THOMAS CRANMER

Archbishop and principal Compiler
of THE BOOK OF
COMMON PRAYER,
1548.
__i.. 
THOMAS CRANMERwas a highly controversial
churchman, who was born at Aslockton in Nottingham-
shire in 1489. Cranmer's father was squire of the
village and could boast of Norman origin.
As a child aged 7 he attended his first school where
the master was ’marvellous severe and cruel’. This
Portrait of Thomas Cranmer by Fliccius. was quite a description in an age of severity and
The inscription ‘Anno aerate 57. Julij 20’ cruelty. Young Cranmer was able to forget the miser-
indicaies that it was Painted in July 1545- ies of schooling when at home, for he rode and was a
‘ good longbowman.
He was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge, when he was 14, and it was here that he became expert in the
learning of the day; sophistry, logic, philosophy moral and natural - argueing the dark riddles and quidities
of Duns and other subtle questionists until he was 22 years old.
He stayed at Cambridge as a student of Divinity for 25 years, and only came to sudden prominence by
his suggestion to the King's Secretary, Stephen Gardiner, on August 2nd 1529. He proposed that the vexing
problem of the King's divorce to Catherine should be considered not by the slow-moving Papal authorities,
but by English theologians at the Universities. The ploy was successful, and King Henry VIII ensured his
advancement in the church as a reward in part, and part because Cranmer truly believed that the King was
above criticism - and that all actions and morality should be bent towards serving Henry's interests. " This
led Cranmer many times into doubtful decisions and actions. His consistency in these moves at least can
not be faulted. He was a brilliant exponent of argument who often brought round people of opposing views.
King Henry's opposition to the directives from Rome culminated in the English church being separated
from the control of the Bishop of Rome, as the Pope was called. Cranmer played an important and active
part in these moves of separation.‘
It became clear as time went by that alternative services must be written to substitute for the old Roman
practices, and Cranmer - who by then had been Archbishop of Canterbury for some time - felt that he should
draft appropriate offices. ‘For a time there had been five different Uses in force in different parts of the
country, but the Sarum Use was most popular and Cranmer felt that this should be the basis for the new
Prayer Book. Much of the work of drafting the new book was done by Cranmer when he lived in his Palace
at Bekesbourne, close by St. Peter's Church where he often worshipped. We can easily visualise him down
the hill at the Palace, seated at a desk by the fire, poring over early manuscripts and his own papers by the
light of a candle.
His first draft was formed from the breviary which the Spaniard Cardinal Quignon had produced. The
second draft in 1545 was composed differently; the traditional eight Hours services being substituted by
morning and evening prayers. In it the Lord's Prayer together with some other parts were to be in English
but the main text remained in Latin. '
A third and final draft was made in 1548, the words being considered and debated at length by Parliam=
ent in the Act of Uniformity. A concession also converted the whole text into English. Surprisingly, with
so much amendment, discussion and a certain amount of committee writing, the resultant Book of Common
Prayer was a model of imaginative and beautiful prose, and it has been in use for four hundred years with
little alteration; a monument of a dark and tumultuous period in the English monarchy that scarcely deser-
ved such a grand reminder. .
Cranmer outlived King Henry and the following administrations, but came himself to be burned at the
stake as he had committed so many he considered heretic. He died in March 1556 by St. Mary's Church,
Oxford.