I’m writing a presentation for an assignment at the moment, the subject is Thomas Cranmer, Henry VIII and Edward VI’s Archbishop of Canterbury and the author and compiler of the original versions of the Book of Common Prayer.

I thought ( as an act of procrastination earlier today) that it would be fun to try & summarise Cranmer in the 140 characters allowed by Twitter ( andactually I had fewer, as I had to introduce it!)

It was pointed out that as an assignment it had no footnotes, so I’ve added those in to expand the info!
this was my Tweet then: (footnote numbers not included!)

Cranmer in <140c not 2500wds: believed in JC,(1) placated Henry(2), chose to marry,(3) was ABC,(4) let rip with Eddies,(5)wrote BCP,(6) denied RP,(7) got burnt(8)

Footnotes

1) Cranmer believed in the doctrine of Justification by Faith, 

2) He was part of Henry’s “team” working on the Divorce from Katherine of Aragon,  and the break with Rome. Later he kept the fine balance between reforming ideas and not winding Henry the traditionalist up too much

3) in 1532 while in Germany he became convinced of the Reformers arguments for clerical marriage,  and married Margarete, breaking his priestly vow of celibacy. He had to keep it quiet until 1549!

4) He was made Archbishopof Canterbury in 1533 a post he kept until Mary Tudor became Queen and re established Catholicism in 1553.

5) under Edward VI and his regent Edward Seymour, Cranmer was able to enact all the reforms  he’s been prevented from doing under Henry

6) in Edward’s reign Cranmer wrote & compiled the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer 1549 and 1552 which formed the basis for the 1662 edition that has been used in Anglican churches ever since.

7) in the 1552 BCP Cranmer finally denied the doctrine of Real Presence at the Eucharist.

8 ) Cranmer was burnt at the stake as a heretic in 1556 during the reign of Mary I

I am trying to work out how I can get the phrase ” Cranmer got his fingers burnt” into my assignment! Because he had somewhat fruitlessly tried to recant his ” heresies”.  He later  took back his recantation and uphelp his protestant theology, and in the fire stuck the hand which had signed the recantation into the flames first, as if to punish it.