Thomas Cranmer
- Lived
- 1489–1556
- Era
- Reformation
- Where
- Canterbury, England
- Tradition
- Anglican
The Book of Common Prayer
Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII and Edward VI, who provided the annulment Henry wanted and then, under Edward, gave England a liturgy in its own language. Under Mary he recanted his Protestantism repeatedly, then repudiated the recantations at the stake and held his right hand in the fire first, because it had signed them.
Why it matters
The prayer books of 1549 and 1552 are his, and their cadences have shaped English religious speech ever since — the phrasing of the marriage and burial services is largely unchanged after five centuries. His achievement is that the doctrine is carried in what a congregation says rather than in a confession it subscribes, which is the characteristic Anglican move.
In the record
-
1534–1559 AD Reform
The English Reformation
Wrote the prayer books, and was burned under Mary
All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.