Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

2 July 1489 A.D. Mr. (Canterbury) Thomas Cranmer Born.


2 July 1489 A.D.  Mr. (Canterbury) Thomas Cranmer Born.


Thomas Cranmer (1489 to 1556)

Church of England

His life a legacy, his death an example.

Thomas Cranmer was born in Nottinghamshire, England. He would take a leading part in preparing the Anglican church's Book of Common Prayer, which is strongly based in scripture. As archbishop of Canterbury, he altered the mass into the communion service, allowing the laity to take the wine which had previously been restricted to priests. He also turned the service into common English so that the simplest could understand it. Under Queen Mary, Cranmer was imprisoned. Stressed by prison life, repeated degradation, and ceaseless examinations, he broke and recanted his Protestant views. Then he repented, renewed his stand for the Lord and his word and was sent to the stake. There he thrust his right hand first into the fire because it had signed the recantation, and he held it there until the flesh was consumed, so firmly did he believe that our eternal future with Christ hinges on our choices here.

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