A few final notes from Mr. Ridley on biographies. We are compiling a growing bibliography on the "Mystery Man."
A few notes and musings.
Ridley, Jaspar. Thomas Cranmer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962.
This 450-page gem is available at:
http://www.amazon.com/
Froude, Gardiner, Pollard, Canon Dixon, Cardinal Gasquet, Deane, Belloc, Hutchinson, Bromiley, Theodore Maynard and Styron produced works on Cranmer. The 19th century produced a flurry of activity.
By 1905, A.F. Pollard offered the “tradition Protestant view.” 55 years since that time (Ridley was published in 1962), there were 19 books and pamphlets on Cranmer. 6 were full length biographies.
On Pollard’s view, Cranmer was “simple, transparent, and honest.” Cranmer was an “honest Papist who gradually saw the light.”
Belloc, a Romanist view, gave a new twist: Cranmer was a “secret agent” who had infiltrated the system and was awaiting his opportunity to strike. The Roman view in the 19th century continued to be that Cranmer was a “time-server,” an “unprincipled opportunist and tool of royal tyranny” (10).
Mr. Ridley observes that Cranmer’s failure of principle in his “conduct during the Henrician reaction which followed the Six Articles.” He goes on, “There is no doubt that in 1539, in 1540, and above all in 1543, Cranmer betrayed his principles and retreated from Protestant doctrines to a much greater extent than his admirers admit.” We look forward to a review of these three dates.
Ridley summarizes a few of his own views:
• Cranmer believed in “royal absolutism” (12). This is not surprising, but it makes 20th-21st century Churchmen uncomfortable.
• Cranmer believed his duty was “to strengthen the power of the king.” We would add that it is hard to believe that Cranmer would have supported the Puritan rebellion and Cromwellian revolt.
• Cranmer knew that support of Henry was the key to staying “at Lambeth” and “resistance would bring him to the stake.”
• However, by 1553, whatever else one says about Cranmer, he was “prepared to take the high road.”
• Cranmer had a “dread of revolution and disorder.” Having spent 6 months in Germany in 1532, he was aware of the Peasants’ Revolt and Anabaptist rebellion at Munster.
• Cranmer believed that “Protestantism must be introduced by the Prince, not the people.”
• Mr. Ridley observed that it was “fortunate that he died before Protestantism became a revolutionary movement.” Cranmer was “always looking over his should at extremists.”
• While the Zwinglians said in 1548 that Cranmer was “lukewarm,” criticism would cease after 21 March 1556.
What did he believe, when, and where?
Froude, Gardiner, Pollard, Canon Dixon, Cardinal Gasquet, Deane, Belloc, Hutchinson, Bromiley, Theodore Maynard and Styron produced works on Cranmer. The 19th century produced a flurry of activity.
By 1905, A.F. Pollard offered the “tradition Protestant view.” 55 years since that time (Ridley was published in 1962), there were 19 books and pamphlets on Cranmer. 6 were full length biographies.
On Pollard’s view, Cranmer was “simple, transparent, and honest.” Cranmer was an “honest Papist who gradually saw the light.”
Belloc, a Romanist view, gave a new twist: Cranmer was a “secret agent” who had infiltrated the system and was awaiting his opportunity to strike. The Roman view in the 19th century continued to be that Cranmer was a “time-server,” an “unprincipled opportunist and tool of royal tyranny” (10).
Mr. Ridley observes that Cranmer’s failure of principle in his “conduct during the Henrician reaction which followed the Six Articles.” He goes on, “There is no doubt that in 1539, in 1540, and above all in 1543, Cranmer betrayed his principles and retreated from Protestant doctrines to a much greater extent than his admirers admit.” We look forward to a review of these three dates.
Ridley summarizes a few of his own views:
• Cranmer believed in “royal absolutism” (12). This is not surprising, but it makes 20th-21st century Churchmen uncomfortable.
• Cranmer believed his duty was “to strengthen the power of the king.” We would add that it is hard to believe that Cranmer would have supported the Puritan rebellion and Cromwellian revolt.
• Cranmer knew that support of Henry was the key to staying “at Lambeth” and “resistance would bring him to the stake.”
• However, by 1553, whatever else one says about Cranmer, he was “prepared to take the high road.”
• Cranmer had a “dread of revolution and disorder.” Having spent 6 months in Germany in 1532, he was aware of the Peasants’ Revolt and Anabaptist rebellion at Munster.
• Cranmer believed that “Protestantism must be introduced by the Prince, not the people.”
• Mr. Ridley observed that it was “fortunate that he died before Protestantism became a revolutionary movement.” Cranmer was “always looking over his should at extremists.”
• While the Zwinglians said in 1548 that Cranmer was “lukewarm,” criticism would cease after 21 March 1556.
What did he believe, when, and where?
Now, a brief bio-note on Mr. Ridley, the biographer.
Jasper Godwin Ridley. (25 May 1920 – 1 July 2004) was a British writer, known
for historical biographies. He received the 1970 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
for his biography Lord Palmerston.
Born in West Hoathly, Sussex, he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Sorbonne. He trained and practiced as a barrister, before starting to write. During World War II, he was a conscientious objector and was, by his own account, violently abused while in a detention camp. He served on St Pancras Borough Council from 1945 to 1949, and stood, unsuccessfully, as Labour Party candidate for Winchester in 1955 general election.
Born in West Hoathly, Sussex, he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Sorbonne. He trained and practiced as a barrister, before starting to write. During World War II, he was a conscientious objector and was, by his own account, violently abused while in a detention camp. He served on St Pancras Borough Council from 1945 to 1949, and stood, unsuccessfully, as Labour Party candidate for Winchester in 1955 general election.
Works
- The Tate Gallery's Wartime Acquisitions (1942)
- The Law of the Carriage of Goods by Land, Sea and
Air (1957)
- Nicholas Ridley (1957)
- Thomas Cranmer (1962)
- John Knox
(1968)
- Lord Palmerston (1970)
- Garibaldi
(1974)
- The Roundheads (1976)
- Napoleon III and Eugénie (1979)
- The History of England (1981)
- Statesman and the Fanatic: Thomas Wolsey and Thomas
More (1982)
- Life and Times of Mary Tudor (1973)
- Henry VIII the Politics of Tyranny (1984)
- The Tudor Age (1988)
- The Love Letters of Henry VIII (1988) editor
- Elizabeth I: the Shrewdness of Virtue (1988)
- Maximilian & Juarez (1992)
- Tito (1994)
- A History of the Carpenters' Company (1995)
- Mussolini
(1997)
- The Freemasons: A History of the World's Most
Powerful Secret Society (1999)
- The Houses of Hanover and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha: A Royal
History of England (2000) with
John Clarke
- Bloody Mary's Martyrs: The Story of England’s Terror (2001)
- A Brief History of The Tudor Age (2002)
