Diarmaid MacCulloch, Ph.D.: "Thomas Cranmer," Ch. 6: A “Reformed” Church...

213ff. The King’s Book or the Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man was Henrician doctrine until it wasn’t. The Lutheran negotiations. France and the Emperor settled at peace, making Henry nervous about isolation, yet hating Saxon Lutherans, yet seeing the need for some alliance with the Scmalkaldians. Cranmer is involved in the examination and torture by burning of John Forest, an Observant friar. The trial was 22 May 1538. By this date, Cranmer is writing Cheyney that traditional belief was “heresy” (214). Latimer preached a hot sermon against idolatry at the burning. A week later, 27 May 1538, the Germans arrive. Burchard, Saxon’s Vice-chancellor, Dr. Boineburg a Hessian scholar, and Myconius a superintendent, are in London. The latter, like Grynaeus, had a face-to-face with Henry. The Germans were delighted with the reception of evangelical preaching in London. Back-and-forth negotiations go on including penance and reduction of auricular confession from a necessity to something very appropriate. Luther was furious when he saw the “committee product.” Give a committee a theological product and they’ll turn a horse into a cow (DPV).