Cranmer's relationship with Henry.
MacCulloch observes that because of his position as a Cambridge don, Cranmer would have inevitably been drawn into the debate surrounding Henry's marriage. Cranmer's advice that Henry VIII should turn to the Church in England and Europe's theologians to resolve his conflict with the Pope over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, was something that struck a resonance with the Monarch. Not only because it raised the status of, and hastened the independence of, the province of Canterbury, but also because it fitted the wider political manoeuvrings of Henry and his links with France in an attempt to break free from the dominating and controlling influence of Spain, the Roman Church and the Pope. As Pollard comments:
'That divorce and its ramifications were the web into which the threads of Cranmer's life were woven.' Pollard (p24)
And so Thomas Cranmer came to the notice of Henry. Cranmer was despatched to Rome to aid English officials in their fight to secure agreement for Henry to remarry. The closeness of Cranmer's relationship with Henry grew with the passing of time: "The true source of strength for the Reformers lay in the maintenance of Cranmer's personal bond with the King, who not only defended him against several concerted attacks but allowed him to continue planning advanced liturgical reforms."
The church's relationship to the State.
Cranmer's surviving private papers show that the teams conducting research to support Henry's position gathered a large body of evidence that focused on the jurisdictional claims of the papacy. Cranmer's task was to translate and edit this into a usable form. (These skills would be well employed when Cranmer came to write the Books of Common Prayer.) Two documents emerged. One for internal government use (Collectanea Satis Copiosa after Nicholson.). The second for public consumption which attempted to persuade that history proved that it was the King and not the Pope who had supreme jurisdiction over the realm.
This second document (Determinations) was originally published in Latin and then underwent several revisions in several vernacular editions - all by Cranmer. As the revisions progressed, so did the strength of support for the King's position. Cranmer encouraged English bishops to "....withstand the Pope openly to his face, as Paul did resist Peter...." and concluded that: "....the King's conscience in the matter represents a 'motion of the Holy Ghost' which is higher than mere law".
Subsequent parliamentary activity and legislation was based on these documents and as Henry moved ever closer to a total break with Rome it was Cranmer's hand that was on the tiller. Made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 (Cranmer was most reluctant to assume the position, it was never something he sought), and by using an appeal to theologians as a basis, Cranmer was in a special, almost unique, position of State/Church entanglement. This ambiguous incest-like relationship continues to this day.
To reinforce the inevitable break with Rome which came in November 1534 with the Act of Supremacy, the English church was, almost by default, forced to adopt practices and procedures that set it increasingly apart from the Roman Church. The recognition that the national Church was a sovereign but constituent part of the "catholic Church" set the Church in England on a divergent course from the Roman Church.
With growing influence from Lutheranism that was spreading across parts of Western Europe, Cranmer's increasing appeal to Scripture and to his authority as Archbishop, and the now legal status of independence from Rome, it was only a question of time before widespread reforms would sweep through the English Church.
The Cambridge Reformers (The White Horse Group) relationship to the European Reformation.
A ready conduit for the influence of Lutheranism and other continental Reformation ideas were a group of scholars who met in the White Horse Tavern in Cambridge. This group was so Lutheran in outlook, that the Tavern was known as "Little Germany".
Foxe's Book of Martyrs was one of many sources that accredited Cranmer with a direct link, even membership, of this group in the 1520's. The importance of the group cannot be denied when its membership is considered. Dickens lists the following as members (p. 68) : "Tyndale, Joye, Roy, Barnes, Coverdale, Bilney, Latimer, Cranmer, Frith, Lambert, Ridley, Rowland Taylor, Thomas Arthur, Matthew Parker and many others who preached, wrote, accepted high office or embraced martyrdom in the cause." MacCulloch is sceptical claiming that this is the work of later supporters imputing evangelical credentials to increase the "kudos" of Cranmer but there is no hard evidence to overturn a view that was established very soon after the events.
What is clear however is that the influence of this group on Cambridge and its academic community, Including Cranmer, would have been undeniable. That does not of course mean that Cranmer would have "bought into" their Lutheran theology in a wholesale way.
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