Thomas Cranmer: A Life
Thomas Cranmer was the architect of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. He was the Archbishop who guided England through the early Reformation, and Henry VIII through the minefields of divorce. This is the first major biography for more than three decades, and the first for a century to exploit rich new manuscript sources in Britain and elsewhere. Diarmaid MacCulloch, one of the foremost scholars of the English Reformation, traces Cranmer from his east-midland roots to early Tudor Cambridge,...
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Thomas Cranmer was the architect of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. He was the Archbishop who guided England through the early Reformation, and Henry VIII through the minefields of divorce. This is the first major biography for more than three decades, and the first for a century to exploit rich new manuscript sources in Britain and elsewhere. Diarmaid MacCulloch, one of the foremost scholars of the English Reformation, traces Cranmer from his east-midland roots to early Tudor Cambridge, into the household of the family of Anne Boleyn, and through the political labyrinth of the Henrician court. By then a major English statesman, living the life of a medieval prince-bishop, Cranmer navigated the church through the king's vacillations and finalized two successive English Prayer Books. MacCulloch skillfully reconstruction the crises which Cranmer negotiated, from his compromising association with three of Henry's divorces, the plot by religious conservatives to oust him, his role in the attempt to establish Lady Jane Grey as Queen, to the vengeance of the Catholic Mary Tudor. In gaol after Mary's accession, Cranmer nearly succumbed to recant his life's achievements, but was able to turn the very day of his death at the stake into a dramatic demonstration of his Protestant faith. From this vivid and fascinating account Cranmer emerges a more sharply-focused figure than before, more conservative early in his career than admirers have allowed, more evangelical than Anglicanism would later find comfortable.
List of illustrationsList of abbreviationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction11Simple esquire: 1489-150372Cambridge years: 1503-29163Campaign to end a marriage: 1527-33414The reign of Queen Anne: 1533-6795From Anne Boleyn to Thomas Cromwell: 1535-71366A 'Reformed' Church? 1535-91737Salvaging the cause: 1539-422378A problem of survival: 1542-62979Welcoming King Josiah: 1546-9351101549: Commotion in Church and commonwealth41011Building a Protestant Church: 1550-5245412Paradise betrayed: 1552-351713Condemned: 1553-655414Aftermath and retrospect606Appendix I: Was Stephen Nevinson Cranmer's anonymous biographer?633Appendix II: The date of Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn637Appendix III: University connections among close relatives, servants and households of Thomas Cranmer and Stephen Gardiner639Bibliography644Index671
