Thomas Cranmer

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Thomas Cranmer served as the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1555 CE and was one of the prime architects of the English Reformation during the reigns of Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547 CE) and Edward VI of England (r. 1547-1553 CE). Cranmer oversaw such reforms as conducting services in English instead of Latin, removing altars and iconography from churches, and closing down the monasteries. The archbishop also wrote and introduced a new and influential Book of Common Prayer. When Catholic Mary I of England (r. (1553-1558 CE) then swept back the Reformation and restored Catholicism, Cranmer was one of her principal victims and was burned at the stake in Oxford in 1556 CE.

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