Mr Cranmer’s Feast

On this day in 1556, Thomas Cranmer, onetime henchman to Henry VIII, principal editor of two astonishingly beautiful books of liturgy in the vernacular, hesitant Protestant, and archbishop of Canterbury, died, burned at the stake.

I’m endlessly fascinated by this complex man, who brought profound flaws and deep heart into terrible times. A less ambiguous person probably could not have laid the ground that a few years later would become with the Elizabethan settlement, the complicated, messy, and perhaps best of the Christian sects.

I have more than a few arguments with Mr Cranmer’s theology, but today, I stand in awe of the arc of his life, and the ending of it, done with more grace than I expect I would have.

May he rest in peace, and peace be upon his church…