Prayer Book

Elizabethan Era

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Elizabeth’s 45-year reign is one of the outstanding epochs of English history. She molded the English church by restoring the reforms made by Cranmer when Parliament, by the Act of Supremacy, gave the queen similar control of religion as her father had enjoyed, but with the title of Governor of the Church of England. With certain reservations, the Prayer Book compiled during Edward’s reign was adopted and the revised Thirty-nine Articles became the norm of faith. The queen appointed new bishops and made Matthew Parker, her former tutor, Archbishop of Canterbury. In Parker, Elizabeth had an archbishop who would further Protestantism including the highly popular usage of Psalm singing.

Impact: Elizabeth’s popularity and the skill of men like Parker helped ensure the permanent establishment of Protestantism in Britain, although there were still many bumps in the road ahead.

Cranmer, Thomas

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Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, was born in Nottinghamshire, England, and studied at Jesus College, Cambridge for eight years. In 1523 he became a university preacher. When the issue of Henry’s divorce from Catherine arose, he was appointed archbishop after making the case that it was a matter that should be decided by theologians rather than by Rome. As archbishop, he annulled the marriage and validated the crowning of Anne Boleyn. He instituted Protestant reforms, including the introduction of a Bible in the common vernacular, known as “Cranmer’s Bible.” After Henry’s death, and during the reign of Edward VI, he did much to firmly establish the Church of England by writing or commissioning the First and Second Prayer Books and the Forty-two Articles (later the Thirty-nine Articles). When the Catholic Mary became queen in 1153, he was arrested and thrown into the tower in London. He was burned at the stake after first recanting but then later affirming his Protestant views. He was the chief architect of the Church of England, a cornerstone for many Protestant denominations.