The Secret Life of Archbishop Cranmer

By Alan Weatherall

Thomas Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry VIII in 1533 and burnt alive twenty-three years later on the orders of Queen Mary, Henry's elder daughter.
At the time he became Archbishop, Cranmer was an ordained Roman Catholic priest, a personal acquaintance of the Pope and of the Holy Roman Emperor, a confidant of Anne Boleyn - and secretly married to a niece of a leader of the Lutheran Church in Germany.
Within three months of his appointment, Cranmer had annulled Henry's marriage to Katherine of Aragon, legitimised Henry's hitherto bigamous marriage to Anne Boleyn and crowned Anne as Queen in Westminster Abbey. Some four months later he stood as a Godfather for the infant Princess Elizabeth (not the son that Henry wanted).
But Cranmer's most important task was long-term - to define and create a new Church in England, a Protestant Church with King, and not the Pope, at its head.
Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell had important but limited roles in Henry's plan for his son. They were cast aside early on by Henry in his iron determination to leave to that son a stable, secure nation, built around a common belief in a national church.
Henry VIII's ability to hold tight to a secret long-term plan could have been inherited, or perhaps it was learned from his father or from his paternal grandmother, both of whom had lives of long, intense struggle.
It is ironic that the real beneficiary of Henry's sometimes murderous scheming was not his son, but his younger daughter Elizabeth, to whom he had given little attention.
In an age of merciless conflict about personal beliefs, Cranmer was protected by Henry and subsequently by Henry's Protestant son King Edward VI. When Edward VI died, Cranmer's days were numbered.
The Church that Cranmer defined was strong enough for Queen Elizabeth I to depend on it and it has lasted for over four hundred years. Puritan separatists from the Church included the first pilgrims to America.
Versions of Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer are still in use in many countries and languages.
Shakespeare described Cranmer as 'virtuous' and 'a good man'.
This gripping fact-based historical novel portrays Cranmer's remarkable life; it reassesses some aspects of the history of that period and deals with spiritual issues that still resonate today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0851MJLFM
• ISBN13: 9798616306753
• Release Date: February 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"