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Introduction: The Theology of Thomas Cranmer

Ashley Null

in Thomas Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love

Thomas Cranmer took down Catholicism's hegemony over English society by using the powers of his position to encourage the Protestant faith. Cranmer was martyred because of his support for ... More

Thomas Cranmer took down Catholicism's hegemony over English society by using the powers of his position to encourage the Protestant faith. Cranmer was martyred because of his support for justification and Holy Communion sola fide. Cranmer gave the English people a liturgy that articulates aspirations of the human spirit with rhetoric and clarity; he was then named the founding father of Anglicanism as a theological balance. Cranmer was firm toward evangelicals who threatened his actions on reform; in spite of the pressures he experienced, he always found himself able to forgive his enemies. The foundation of Cranmer's faith relied on this commitment to love his enemies since he believed that this was necessary for salvation. Throughout Cranmer's writings, emphasis for God's love for the unworthy was a common theme.Less

THEOLOGY AND WORSHIP

FELICITY HEAL

in Reformation in Britain and Ireland

This chapter analyses the main currents of doctrinal change in England and Scotland. It investigates the confessions of faith, the evolution of English forms of Protestantism and the possibility of a ... More

This chapter analyses the main currents of doctrinal change in England and Scotland. It investigates the confessions of faith, the evolution of English forms of Protestantism and the possibility of a Calvinist consensus in the late years of the century.Less

Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance during the 1520s: Erasmian Penitence

Ashley Null

in Thomas Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love

In the 1530s, Thomas Cranmer rejected the notion that penitential acts helped a sinner become worthy of forgiveness because of Erasmus's teachings. According to Erasmus, true Christianity was drawn ... More

In the 1530s, Thomas Cranmer rejected the notion that penitential acts helped a sinner become worthy of forgiveness because of Erasmus's teachings. According to Erasmus, true Christianity was drawn from the teachings in the New Testament; it focuses more on man's internal dispositions. The heart of Christianity, therefore, was a realistic programme of love rooted on a scriptural understanding of human conditions and virtues. Erasmus's work on contrition and confession described personal piety that led to pardon; one has to detest sin and, by God's love, intend to commit no further sin. Erasmus emphasized how God granted contrition as a divine gift to those who are really sincere about turning their servile fear into filial fear.Less

Being Made ‘Right-Willed’ by Faith: Justification in ‘Cranmer’s Great Commonplaces’ circa 1544

Ashley Null

in Thomas Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love

Thomas Cranmer further explained his arguments for solifidianism that he previously outlined to Henry by proving that actions done before justification are not pleasing to God, and that God forgave ... More

Thomas Cranmer further explained his arguments for solifidianism that he previously outlined to Henry by proving that actions done before justification are not pleasing to God, and that God forgave sinners not because of their personal merit, but because of how they applied Christ's righteousness. Cranmer argued that actions have to be rooted on ‘pure faith’ and a love for God for these to become acceptable, where ‘pure faith’ concerns fiducia and fruitful living. Faith can then be said to be defective in two ways, by being linked with fear or by lacking the fruit of love. Cranmer strongly argued that associating human effort with justification is considered human pride. Generally, Cranmer's presentation of solifidianism relied on repentance as turning to and by God.Less

How Readers Read Their Augustines

Arnoud S. Q. Visser

in Reading Augustine in the Reformation: The Flexibility of Intellectual Authority in Europe, 1500-1620

This chapter examines book ownership and reading practices of individual readers of Augustine in sixteenth-century Europe. Case studies of private libraries in England and monastic collections in ... More

This chapter examines book ownership and reading practices of individual readers of Augustine in sixteenth-century Europe. Case studies of private libraries in England and monastic collections in Italy reveal the reality of Augustine's dissemination to be far messier than a chronological account of the printing history would suggest. Manuscript reading marks in individual copies confirm the lively variety of ways in which Augustine was read, ranging from pragmatic underlining to emotional responses. These individual reading styles enabled readers to use the same texts for different ends, as is shown in a case study of three formative English theologians, Thomas Cranmer, Peter Martyr Vermigli and William Laud. Their techniques of classifying or historicizing quotations illuminate how readers, regardless of the aims of authors and editors, often pursued their own approach to Augustine in search of confirmation of their religious perspective.Less

Thomas Cranmer

Ashley Null

in Christian Theologies of the Sacraments: A Comparative Introduction

This chapter examines the sacramental theology of the leading figure of the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer. According to medieval Scholasticism, Jesus had established the church as the ... More

This chapter examines the sacramental theology of the leading figure of the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer. According to medieval Scholasticism, Jesus had established the church as the intermediary between God and his people, so that bishops served as the administrators of saving apostolic spiritual power. Thus, the sacraments were the effective means of dispensing that heavenly grace to the people. However, during the 1530s Cranmer chose to embrace justification by faith, which completely rejected that narrative. He believed that Jesus had come to preach a saving message, which had supernatural power to create a community linking God to his elect by inspiring trust in his divine promises. The question that would occupy Cranmer for the remainder of his life was how exactly the sacraments of the church fit into this new narrative. The sacramental theological writings of Cranmer, particularly in the 1549 and 1552 prayer books, expressed this grace-based Reformation theology in liturgical form.Less

Conclusion

Ashley Null

in Thomas Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love

Throughout his life, Thomas Cranmer only sought a true understanding of God and repentance; as an archbishop, he never thought to abuse his power, but instead used it to promote God's teachings. ... More

Throughout his life, Thomas Cranmer only sought a true understanding of God and repentance; as an archbishop, he never thought to abuse his power, but instead used it to promote God's teachings. Cranmer's Reformed theology emphasized the ‘right-will’ associated with justification. Repentance, according to Cranmer, is turning to God to be turned by God, an act that both humbles man and glorifies God. As an academic, he understood presuppositions and conflict. As a preacher, he realized how hard it was to admit error because of his view changes. As a sinner, he also struggled to put God first instead of his human interests. Cranmer was able to commit his life to God's love and God's plans.Less

Mumpsimus and Sumpsimus

Peter Marshall

in Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation

This chapter examines the Act of Six Articles, passed in 1539 by Henry VIII to enforce under heavy penalties the fundamental doctrines of the Church of England. In many respects, the Six Articles ... More

This chapter examines the Act of Six Articles, passed in 1539 by Henry VIII to enforce under heavy penalties the fundamental doctrines of the Church of England. In many respects, the Six Articles were a disaster for the reformers, affirming a traditionalist line on all the propositions Norfolk placed before Parliament. For one, heresy and treason became thoroughly conflated. The Six Articles were a setback for evangelicals, and a shot in the arm for conservatives, but they did not signal any fundamental repudiation of the path Henry had followed since 1532. The chapter analyses the ways that the Act of Six Articles not only reinforced existing heresy laws and reasserted traditional Catholic doctrine as the basis of faith for the English Church, but also determined the political fate of Thomas Cromwell, archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, and the other reformist leaders.Less

Into Fast Forward: The Bibles of Edward VI

Eyal Poleg

in A Material History of the Bible, England 1200-1553

The last chapter explores the Bibles printed in the short minority reign of Edward VI. It reveals a period of intense creativity, when – free from financial or religious constraints – printers ... More

The last chapter explores the Bibles printed in the short minority reign of Edward VI. It reveals a period of intense creativity, when – free from financial or religious constraints – printers experimented with size, layout, and addenda. Different printers produced pocket or lectern Bibles to suit different audiences and uses. With the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer, Bibles began to make, for the first time, liturgical sense. The last Bible of the period reveals the most experimental book of the reign, and serves as a testimony to its abrupt end.Less

In Kent and Christendom?: The Nature of Heywood’s Treason

Greg Walker

in John Heywood: Comedy and Survival in Tudor England

This chapter looks in detail at the evidence for Heywood’s involvement in the so called Prebendaries Plot against Thomas Cranmer in the diocese of Kent. It explores the religious divisions that ... More

This chapter looks in detail at the evidence for Heywood’s involvement in the so called Prebendaries Plot against Thomas Cranmer in the diocese of Kent. It explores the religious divisions that provoked the complaints against Cranmer, and the interrogatories put to those interviewed over their involvement. It offers the first detailed analysis of the charges against Heywood, concluding that the playwright was not involved in any conspiracy against Cranmer, and indeed that describing the events in Kent as a ‘Plot’ is itself potentially misleading. Rather, when finally confronted with the demand that he affirm the Royal Supremacy, Heywood initially refused, and so became a traitor under the terms of the Treason Act of 1534. The chapter describes Heywood’s dramatic appearance on the scaffold with his co-accused, largely fellow members of the More circle, and his subsequent abject public abjuration.Less

Josiah

Peter Marshall

in Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation

This chapter examines Edward VI's accession to the throne in 1547 at the age of nine following the death of his father, Henry VIII. The weight of evangelical expectation resting on Edward's shoulders ... More

This chapter examines Edward VI's accession to the throne in 1547 at the age of nine following the death of his father, Henry VIII. The weight of evangelical expectation resting on Edward's shoulders was made plain to him at his coronation on 20 February. A much quoted address on the occasion by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer — in which he hailed the young king as ‘a second Josiah’, the King of Judah who succeeded his father at the age of eight, and as a young adult destroyed altars and images erected to the worship of Baal — is a clever late-seventeenth-century forgery. The chapter discusses the changes and problems that marked Edward's reign, focusing on issues relating to royal visitation, the nature of the eucharist, liturgy and the introduction of a new Prayer Book, and the heresy of the anabaptists.Less

Councils, Counsel and Consensus in Henry VIII’s Reformation

Richard Rex

in The Politics of Counsel in England and Scotland, 1286-1707

Henry VIII knew that a true Christian prince sought and considered counsel and weighed it in his conscience before acting. Council and counsel were therefore highly important to him in the crisis ... More

Henry VIII knew that a true Christian prince sought and considered counsel and weighed it in his conscience before acting. Council and counsel were therefore highly important to him in the crisis over his divorce and the royal supremacy. The discarding of his first great minister, Thomas Wolsey, led to an overt revival of conciliar activity in the early 1530s. This chapter argues that Henry used such structures of counsel, including what looks very like a traditional ‘great council’, less to seek advice than to build consensus around his chosen policies. Counsel as such seems to have been received by him in less formal and inevitably less well-documented contexts, evidence for which is used in this chapter to show not only how the conciliar process might work, but also how the ideal of honest and freely spoken counsel was strained by Henry’s increasing determination to have his own way.Less

The sacrament Socinianized: Benjamin Hoadly and the Eucharist

Robert G. Ingram

in Reformation without end: Religion, politics and the past in post-revolutionary England

This chapter concerns the ways in which the Christian God effected men’s salvation. It reconstructs the Eucharistic debates between Waterland and Benjamin Hoadly. It locates those debates within ... More

This chapter concerns the ways in which the Christian God effected men’s salvation. It reconstructs the Eucharistic debates between Waterland and Benjamin Hoadly. It locates those debates within wider debates during the 1730s about whether or not to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts. It shows how those sacramental debates got refracted through the memory of the seventeenth century which had produced the Test and Corporation Acts. Finally, it demonstrates why Waterland thought that when responding to Hoadly he was merely reiterating Thomas Cranmer’s Reformation-era sacramental theology, which itself had reiterated the pure sacramental theology of the primitive church.Less

Closing Remarks II

Diarmaid MacCulloch

in History of Universities: Volume XXXII / 1-2: Renaissance College: Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Context, 1450-1600

This chapter looks at the minds of the first two presidents of Corpus Christi College, John Claymond and Robert Morwent, speculating on what might have been their most worrying moments. For Claymond, ... More

This chapter looks at the minds of the first two presidents of Corpus Christi College, John Claymond and Robert Morwent, speculating on what might have been their most worrying moments. For Claymond, it is the death of Richard Fox in 1528, which brought the greatest predator of the decade into an uncomfortably intimate relationship with the College, because Fox’s successor at Winchester was none other than Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Indeed, the two or three years after 1528 would have remained anxious for Claymond. The chapter next looks into the mind of President Morwent, and shows how another perilous moment would have arrived in 1538. By 1538, Cardinal Reginald Pole headed King’s Henry’s list of people who required murdering. It was amid the political turmoil of this debacle that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer let Thomas Cromwell know of dangerously papalist sentiments currently being expressed among the Corpus Fellowship. In the end, Corpus sneaked past this crisis too.Less

Prologue to Queenship: Before July 1543

in Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence

A number of letters and texts by, for, or about Katherine Parr before July 1543 are presented here. These include: inscriptions by Parr family members in a book of hours belonging to Sir Thomas Parr, ... More

A number of letters and texts by, for, or about Katherine Parr before July 1543 are presented here. These include: inscriptions by Parr family members in a book of hours belonging to Sir Thomas Parr, Katherine's deceased father, before becoming the property of her uncle, Sir William Parr of Horton, written circa 1520; verses written by King Henry VIII in a volume containing a sermon by St. John Chrysostom, belonging to Katherine Parr, recent widow of John Neville, Lord Latimer, between February and July 1543; Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's license for the marriage of King Henry VIII and Katherine Parr Latimer, including dispensation of the required proclamation of banns, July 10, 1543; notarial instrument witnessing the marriage of Henry VIII and Katherine Parr Latimer, July 12, 1543; a letter by Queen Katherine Parr to her brother, Lord William Parr, July 20, 1543; and biblical verses inscribed by Queen Katherine in her volume containing a sermon of St. John Chrysostom, perhaps around the time of her marriage to King Henry.Less

Preambles: “But One Use”

Charles Hefling

in The Book of Common Prayer: A Guide

This chapter examines the Prayer Book’s self-presentation in its preliminary, nonliturgical prose: the two Acts of Uniformity (1559 and 1662) that define the constitution of the text and regulate its ... More

This chapter examines the Prayer Book’s self-presentation in its preliminary, nonliturgical prose: the two Acts of Uniformity (1559 and 1662) that define the constitution of the text and regulate its use in the Church of England; and the three prefatory essays, two of which were written by Thomas Cranmer for the original, 1549 Book of Common Prayer, and have been retained ever since. These texts are themselves primary sources that provide a preliminary context in which to understand the origins and purpose of the liturgies they precede. They outline the successive revisions of the Prayer Book, and indicate both the political and the theological dimensions of its contents.Less

The Printed Text of Prayers or Meditations1

in Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence

Queen Katherine Parr's “Prayers or Meditations,” registers as an ambitious, even an autonomous attempt to provide English readers, especially King Henry VIII, with a private counterpart to the ... More

Queen Katherine Parr's “Prayers or Meditations,” registers as an ambitious, even an autonomous attempt to provide English readers, especially King Henry VIII, with a private counterpart to the English Litany that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer published in 1544. Through Parr's systematic selections and alterations, the connotations of spirituality are wrenched from a perceptibly traditional to an emergently Reformist cast. Divergences in theological and psychological outlook widen as Parr excerpts and reworks her source. However, reformation thought does not seem a likely source for the insistent dependency and submissiveness expressed by the soul in the book. It figures grace as the vital empowerment by which God opens in the sin-marred human soul, the only conduit to a positive relation between the two.Less

The Bible in Early Modern England

Lori Anne Ferrell

in The Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume 1: Reformation and Identity c.1520-1662

This chapter assays the official attitude of the Protestant Church of England to Protestantism’s central text, the Bible. A closer examination of the claims made about Scripture’s authority in the ... More

This chapter assays the official attitude of the Protestant Church of England to Protestantism’s central text, the Bible. A closer examination of the claims made about Scripture’s authority in the English Reformation’s great flashpoint decades—the 1530s and the 1630s—reveals that the Bible’s relation to the Church of England was always more contested and uncertain than its advocates were willing to acknowledge. The King James Bible—with its implicit attack upon the idea of private scriptural study by the removal of marginal notes—signalled the end of the scriptural reformation in England, suggesting that the disavowal of sola scriptura was a defining hallmark of early modern ‘Anglicanism’.Less