If Martin Luther was the father of the Protestant Church, then Thomas Cranmer was the doctor that delivered the baby.

Thomas Cranmer spent 26 years of his life at Cambridge University, as a student, then as a fellow of Jesus College and a university preacher. At the time the only Christian church was Roman Catholic, the English branch having a Celtic flavour. Cranmer was not yet influenced by Luther, but had a love for the Scriptures.

In 1529 King Henry VIII (of the many wives fame) wanted a son and heir, Catherine of Aragon after 24 years of marriage had only produced a daughter. Henry wanted the marriage annulled. Cranmer had a high sense of duty to his King, and Henry got Cranmer to help build the case for an annulment. It is widely believed the Pope's refusal is what caused the break from the Roman Church. But Henry spent much of his reign challenging the authority of Rome, the divorce issue was just one more.

Cranmer was then sent to Germany for 3 years, which is where he come under the influence of Luther's theology, he secretly married there. After the break with Rome, he was called home to succeed William Warham as Archbishop of Canterbury, an appointment he accepted with reluctance. Cranmer supported the principle of Royal Supremacy, where the king is sovereign over the Church within his realm. In May 1533 he pronounced the king’s marriage to Catherine invalid and that to Anne Boleyn valid.

Cranmer’s then directed the course of the English Reformation. When Edward VI (age 9) succeeded his father in 1547, the Church of England, took on an even more Protestant flavour. By the time the young king died in 1553, Cranmer had been instrumental in having a copy of the Bible placed in every church and the church had a new Book of Common Prayer, of which he was a great contributer, republished in 1662, it was used by Anglicans for the next 4 Centuries. The Anglican Church had been born.

When the very Roman Catholic, Queen Mary came to the throne in 1553 however, Cranmer was arrested as a heretic. He spent the last 2½ years of his life in prison, first in the Tower and then at Oxford. He was tried for treason, then for heresy. Under threat of death he recanted. But just before being led to the stake to be burnt, he publicly renounced all recantations and told the crowd his right arm, which had signed them, would be the first part of his body to be burned. With his right arm held steadily in the fire, his last words were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

BORN:1489, Aslockton, Nottinghamshire, England

DIED: Burned at the Stake, 21 March 1556, Broad Street, Oxford, United Kingdom