Cranmer, Thomas. Born in 1489. Archbishop of Canterbury. Obtained the favor of Henry VIII by furthering his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and was appointed primate in 1533. He favored the Reformed doctrines during the reign of Henry VIII, and that of Edward VI. Protestantism was thoroughly established, and the "Book of Common Prayer" compiled in 1549 under his guidance. He was committed to the Tower on the accession of Mary, condemned at Oxford for heresy in 1554, and after two years' imprisonment, burnt there, openly rejecting the recantation of Protestantism which he had been induced to sign.

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