Diarmaid MacCulloch, Ph.D.: "Thomas Cranmer," 5: Boleyn-Cromwell, 1535-1...

Tom hears Anne’s on 10 May. 17 May, Tom declares a nullity of the marriage—how convenient. This, like other instances, was a unmitigable “stain” on Cranmer’s reputation. Rather than labor to advance the truth between men, he served as a Royal lapdog and bootlicker. On 19 May, Anne loses her head. Tom’s real feelings emerge in an early morning discussion at Lambeth Palace with his client, Alesius. With true tears (covering his evident cowardice), he claimed, “She has been a Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen of heaven” (159). Tom cannot be excused here for his failure. Meanwhile, Cromwell is strengthening his Machiavellian grip on power and Henry, ever-seeking a male heir and some marital sex, marries Jane Seymour on 30 May. This was a 6-week operation with the climax of a May-beheading and a May-remarriage. MacCulloch tells us that Convocation open on 9 Jun 1536, a day after Parliament convened. Allegedly, on MacCulloch’s retelling, Latimer attacked clerical immorality, ignorance, purgatory, shrines and iconodulatry—hardly new things and hardly reformist. Where’s the doctrinal elements of justification by faith alone by Scripture alone by God alone? MacCulloch either dismisses, downplays or misses the doctrinal stuff here. He may be an historian--a good one--but we do not see evidence of exegetical prowess or skills as a systematician.