Why Cranmer Memorial Bible College and Seminary? This is a question sometimes asked, to which the response is, Why not? Thomas Cranmer, was after all one of the leading English Reformers and probably the greatest Archbishop this country has ever known. He was a great academic, martyr and spiritual leader. He was born in 1489 and lived during the reign of four monarchs, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI and he was burnt under Mary Tudor.

He grew up in a land where the Church of Rome held sway over the hearts, mind and souls of monarch and people alike. He was a man of many faults, and like the rest of us he failed, yet despite these shortcomings he was mightily used by God to restore to England the light of God’s Word, light which had almost been extinguished by the darkness of superstition, ignorance and idolatry. 

One of the greatest errors of the Roman Church was that she placed, and indeed still places, the Church before the Bible, making the Word of God of none effect through her man- made traditions and inventions. The Bible was being hidden from the people; Cranmer sought to have this reversed for it was his desire was to see the Bible in English and in the church.

Another man who had a similar vision and also sought to do something about this was William Tyndale, who had during this time placed himself in exile in Europe, so as to produce and publish the Bible in English. For his efforts he was arrested, and burnt in Flanders, just prior to his death he prayed that God would “open the king of England’s eyes”. One year later, in 1538 King Henry VIII, under the advice and persuasion of Archbishop Thomas Cramner and the Lord Chancellor Thomas Cromwell, decreed that an English Translation of the Scriptures should be placed in every parish church in England, and that churches should be left open at all convenient hours of the day so that the common people might have access to it. The translation of the Bible used comprised mainly of the work of Tyndale, it became known as the Cranmer or Chained Bible. The light of God’s Word had been restored to the realm. It is right and proper to remember a man so used by God in the name of a Bible College that seeks to follow the principle established by Cranmer.

Thomas Cranmer is also to be remembered for his work on the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Prayer Book and the fact that despite a recantation, he was ready to give his life for the sake of the truth and his love for his Lord Jesus Christ. The papal bull containing his sentence declared that he was condemned “for bringing in the false and heretical doctrines of Wycliffe and Luther.” At Oxford there stands a stone memorial dedicated to Cranmer and the others who perished for their faith in Christ. Cranmer Memorial Bible College and Seminary is not made of stone but is a living memorial to this great and godly Reformer, dedicated to training living stones for the service of their Lord.