Reformed Anglicans

This section, 27ff., continues to shade over into Dr. Cranmer's view of the Localized Presence of Christ in heaven during the Eucharist. The difficulties of his use of Justus Jonas's 1539 Catechism, adjusted and published by Dr. Cranmer in 1548, is discussed.

In this section, one sees clearly two things: (1) Cranmer is Lutheran on justification by 1536-1538 and (2) he holds to some version of a soft Ubiquitarianism (but not Lateran 1215), writing strongly against Vadian, a Reformed Zwinglian. Henry desires Melanchton's presence in England. A moderation after his 1521 volume on the sacraments? 1538 versus 1521? Cranmer is following all-things-Lutheran-and-Reformed in terms of developments and literature. As usual, he's cautious but by 1538, he's publicly identified as a Lutheran. So is Crumwell to some degree. This is a well-known and a well-beaten path, but Prof. Hall gives it the visibility it deserves. As an aside, it is here that the Pharisaic masks of the Tractarians, huffing about their masks and externalities, are pulled off and down. No merits in ceremonies, but in Christ alone by grace alone by faith alone...and yes, a given faith by God alone to the elect. Osiander writes of Cranmer's visits to his studies in Nurenb...

This may well be the best essay ever read on Dr. Cranmer's engagements, responses, learning, and virtues from the 1520s-1530s. Dr. Cranmer was emphatically in the Reformational trajectory, despite his hostile environment.

Professor Hall gives a tour of Cranmer's wide library with an appreciative commentary on Dr. Cranmer's scholarship. He dismisses Jasper Ridley's thesis of Cranmer being of low academic attainments. Prof. Hall asks, "How many Archbishops of Canterbury will have their ideas, books and lives examined 500 years from now?"