Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/584

Rh 550 C R A N M E II Kent to Lambeth, where he was kept a virtual prisoner until he had indicated that he would be compliant. In a letter to Henry he pled generously for the queen, but the plea was robbed of whatever force it might have had by a closing sentence in which he stated his willingness to obey the king s commands. The proceedings were gone through with the same hypocritical show of judicial formality as in the case of Queen Catherine, and on the 10th June 1536 the archbishop fulfilled his promise of obedience by declar ing the marriage he had himself sanctioned to have been null and void from the first. It is urged in his favour that before doing so he had received from Anne a confes sion of some impediment existing before her marriage with the king which rendered the marriage invalid, but it does not appear in what the impediment consisted, and the plea can scarcely be accepted. Even if it could, few would be inclined to question the judgment of Hook that &quot; of Cranmer s conduct in the affair the less that his admirers say, the greater will be their discretion.&quot; And this was not the last time in Henry s reign that the archbishop stooped to act the same degrading part. In 1540 he presided over the Convocation that disannulled the marriage with Anne of Cleves, which he had celebrate! almost immediately before. To his next and last interposition in the matrimonial affairs of the king no discredit attaches itself. When he was made cognizant of the charges against Catherine Howard, his duty to communicate them to the king was obvious, though painful ; and his choice of the time and manner of his fulfilling ib was both delicate to his royal master and considerate to the accused. Meanwhile Cranmer was actively carrying out the policy which has associated his name more closely, perhaps, than that of any otlrjr ecclesiastic with the Reformation in England. Its most important feature on the theological as distinct from the political side was the endeavour to promote the circulation of the Bible in the vernacular, by encouraging translation and procuring an order in 1538 that a copy of the Bible in English should be set up i:i every church in a convenient place for reading, Only second in importance to this was the re-adjustment of the creed and liturgy of the church, which formed Cranmer s principal work during the latter half of his life. The progress of the archbishop s opinion towards that middle Protestantism, if it may be so called, which he did so much to impress on the formularies of the Church of England, was gradual, as a brief enumeration of the successive steps in that progress will show. In 1535 he corrected a second* edition of the book known as the King s Primer, the original composition of which has been attributed to him, and which was in several points Protestant in doctrine. In 1538 an embassy of German divines visited England with the design, among other things, of forming a common confession for the two countries. This proved impracticable, but the frequent conferences Cranmer had with the theologians composing the embassy had doubtless a great influence in modifying his views. He had not strength of conviction enough, however, to oppose out and out the reactionary statute of 1538, known as the Six Articles, or &quot; whip with the six strings.&quot; Foxe and others following him have indeed asserted that he did so, but Hook shows that the archbishop was present at the first and second readings of the bill, and also when it received the royal assent, while the only method of opposing it was to have absented himself. No doubt ho had and urged strong objections to it, but these must have been overcome in the end by the arguments or the authority of the king. During the period between 1540 and 1543 the archbishop was engaged at the head of a commission in the revision of the &quot; Bishop s Book/ or Insti tution of a Christian Man, and the preparation of the Neces sary Erudition, known as the &quot;King s Book,&quot; which was a modification of the former work in the direction of Roman Catholic doctrine. In 1543 was issued his translation of the Litany, which was substantially the same as that now in use, and shows his mastery of a rhythmical English style. In 1547 appeared the Homilies prepared under his direc tion. Four of them are attributed to the archbishop himself those on Salvation, Faith, Good Works, and tha Pleading of Scripture. His translation of the German Catechism of Justus Jonas, known as Cranmer s Catechism, appeared in the following year. Important, as showing his views on a cardinal doctrine, was the Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament, which he published in 1550. It was immediately answered from the sido of the &quot; old learning &quot; by Gardyner. From these and other works which need not be mentioned it is uot difficult to fix Cranmer s theological position. It may be best described in general terms as that of the historical High Church party in the Church of England, of which indeed Cranmer may be regarded as one of the chief founders. Tran- substantiation was the discriminating doctrine between Romanists and Protestants in England, just as justification by faith was the discriminating doctrine in Germany ; and it is to be noted that Cranmer did not renounce the dogma until after the death of Henry VIII. Ultimately, after much thought and controversy, he rested content with the acceptance of the fact of real presence apart from any theory, whether of transubstantiation or consubstantiation ; and this course has proved satisfactory to the most eminent theologians of his school in the Church of England down to the present day. If it be added that, on the questions on which they differ from the Roman see, he would havo found himself in substantial harmony with the Old Catholics of Germany, his views of ecclesiastical polity will bo understood by most readers. In what may be called the external work of the English Reformation, Cranmer s part was secondary, the principal agent being naturally Cromwell. The dissolution of the monasteries was the work of the minister, not of the arch bishop ; but the latter showed a laudable zeal in trying to secure as much as possible of the confiscated monastic property for the benefit of religion and learning. Although the relations of Cranmer with Cromwell had never been very intimate, he was generous enough to intercede for the minister after his fall in June 1540. But with his usual weakness he did not persist in his intercession after he saw that the king was determined. In fact he was present in Parliament when the bill of attainder was read, and so consented to it. The course taken by Cranmer in promoting the Reformation exposed him to the bitter hostility of the reactionary party or &quot; men of the old learning,&quot; of whom Gardyner and Bonner were leaders, and on two occasions in 1543 and 1545 conspiracies were formed in the council to effect his overthrow. The king, however, remained true to him, and both conspiracies signally failed. It illustrates a favourable trait in the archbishop s character that he forgave all the conspirators, though he might doubtless have secured their punishment through his influence with the king. He was, as his secretary Morice testifies, &quot; a man that delighted not in revenging.&quot; Cranmer was present with Henry VIII. when he died (1547), and did his duty as spiritual adviser faithfully and kindly. By the will of the king he was nominated head of a council of regency composed of sixteen persons, but he acquiesced in the arrangement by which Somerset became lord protector. He officiated at the coronation of the boy king Edward VI., and instituted a significant change in the order of the ceremony, by which the right of the monarch to reign was made to appear to depend upon inheritance alone, without the concurrent consent of the people. The