Alfred Frederick Pollard: "Thomas Cranmer & the English Reformation:" Ch...

4. Cranmer and Reform, 88-123. The Act of Supremacy: “THAT our said Sovereign Lord shall have full 1 power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner spiritual authority or jurisdic- tion are or may lawfully be reformed, repressed . . . most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm." A King thinking himself to be Christ, the Head of the Church. Pompaholic. BTW, Henry's as dead as the cat out back. Escorted from his high throne to his buried coffin. Cranmer has to declare the nullity of Catherine and Anne’s marriages. He wants the English Bible for the land. Pollard doesn’t think Luther is all-that-Lutheran. Reform of abuses, less so for doctrine. However, the book burning in 1521 by Wolsey and Fisher indicates the insecurities about Lutheran issues. Pollard thinks perhaps more Wycliffianism in sentiment than Lutheranism. ??. Yet, Pollard notes this: “Most of the English Reformers were acquainted with Wycliffe's works; Cranmer declares that he set forth the truth of the Gospel, 1 Hooper recalls how he resisted " the popish doctrine of the mass,"* Ridley how he denied transubstantiation," and Bale how he denounced the friars” (91). Very telling paragraph by Pollard. 10 Wycliffians killed between 1509-1518. 35 killed in 1517 alone in London diocese. Bible-readers led to follow Wycliffe and reject Anglo-Romedom. So, Luther’s ideas “fell upon fruitful soil in England” (92). Cranmer gets to conduct a primatial visit, but over episcopal protests, e.g. Gardiner. He appoints reform-minded bishops: Latimer to Worcester in 1535, Shaxton to Salisbury, Foxe to Hereford, Hilsey to Rochester and Barlow to St. David’s. In 1535, the monsteries-closure operation begins. Anne’s beheaded in 1536 and Jane Seymour’s next for marriage (101).