with the Primacy. He was one of the chief promoters of the Reformation in England. On the accession of Mary, he was committed to the Tower, and after a temporary failure of courage and constancy, suffered martyrdom at the stake. It is largely to Cranmer that we owe the stately forms of the Book of Common Prayer. He also wrote over 40 works, and composed several hymns; but the influence of the Prayer-book in fixing the language is his great, though indirect, service to our literature.
Fox’s Book of Martyrs, Strype’s Memorials of Cranmer, Hook’s Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury, etc.