Paul Ayris, Ph.D.: "Thomas Cranmer, Churchman & Statesman:" Ch.5-Crown &...

“From at least the early 1540s, Thomas Cranmer was a proponent of the reformed idea of the priesthood of all believers. Fundamental to this concept was his doctrine of baptism. Since all men are baptized with the same baptism, all men are priests and bishops. The Archbishop gave evidence for his views in his massive theological Commonplaces now house in the British Library. The Archbishop’s earliest enunciation of such a view dates from the mid-1530s. With Bede, he noted that not only Bishops and clerics should be called priest. Through baptism, we are all priests and members of one priesthood (omens Christi dicimur propter misticum chisma, sic omnes sacredotes, qui membra sumus unius sacerdotis). The quotation from Bede shows how fully the Archbishop has come to accept such an idea. In 1544, an unsuccessful attempt was made in Parliament to pass a statue allowing laymen to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It is possible that the Cranmer as the Archbishop may have sponsored the affair” (138).