Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation 1489-1556

Book excerpt: Published in 1965: It has been maintained by an eminent scholar recently dead that the chief content of modern history is the emancipation of conscience from the control of authority. From that point of view the student of Tudor times will not be exclusive in his choice of heroes. He will find room in his calendar of saints for More as well as for Cranmer. Both had grave imperfections, and both took their share in enforcing the claims of authority over those of conscience. Nor perhaps is it true to say that they died in order that we might be free; but they died for conscience' sake, and unless they and others had died conscience would still be in chains. That was Cranmer's service in the cause of humanity his Church owes him no less, for in the Book of Common Prayer he gave it the most effective of all its possessions.