Thomas Cranmer is the type of hero that no one ever wants to be. Cranmer can be judged harshly. He burned people who denied the miracle of transubstantiation, and later denied the doctrine himself. He swore oaths intending to break them. He was the puppet of an absolute dictator and used his ecclesiastical office to justify the king’s sins. But despite his faults (one might almost say, because of his faults), he was God’s man to bring about the doctrinal reformation in England. Perhaps he himself was wrong on many points, but God used his absolute sincerity, his hard labor, and his seeking after the gospel to lay the foundation for the reformation in England. Perhaps no one would ever want to be Thomas Cranmer, but I suspect that is because almost no one has the fortitude to be a Cranmer.

But before this post should be filed under the category “My Two Cents” instead of “History” . . . For the class History of England (another Dr. Hayner class), I wrote an essay that is, more or less, about the theology of Thomas Cranmer.

PDF icon “Influences on and Products of the Theology of Thomas Cranmer”