Canon A.T. Mason, D.D.: "Thomas Cranmer:" Ch. 3-Cranmer and Reformation ...

The English nation is little acquainted with Continental theological developments, although Cranmer is abreast of them as the ABC. As well as having a German wife, he maintained correspondence with foreign theologians, but not as though England would be the pupil of Wittenberg or Zurich. Henry sends Bishop Edward Foxe of Hereford and Nicholas Heath to Schmalcalden in 1535 as a league of defense. The 1530 Augsburg Confession is made a condition to receiving Henry which he rejects. In 1536, the Ten Articles are adopted, precursors to the Thirty-Nine Articles.  Crumwell and Cranmer sign them. The Institution of Christian Man, commonly known as the Bishops’ Book, was issued—a work by Cranmer and Bishop Foxe. As for signatories: “Edward Lee of York, the old antagonist of Erasmus. Stokesley and Gardiner, Tunstall, Clerk, Veysey, Longland, and Sampson, are willing to be considered its joint authors with Latimer and Shaxton, Goodrich, Foxe, Hillsey, and Barlow. Among the signatures of men who were not yet bishops, stand those of Bonner, Skip, and Heath, of Richard Smith, and May, Nicholas Wot ton, and Richard Cox. He would have been a bold man who would have undertaken in 1537 to say in what directions this united band of divines would afterwards diverge” (100). In the 1530s and onwards, one hears of Dr. Cranmer’s blah-blah-arguments and stout defenses of Royal authority over the spirituals. In May 1538, a German delegation arrives in London for an attempt at doctrinal agreements and, potentially, a political realignment—Burckhart, the Vice-chancellor of Saxon, and two others. Again, the 1530 Augsburg Confession was discussed. “The German ‘orators’ wished to proceed to the remaining Articles of Augsburg, which treated of the Mass, Communion in one kind, Confession, the priestly celibate, and the like, under the head of abuses” (106). Dr. Cranmer was ready to discuss it, but not the other Englishmen. The negotiations ended. If Cranmer thought Henry a soft reformer, he was mistaken as the Six Articles of 1539 are passed, probably as a result of the rising ascendancy of Norfolk and Wily Winchester.