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

225-233. 1538. Prelim workup on liturgy, but shoved backwards after other setbacks. Becket’s shrine is ordered to be destroyed. It started around 8 Sept 1538 and took several days to complete. John Bale staged a play, On the Treasons of Becket, on the same night. Who’s fault was it? An initiative appeared a week or two before 8 Sept and was coordinated with Henry’s trip to Dover and Canterbury. It was an emphatic end to the Becket cult and was a spectacular piece of iconoclastic destruction. Orders are given up for Winchester Cathedral as well. And whala! Stevie Gardiner is back in Kent after a 3-year tour to France as an ambassador. He yuks it up in court flattery. Yet, Prof. Mac notes that evangelicals never “suffered a major reversal” for 3 years while Stevie was out of range. Anabaptists has become an issue. The Germans are clamping down on Anabaptists and offer warning to Henry and crew. A Lollard gets swept into the maelstrom. Lambert also gets swept into the storm on the Eucharistic issue, but, it was the evangelical establishment that cause his downfall. Lambert to Taylor to Barnes to Cranmer to a trial, probably orchestrated by actions of Gardiner on Henry. Now, the King was involved and presiding over a public heresy trial at Westminster as the Supreme Head of the church. Bishops, noblemen, justices, MPs and other notables were present. Lambert will be cruelly burned at the stake, lifting him out of the fires, only to drop him back into the fires.