Dr. Leslie William's "Emblem of Faith Untouched: Short Life of Thomas Cr...

1.     Introduction, 1. This volume is not for scholars, but for seminarians, priests and lay students of English history and theology. The focus is anecdotal for a lively retelling of the story. The volume leans on Dr. MacCulloch’s Thomas Cranmer and John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments.

2.     Beginnings, 2-6. The well known story is retold of Aslockton on the edge of the fertile Vale of Belvoir in the English Midlands. Cranmer was born  on July 2, 1489 to a family of Norman descent. His grandfather had married into a knighted family to an Isabella de Aslockton and had inherited land in the village of around forty people and having 500-600 acres. The Cranmer family worshipped at St. John’s, Whatton, allegedly 0.5 miles from Aslockton. The story of the family coat of arms with three cranes is retold (pun on the family name of Crane-mer), something Cranmer will change once he’s an archbishop. Thomas Sr. and Agnes Cranmer have three sons and four daughters. Thomas Sr. died in 1501, is buried in the Whatton parish, and is graced by a life-size tombstone-slabstone, entitle an “Esquire.” The eldest Cranmer inherits the land and income while sons two and three, Thomas Junior and Edmund are headed for clerical careers. Thomas Junior, after an early education, is sent to Jesus College, Cambridge for the beginning of his BA work. Two contemporaries from Lincolnshire become his life-life friends—Thomas Goodrich and John Whitwell. Dr. Williams theorizes that Dr. Cranmer may have entered Jesus College due to their influence. Jesus College was a made-over college based on the Benedictine convent of St. Radegund, shut down in 1496 due to lascivious nuns. The nuns’ refectory became the college hall, the prioress’s lodging became the Master’s Lodge, and the Chapel was “modified and reduced” in scale. Bishop John Fisher, Vice Chancellor of Cambridge, set a  course, according to Dr. Williams, to make the university a “leader of all northern Europe in humanistic learning” (6). We may have an author’s imposition on Bishop Fisher’s rens mea without documentation or evidence. Cranmer begins his studies here in 1503.