Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, was one of sixteenth-century England’s most influential religious and political figures. Best known, perhaps, for writing and compiling the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, the summation and embodiment of the Reformed English liturgy, Cranmer also wrote a variety of other treatises, including a text that OSU has recently acquired and added to its outstanding Reformation collection. Cranmer’s Defensio verae et Catholicae doctrinae de Sacramento corporis et sanguinis Christi Seruatoris nostri…, is a later Latin translation of his English exploration of the controversial doctrine of the Eucharist (A defence of the true and catholike doctrine of the sacrament of the body and bloud of our Saviour Christ, 1550). Cranmer’s English original was translated by Sir John Cheke, one-time tutor to Edward VI, secretary of state, member of the Privy Council, and noted author in his own right. OSU’s copy is a 1557 second edition of Cheke’s translation, and unlike the first edition—originally issued in London in 1553—it was published abroad (in Emden, Germany) because of the catholic Queen Mary I’s accession to the English throne, her regime’s hostility toward Protestantism, and her imprisonment and execution of Cranmer in 1556. As the title page states, Cranmer revised and approved this second edition from his prison cell: “ab autore in vinculis recognita & aucta”. Bound in with Cranmer’s text is a Latin work by John Foxe (of Book of Martyrs fame) printed ca. 1580 by John Day. The book, Syllogisticon hoc est: Argumenta, seu probationes et resolutiones…De re et Materia Sacramenti Eucharistici, is a treatise consisting of a series of brief arguments and responses discussing various contentious points lying at the heart of the Eucharistic controversy that dominated Catholic and Protestant polemic alike throughout the Reformation.

Our conjoined copy of these two texts is bound in contemporary English calf with oval arabesque ornaments in the center of both the front and back covers. As an extra bonus, the sixteenth-century binder was considerate enough to include a pair of very interesting parchment end-leaves that had previously seen life as part of a glossed thirteenth-century Latin Psalter. The leaves bear text from Psalm 89 and its corresponding gloss. Also included is a heraldic bookplate revealing that this volume was once part of the private library of Hugh Cecil Lowther, Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944), first president of England’s National Sporting Club, Arctic explorer, friend to Kaiser Wilhelm, and flashy man-about-town famous for his liaisons with some of the more famous actresses of his day.

All in all, I think it’s safe to say that this is an interesting book…

Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator