Thomas Cranmer spent more than two decades as Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1533 until his execution in 1556. He was therefore the pre-eminent figure in the English church during arguably the most turbulent and transformative period in its history, in which it broke from Rome and became autonomous, and he was the driving force behind many of the forms that these decisive changes took. Cranmer wrote influential theological works on the nature of the sacraments, and was integrally involved in both domestic and international politics at the very highest level. He was not a ‘literary’ figure in the modern sense of the term, in that he left behind no significant poems or plays; but, as the architect of the Book of Common Prayer (1549, 1552), he can accurately be said to have made a bigger…
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Citation: Moshenska, Joe. "Thomas Cranmer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 January 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1062, accessed 20 April 2024.]
