Cranmer Readings: 10/11/2022

Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Thomas Cranmer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. Convocation of 1542 produces nothing except the ordering of menu items for different grades of clergy (203). The idea of Homilies arises, but is table. No Biblical translation, no canon revision, and no homilies. London has its scoffers at pompous prelates in Parliamentary robes in the House of Lords. Ridley, Jaspar. Thomas Cranmer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962. Chapter 17. Edward VI: The Book of Homilies, 258-271. The transition to Edward is headed up by 16 Councilors with Cranmer listed first. That's how Henry wanted it and old Wily Winchester is not on that list. A Royal snub, but Henry knew that no one could control Wily but him. Hertford was in the lead and later became the Duke of Somerset, a Protestant sympathizer. Ridley thinks that Cranmer was genuinely grieving and was relying on Henry’s previous comments on 24 Aug 1546 at Hampton Palace that he and Francis 1 would remove the Mass and install Holy Communion. Cranmer was privy to that and believed, that had Henry lived longer, it would have happened. (Never mind that Francis 1 had already killed 1000s of Huguenots by this point.) Cranmer’s policy was go-slow. London had reformers and Anne Askew’s homicide was still on some minds. Trouble was in the air. Edward VI was a boy, after all. The Councilors all spoke to Edward on their knees. Cranmer didn’t preach at the coronation at 20 February 1547, but he did give an address to Edward about Josiah, good kings and bad kings. Keep the Pope out of England, make sure God is truly worshiped and idolatry destroyed—all workable themes. But Cranmer threw out these three words “…and images destroyed.” That didn’t go over well with the trads (264).