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- 1489-1556. English cleric, archbishop of
- Canterbury from 1533. A Protestant convert,
- under Edward VI he helped to shape the
- doctrines of the Church of England. Condemned
- for heresy under the Catholic Mary Tudor, he
- at first recanted, but when his life was not
- spared, resumed his position and was burned
- at the stake, first holding to the fire the
- hand which had signed his recantation. He was
- responsible for the issue of the Prayer Books
- of 1549 and 1552, and supported the
- succession of Lady Jane Grey. Cranmer
- suggested in 1529 that the question of Henry
- VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon should
- be referred to the universities of Europe
- rather than to the Pope, and in 1533 he
- declared it null and void.
-