestly orders, Cranmer married the niece of Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran theologian.
In 1533, Cranmer was named archbishop of Canterbury and immediately pronounced Henry's marriage to Catherine annulled and his marriage to Anne Boleyn legal. He later invalidated the marriage to Anne (1536) and that to Anne of Cleves (1540) and played a leading role in the proceedings against Catherine Howard in 1542.
Cranmer promoted the Reformation theologically, supporting the English Bible translation of 1537-40 and opposing Henry VIII's Six Articles in 1539, in which the king reasserted such Catholic doctrines as transubstantiation in the Eucharist and the enforced celibacy of the clergy. Under King Edward VI, he promoted the first Book of Common Prayer (1549) and its 1552 revision, contributing substantially to both. He also produced the confession of 1553 called the Forty-two Articles (the basis of the Thirty-nine Articles), which taught justification by faith.
When Edward died in 1553, Cranmer supported the succession of the Protestant Lady Jane Grey. However, the throne passed to the Catholic Mary I, who sent Cranmer to the Tower of London for treason and heresy. He recanted, but while being burned at the stake he held his right hand in the fire first for having signed the recantations.
Lewis W. Spitz
Bibliography: Brooks, P. N., Thomas Cranmer's Doctrine of the Eucharist (1965); Dickens, A. G., The English Reformation, rev. ed. (1967); Ridley, Jasper G., Thomas Cranmer (1962 repr. 1983).
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