The Rule of Thomas Cranmer in Diocese and Province

Abstract

Thomas Cranmer's register in Lambeth Palace Library is little known and not yet published. This article surveys and summarizes the author's researches over twenty-five years in preparing an edition of that document. The register is not as complete as many medieval Canterbury registers. Nonetheless, it shows how the royal supremacy developed in a church cut off from Roman jurisdiction. There are many parallels with medieval patterns of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and Cranmer seems to have been unable or unwilling to make large-scale changes in prevailing practice. Nonetheless, during the reign of Edward VI, the register illustrates a reforming archbishop at work, as he tried to implement evangelical reforms in diocese and province. The untimely death of Edward VI cut short these reforming measures, and the accession of Mary led to Cranmer's deprivation, when the formal record of his register ends.