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Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)
Thomas Cranmer was born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1489. He was educated in Cambridge and in 1533 appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
He was appointed to this position by King Henry VIII who approved of Cranmer's attitude to the divorce that he wanted. Cranmer was a man who arguably made a wrong choice in this support of the King, but such is the way of God that this put Cranmer in a position that accelerated the progress of the reformation.
In 1538 Cranmer advised the king to order that a copy of the Bible was placed in every church in England. Also the churches were required to stay open throughout the day. The significance of this was that the Bible was in English. Thus Tyndale had his last prayer answered. Two year earlier, at his martyrdom, Tyndale had prayed aloud that God would 'open the eyes of the King of England'.
Cranmer also replaced the Catholic Missal with the English Prayer book which, with revisions, has been in use to modern times.
Henry VIII was succeeded by his son Edward VI but he was soon dead and Mary became queen. She made a determined effort to re-impose Roman Catholicism and a period of persecution of the Protestant believers began.
Over three hundred people were burnt at the stake. This included Thomas Cranmer. Under pressure he recanted his Protestant faith but he was still sentenced to be burnt at the stake. But on the verge of glory Cranmer denounced the Pope as the Antichrist and held his right hand in the flames to atone for signing the recantation!