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Beskrivelse
Thomas Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry VIII in 1533 and burnt alive twenty-three years later on the orders of Queen Mary, Henry's daughter.
At the time he was appointed, Cranmer was an ordained Roman Catholic priest, personal acquaintance of the Pope and of the Holy Roman Emperor, a confidant of Anne Boleyn - and secretly married to a niece of a leader of the Lutheran Church in Germany.
Among Cranmer's first acts for his King were the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, the crowning of Queen Anne Boleyn, baptising the infant Princess Elizabeth and standing as her Godfather.
In an age of merciless conflict about personal beliefs, Archbishop Cranmer substantially defined a new Protestant Church in England, affecting the lives of everyone in the country. That Church was strong enough for Queen Elizabeth I to depend on it at the very start of her reign and it has lasted for over four hundred years. Puritan separatists from the Church included the first pilgrims to America.
Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer is still recognisably in use in many countries and languages.
Shakespeare described Cranmer as 'virtuous' and 'a good man' - though some would say that his agonising death was well-deserved.
This fact-based historical novel portrays Cranmer's remarkable life; it reassesses some aspects of the history of that period and deals with spiritual issues that still resonate today.
