HISTORICAL PORTRAITS OF THE TUDOR DYNASTY AND THE REFORMATION PERIOD. CHAPTER I. THOMAS CRANMER. THE current of events now brings me to the consideration of the life of Thomas Cranmer, the primal motor of England's change of ecclesiastical domination. The family of Thomas Cranmer had been settled in Nottinghamshire from the period of the Norman Conquest. On the 2nd of July, 1489, Thomas Cranmer was born at Aslacton, in the parish of Whatton, in the county of Nottingham. He was the second son of Thomas and Mary Cranmer, and had an elder brother named Edward, and four sisters. With pious maternal feeling, Mrs. Cranmer intended her two sons for the priesthood, but her plans were for a time thwarted by circumstances. Thomas was sent by his father to a "severe schoolmaster, whose cruelty stupefied many of the pupils, and made them timid and fearful creatures for life, looking on books as the introduction to every trouble to them." Ralph Morrice states. that young Cranmer would never have recovered his natural manly feeling if he had not left his pedantic and cruel old master.* "When at home," Maister Cranmer trained young Thomas to field sports, for which " Tom had a liking," and "excelled his father." "Throughout life," says Morrice, "Thomas would follow hawk and hound; and although short-sighted, he could take a good aim with the long bow. When he became Archbishop of Canterbury, the game was carefully preserved on his manors, in order that he might the better enjoy the sport. He was a bold and skilful horseman; and in after life he was ready to mount the horse which no groom in his stables could manage." Such is the picture drawn by one who was many years in daily intercourse with Maister Cranmer. The death of Cranmer, the elder, caused some changes in the family. Young Thomas, then in his fourteenth year, was sent by his good mother to Cambridge; and there he became a member of Jesus College, to which he was attached for many years afterwards. Nothing is recorded of Cranmer's early life at the University. He does not seem to have "mixed with the wild and boisterous students," but to have kept closely to his studies. No record of impropriety against him has been found, and, at regulated times, he corresponded with his family, to whom he is said to have been devotedly * Ralph Morrice's Anecdotes of Archbishop Cranmer. In Knight's Life of Collet and in the Letters of Erasmus are to be found some narrations of the "cruel and savage actions" of schoolmasters, who, by their treatment of pupils, indurated the hearts of their alumni to the sufferings of those afterwards subjected to those pupils' power. attached. Although his mother wished him to become a priest, his tastes and studies were, like those of Wolsey, directed to civil law. For the quarter of a century during which he was resident in Cambridge, the name of Thomas Cranmer does not appear on the rolls of the University.* From the Letters of Erasmus may be judged the characters of many of his contemporaries; but, though Cranmer lived almost in the same street as the great Dutch scholar, the latter makes no mention of him. Erasmus had occasion to thank Cranmer, when the latter became an archbishop, for some favour conferred upon him; but no allusion is made to any former knowledge of each other when both had been resident in the same University. Cranmer has been set down as one of the best writers of pure English of his time; yet, as a translator from the classics, he never ranked among men of learning. It is strange to say that such a man continued throughout his whole career, as even his monarch and contemporaries averred, very ignorant of history, whilst his school-fellow, Stephen Gardyner, had scarcely a rival in historical knowledge within the walls of Cambridge. Cranmer's taste was decidedly for the law. Dean Hook thinks that, if he "intended to become a priest, he would scarcely have married." Through perseverance and hard work, the law student became a Fellow of Jesus College in 1510-11. In taking this office, he subscribed to the usual vows of celibacy. At this time he was on friendly terms with the family who owned the Dolphin * Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. vi. + This College was founded by John Alcock, successively Bishop of Rochester, Worcester, and Ely. He was a prelate distinguished for his love of learning and of learned men. Dr. Alcock was Lord Chancellor of England in the reign of Edward the Fourth. He died in 1500. Bale, who wrote about half a |