Rev. Henry John Todd's "Life of Archbishop Cranmer, Vol. 1," 11ff.

CHAPTER I. HENRY VIII. 1489 to 1529. The standard discussion of Dr. Cranmer’s lineage, his youth in Aslockton and parochial education is described with a brief notice of his father’s death in 1501 and dispatch to Jesus College in 1503 at age fourteen. Todd notes that Erasmus had been at Cambridge before Cranmer took his BA and Erasmus was pleased with developments at Cambridge. In 1510-1511, Cranmer became a fellow of Jesus College. The story of his marriage to Joan (Black or Brown?) of Dolphin Inn is briefly retailed. Dr. Cranmer was not ordained nor in orders. He simply married as a young scholar, something for the Papists’ hateful grist mill of later years; Dr. Cranmer’s “lewdness” and marital "lasciviousness" would arise later at his trial at Oxford. During the 1-year marraige, Cranmer became a reader (lecturer?) at Buckingham College while his wife resided at Dolphin Inn. The hot Papists would later call him an “ostler,” one who deals with the horses and mules, a put-down in a socially conscious age, as if farmhands is a bad thing. Joan dies. Cranmer’s back as a Fellow at Jesus College. HE puts the marriage in 1511-1512. Todd does not give the date for Dr. Cranmer’s doctorate (we think 1523) but notes that he was chosen as an examiner of ordinands in 1526. A useful note on Peter Vermigli is made, to wit, that he saw the “great number of books that he had seen thus noted by Cranmer…” (9). Todd claims Cranmer was called a “Scripturist” with suspicions of a Lutheran flavor, issues under review in the 1520s at Cambridge. Cranmer held, like others, was aware of the “corruptions of the Romish Church” (10). The quiet academic life was disrupted by outbreaks of the “sweating sickness” and he and two pupils repaired to the pupils’ parental homestead in Waltham, presumably, in the precincts of the Abbey. The famed interlocution between Dr. Steve Gardiner, Secretary of State, Dr. Fox, Royal Almoner, and Dr. Cranmer occurred. Todd interestingly hints that Gardiner attempted to claim credit for the Cranmer’s idea (affirmations from English and Continental theological faculties) while Fox let the cat out of the bag to Henry. Of note, Todd locates Cranmer at Waltham Abbey from Christmas, 1528, through Lent and Easter of 1529 and into the summer whence the preliminary meeting occurs. Henry likes Cranmer’s response to Gardiner and Fox, employs him to write up his views, and to reside in the Boleyn household. Wolsey’s quagmire with Campeggio does not bode well for Wolsey's future. Henry decides that Dr. Cranmer is to personally argue the case before the Pope. Here ends Dr. Cranmer career at Cambridge and the beginning of his service to the Royal Tudor. 1-24.