Arthur D. Innes, M.A.: Cranmer and the Reformation in England--Ch. 5 The...

1.     CHAPTER V: THE KING S INSTRUMENTS, pp.42-51. Cranmer at Cambridge is discovered. He is employed by Henry to write-up his results while in the Boleyn home. Cranmer advises securing university opinions, thus, reducing papal jurisdiction and authority to the level of “expert opinions.” Henry buys in—“Cranmer has the right sow by the ear.” The King and the Cambridge scholar get on well, the King seeing Cranmer’s talents and Cranmer with his gentle pliability. After Wolsey’s fall in Oct 1529, Thomas Cromwell comes to view as a loyalist to Wolsey, a factor Henry’s appreciates. Cromwell was a runagate and mercenary while in Italy. It’s hard to imagine Cromwell not getting a full taste of the corruption of Papacy—with Borgias, Sforza and Medicis flitting around the throne and courts of power. Did Cromwell read Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” Cromwell soon comes into Henry’s orbit—loyal, courageous, perhaps devious, and, we would add, in time, an earnest Protestant. Dr. Cranmer’s front-man.