Cranmer Readings: 10/18/2022

1548-1550. Ridley, Jaspar. Thomas Cranmer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962. (280-284). One continues to hear about Cranmer’s grand misstep in pursuing and publishing the Lutheran Catechism by Justas Jonas—full throated Lutheranism on the Eucharist, three sacraments of baptism, Holy communion and auricular confession. The conservatives and the more advanced Reformers both saw Cranmer’s tap dance. And tap dance it was. Was Cranmer thinking he could play both sides and unite them as over against the trads? Machiavellian? The man was a Doctor and academic, after all. Bullinger is getting reports that Cranmer is lukewarm but Bullinger hopes to influence England towards the Swiss view. Jaspar Ridley tosses around the term “Zwinglian” with serious ease and sounds inclined to the bone-muncher view of cannibalism. This much, despite this mistaken publication, Cranmer silences and stuns all by his Reformed view of the Eucharist in a public and extended discussion in the House of Lords, 14-18 Dec 1548. For us, that data point seems irrefutable and inarguable, whatever else was going on in Cranmer’s mind. Jaspar Ridley attributes this to John a’ Lasco although he noted Vermigli and Nicholas Ridley were influential as well. The double-talking is not lost on Wily Winchester either, nor other trads. 1542-1546. Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Thomas Cranmer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. (300-304). The complex web of relationships is explored by Prof. Mac leading up to the Prebendaries’ Plot with names given—Prebendary Gardiner, Dr. London, Dr. Willoughby, Robert Serles and others. Back-channeling is going on. Cranmer’s evangelical staff and a few courtiers are aware of the moves, the complaints and the players, including Richard Morice, his long-standing Secretary. Christopher Nevinson, Cranmer’s reliable protégé and evangelical in Kent, keeps the fires burning with some preaching in the area that’s not lost on the disputants at Canterbury Cathedral. Neither side was passive and both sides had their leaders. This was a dumpster fire that would grow into a forest fire. Will they get Dr. Cranmer in 1543?