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'''Thomas Cranmer''' (1489 - 1556) was the Archbishop of Canterbury (1533-56) under King [[Henry VIII]]. He was a leader of the [[Reformation]] in England, and is known as the "father of the Church of England." He oversaw the creation of the [[Church of England]] Church's foundational documents, the 'Book of Homilies' (1547), the '[[Book of Common Prayer]]' (1549, 1552), and the 'Articles of Religion' (1553), in all of which the supreme authority and sufficiency of scripture for salvation was explicitly stated.
'''Thomas Cranmer''' (1489 - 1556) was the Archbishop of Canterbury (1533-56) under King [[Henry VIII]]. He was a leader of the [[Reformation]] in England, and is known as the "father of the Church of England." He oversaw the creation of the [[Church of England]] Church's foundational documents, the 'Book of Homilies' (1547), the '[[Book of Common Prayer]]' (1549, 1552), and the 'Articles of Religion' (1553), in all of which the supreme authority and sufficiency of scripture for salvation was explicitly stated.
Cranmer had a broad international perspective, and tried to move England into the path of the wider European Reformation, especially towards the [[Calvinism]] found in the churches of south Germany and Switzerland. [[File:Cranmer.jpg|thumb|250px]]
Cranmer had a broad international perspective, and tried to move England into the path of the wider European Reformation, especially towards the [[Calvinism]] found in the churches of south Germany and Switzerland. His success in England was due to his skill as a diplomat, his ability to find a judicious balance between opposing religious forces, and his pastoral approach to resolving matters of faith and practice.
[[File:Cranmer.jpg|thumb|220px]]
==Career==
==Career==
Cranmer in Nottinghamshire and from age 14 he attended Cambridge University, where he received a sound [[humanist]] education and was elected Fellow of Jesus College about 1511. He forfeited his fellowship when he married, but was reelected on his wife's death. He took holy orders as a Roman Catholic priest in 1523 and became a university examiners in theology. Cranmer in 1529 suggested that the university faculties of Europe should be consulted on the controversial legality of [[Henry VIII]]'s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. thereby avoiding an appeal to Rome for its annulment. Henry welcomed the idea and put Cranmer in charge of its execution. Cranmer headed a delegation to Rome to discuss the matter.
Cranmer in Nottinghamshire and from age 14 he attended Cambridge University, where he received a sound [[humanist]] education and was elected Fellow of Jesus College about 1511. He forfeited his fellowship when he married, but was reelected on his wife's death. He took holy orders as a Roman Catholic priest in 1523 and became a university examiners in theology. Cranmer in 1529 suggested that the university faculties of Europe should be consulted on the controversial legality of [[Henry VIII]]'s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. thereby avoiding an appeal to Rome for its annulment. Henry welcomed the idea and put Cranmer in charge of its execution. Cranmer headed a delegation to Rome to discuss the matter.
His 1549 'Book of Common Prayer' helped England shift from Latin to English as a way of fostering the development of the English nation, but that change also transferred religious authority from the institution (i.e., the Catholic Church, which had a near monopoly on Latin) to larger numbers of English-speaking individuals capable of comprehending religious truth in the vernacular.
His 1549 'Book of Common Prayer' helped England shift from Latin to English as a way of fostering the development of the English nation, but that change also transferred religious authority from the institution (i.e., the Catholic Church, which had a near monopoly on Latin) to larger numbers of English-speaking individuals capable of comprehending religious truth in the vernacular.
He wrote a preface to the ''Great Bible'' (1540) urging Englishmen to make Bible study a habit and to approach it with the determination to repent and reform. He promised that it would provide answers to all of life's major questions. After Henry's death Cranmer was finally able to publish the ''Book of Homilies'' to espouse Reformation doctrines and displace conservative manuals containing the legends of the saints and other religious material not derived specifically from the scriptures.
Cranmer saw education as the key to the reformation of the clergy. He sought to raise standards by influencing grammar schools, especially by the refounded King's School at Canterbury, by introducing Protestant preachers and teachers in the universities, and by prescribing in-service training for existing clergy. In his own lifetime his work was unsuccessful, but many of the ideas were taken up by the Elizabethan episcopate.
==Theology==
==Theology==
Cranmer's eucharistic theology was designed to make sure people did not think that there was any physical presence of Christ in the elements of bread and wine, as Catholics belived. He designed his 1552 communion service to make it clear that Christ was only present to those communicants who had faith in him, and faith could not be earned by any human being; it was a predestined gift of God to those to whom he chose to give it. For example, he associated the medieval stone altar with the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Therefore, he called on priests to replace the altar with a wooden table as a means of irradiating belief in transubstantiation. High Church Anglicans later revised the service to make it more sacramental and more acceptable to Lutherans in Europe, who could help England militarily.
Cranmer's Eucharistic theology was designed to make sure people did not think that there was any physical presence of Christ in the elements of bread and wine, as Catholics believed. He designed his 1552 communion service to make it clear that Christ was only present to those communicants who had faith in him, and faith could not be earned by any human being; it was a predestined gift of God to those to whom he chose to give it. For example, he associated the medieval stone altar with the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Therefore, he called on priests to replace the altar with a wooden table as a means of irradiating belief in transubstantiation. High Church Anglicans later revised the service to make it more sacramental and more acceptable to Lutherans in Europe, who could help England militarily.
Cranmer wrote voluminously on the Eucharist. His prayer book of 1549 reflected Lutheran doctrine; the revised prayer book of 1552 tended to be Zwinglian. Cranmer held to the 9th-century Ratramnus doctrine of the Eucharist: while the communicant eats the elements, which remain unchanged, his soul feeds upon the spiritual Christ.
==Death==
==Death==