Thomas Cranmer

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 also built a resonable case for the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. This consequently led to the separation of the Church of England from the Pope. 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 The Church of England, under Henry's rule.

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<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;"> to Protestants. Cranmer's death was immortalised in  John Foxe<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">'s  Book of Martyrs<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;"> and his legacy lives on within the Church of England through the  Book of Common Prayer<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;"> and the  Thirty-Nine Articles<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">, an  Anglican <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">statement of faith derived from his work.