To know how we obtain our justification, it is expedient to consider, first, how naughty and sinful we are all, that be of Adam's kindred; and contrariwise, what mercifulness is in God, which to all faithful and penitent sinners pardoneth all their offences for Christ's sake. Of these two things no ...
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A leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I, Cranmer helped build a favorable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
During Cranmer's tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, he was responsible for publishing the first officially authorized vernacular service, the Exhortation and Litany. When Edward came to the throne, Cranmer wrote and compiled the first two editions of the "Book of Common Prayer."
Cranmer was tried for treason and heresy after Mary I, came to the throne. Imprisoned for over two years, he made several recantations but, on the day of his execution, he withdrew his recantations, to die a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to Protestants.