Figure · 1489

Thomas Cranmer

Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 and the main architect of worship and doctrine in the early Anglican church. He supported Henry VIII’s break with Rome and, under Edward VI, wrote the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 and its revision of 1552. After the Catholic Mary I came to the throne, he was tried for heresy and burned at Oxford in 1556.