Cranmer: Village pride in its link with a Tudor martyr

A news article found at:
"Village pride in its link with a Tudor martyr." Evening Post (Nottinghamshire) 24 June 2006: 10. Newspaper Source Plus. EBSCO. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.


A Notts village will be out in force this weekend to mark the 450th anniversary of the execution of its most notable son. JOHN BRUNTON visits Aslockton and tells the story of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and martyr.

A Notts village will be out in force this weekend to mark the 450th anniversary of the execution of its most notable son. JOHN BRUNTON visits Aslockton and tells the story of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and martyr

It is Thomas Cranmer's birthplace, a fact you can't miss as you walk through Aslockton.

This picture-book Notts village recalls the name of the 16th-Century Archbishop of Canterbury just about everywhere.

It is an unusual legacy for the man who was burned at the stake by "bloody" Queen Mary.

The school is named after him, so is the village shop and of course the Cranmer Arms, one of Aslockton's two pubs.

There are lanes named after him, too. His name lives on at every corner, yet the events with which he was associated, and which led up to his execution - martyrdom if you prefer - in 1556 took place a long way from where he was born in 1489.

Without doubt, Cranmer is Aslockton's most celebrated son.

And this weekend, tying in with the 450th anniversary of his death, villagers are staging various events to celebrate his life.

They will be recalling his deeds at court on behalf of Henry VIII and his son Edward VI and later his fall from grace when Henry's daughter Mary came to power.

"One of the aims is to bring the village together," says the vicar, the Rev Reg Walton, who, with fellow helpers, has been laying the foundations to this Tudor weekend for the last six months.

The villagers are donning Tudor-style costume and there will be a village fete this afternoon in the grounds of the pretty 19th-Century church, which is just to the west of the site where Cranmer is believed to have been born.

Tonight at 8 there is a concert in the church by the Cranmer Company of Singers and Chamber Orchestra.

Among other things, they will be performing Tudor madrigals and motets, recalling the age in which Cranmer lived.

Tomorrow there will be a special service in the St John of Beverley parish church in nearby Whatton-in-the-Vale, where Cranmer worshipped.

Evensong will be back at St Thomas' Church in Aslockton at 4pm.

Sandra Jones, who was born and brought up in Aslockton and who still lives there, says: "At school we learned all about Cranmer and his history and we felt proud to be connected."

But why all the fuss? And why is the life of a Tudor cleric still relevant today?

The answers lie a long way from Aslockton in events central to the Tudor dynasty - in which Cranmer played an important role.

And at the heart of that is his lasting reputation as the architect of the reformed church.

In effect, he created the Church of England and ensured the breakaway of the English pattern of worship from Roman Catholicism. He ended the power that the Pope had been able to exert here in England.

Born the son of a local squire, Cranmer was educated at Southwell before going to Cambridge University at the age of 14; impossibly young now, but not so in those days.

The reason he was packed off was that his father did not have enough money or land to secure Thomas an inheritance; that was to pass to his older brother.

So, as was the way in those days, the next best thing was a career in the church.

Cranmer married in his early 20s, which disbarred him from becoming a churchman.

But after his first wife died in 1523, he was accepted back into Jesus College and took holy orders the same year.

An outbreak of plague forced Cranmer to leave Cambridge.

In Essex, where he went to live, he came to the attention of Henry VIII and through this association in time became Archbishop of Canterbury.

He was a shrewd operator. Cranmer waited for his appointment to be approved by the Pope before declaring Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon - the future Queen Mary's mother - null and void.

The decision remains one of the talking points of history, but, whether right or wrong, it allowed Henry to marry Ann Boleyn.

It was also key to Henry breaking with the power of the Catholic Church.

Cranmer was once more on hand when Henry wanted shot of Ann and, though godfather to their daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I, he helped annul the marriage.

Ann was executed for adultery and treason in 1536.

Later, Cranmer helped Henry annul his fourth marriage, to Anne of Cleves after just six months, on the grounds that it had not been consummated.

After that, Cranmer played another major role in finding out about the sexual indiscretions of Henry's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, which in turn led her to the executioner's block in 1542.

But Cranmer made a serious mistake towards the end of Edward VI's rule.

Young Edward, Henry's only legitimate son, had no heirs and Cranmer successfully urged him to alter the succession to Lady Jane Grey, rather than his sister Mary.

But common support went Mary's way, and Lady Jane, too, had her head lopped off.

Mary, also remembering Cranmer's role in the divorce of her mother, Catherine of Aragon, had Cranmer tried for treason.

A devout Catholic, she made him publicly proclaim the error of his ways in supporting the Protestant faith.

He was forced to sign a document but, as he was being burned at the stake in Oxford in 1556, he stuck his hand into the fire, loudly announcing: "This hath offended."

With this single-handed gesture Cranmer saved the Protestant faith in England.

Cranmer also wrote The Book of Common Prayer, and members of the national Prayer Book Society will be at both services tomorrow to celebrate this.

There's another reason for the weekend celebrations.

Parishioners in Aslockton want to build a new church hall to replace the old one next door.

Likely to cost 450,000, with work on it starting next year, the Thomas Cranmer Centre will adjoin the Church at right-angles and become a new focus for village life.

And of course, it will carry his name.

Mr Walton says: "He was a local boy made good... nearly 500 years ago.

"Not only did he move to the heart of the court and become the king's adviser, politically and in a religious sense, but he was very influential in terms of language and culture.

"The Book of Common Prayer is known throughout the world."