On this date, 21 March 1556, Thomas
Cranmer the Archbishop of Canterbury was executed. In loving memory of him, I
will post the quotes of the fortnight from him.
QUOTE
1:
"I pray that God may grant that we may endure to
the end!"
QUOTE
2:
"And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's
enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine." He was pulled
from the pulpit and taken to where Latimer and Ridley had been burnt six months
before. As the flames drew around him, he fulfilled his promise by placing his
right hand into the heart of the fire while saying "that unworthy
hand" and his dying words were, "Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit... I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the
right hand of God."
AUTHOR: Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March
1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury
during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He
helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon
which resulted in the separation of the English Church from union with the Holy
See. Along with Thomas Cromwell, he supported the principle of Royal Supremacy,
in which the king was considered sovereign over the Church within his realm.
During Cranmer's
tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, he was responsible for establishing the
first doctrinal and liturgical structures of the reformed Church of England.
Under Henry's rule, Cranmer did not make many radical changes in the Church,
due to power struggles between religious conservatives and reformers. However,
he succeeded in publishing the first officially authorised vernacular service,
the Exhortation and Litany.
When Edward came to
the throne, Cranmer was able to promote major reforms. He wrote and compiled
the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, a complete liturgy
for the English Church. With the assistance of several Continental reformers to
whom he gave refuge, he developed new doctrinal standards in areas such as the
Eucharist, clerical celibacy, the role of images in places of worship, and the
veneration of saints. Cranmer promulgated the new doctrines through the Prayer
Book, the Homilies and other publications.
After the accession
of the Roman Catholic Mary I, Cranmer was put on trial for treason and heresy.
Imprisoned for over two years and under pressure from Church authorities, he
made several recantations and apparently reconciled himself with the Roman
Catholic Church. However, on the day of his execution, he withdrew his
recantations, to die a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to Protestants.
Cranmer's death was immortalised in John Foxe's Book of Martyrs and his
legacy lives on within the Church of England through the Book of Common
Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, an Anglican statement of faith
derived from his work.
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