Book cover for Thomas Cranmer’s Register

Publication date: 19 January 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800089174

Number of pages: 898

Number of illustrations: 9

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Thomas Cranmer’s Register

A record of archiepiscopal administration in diocese and province

Paul Ayris (Editor), Diarmaid MacCulloch (Foreword)

Thomas Cranmer’s Register records turbulent change in England and Wales between 1533 and 1553. The crown abolished Roman jurisdiction, and the first steps towards the creation of a Protestant state were made. As archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer was a seminal figure in these developments, and his register is a key Reformation document.

The physical register at Lambeth Palace has been out of reach for many scholars. Paul Ayris’s extraordinary edition makes more of the text available to readers than ever before, with transcriptions and editorial introductions that illuminate the sometimes cryptic sixteenth-century text. Here, the appointment of Cranmer to Canterbury (at the hands of the papacy) in 1533 is recorded. Commissions and letters reveal how the crown assumed authority over the church and, through Thomas Cromwell as vicegerent in spirituals, supplanted the role of the archbishop as the principal minister of the king’s spiritual jurisdiction. The work suggests a new explanation for the inclusion/exclusion of the stipulation in the 1536 royal Injunctions concerning the Bible in English. Moreover, unpublished records for the diocese of Norwich in 1550 reveal that the order for removing altars in English churches emanated from Thomas Cranmer not, as is usually thought, from the bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley. This edition will be a touchstone reference for global scholars of the Tudor period.

Published in association with the Canterbury and York Society

Part I

List of figures
Table 0.1 Register contents as arranged by the archbishop’s principal registrars
Foreword, Diarmaid MacCulloch
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Thomas Cranmer’s register: context
Thomas Cranmer’s register: content
Bibliography

Editor’s guide to reading the register
Editorial conventions
Abbreviations
Unidentified place names

The text of Thomas Cranmer’s Register (Part I)

Part II

List of figures
Table 0.1 Register contents as arranged by the archbishop’s principal registrars

Editor’s guide to reading the register
Editorial conventions
Abbreviations
Unidentified place names

The text of Thomas Cranmer’s register (Part II)

Appendix A: Letters and commissions not recorded in Thomas Cranmer’s register Appendix B: A calendar of part of Thomas Cromwell’s register as vicegerent in BL Add. MS. 48022 fols 83r-96v
Appendix C: Visitation articles and injunctions for Norwich diocese (1550)
Appendix D: Presentations in Canterbury diocese, the deaneries of immediate jurisdiction, Calais and Boulogne which are missing from Thomas Cranmer’s register; with a list of possible sede vacante presentations that are also unregistered
Appendix E: The archbishop and archiepiscopal officers

Index 1: Names, places and subjects for the Introduction (Part I)
Index 2: Names and places for Thomas Cranmer’s register (Parts I and II)
Index 3: Select subject index for Thomas Cranmer’s register (Parts I and II)

DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800089174

Number of pages: 898

Number of illustrations: 9

Publication date: 19 January 2026

PDF ISBN: 9781800089174

EPUB ISBN: 9781800089181

Hardback ISBN: 9781800089150

Paperback ISBN: 9781806550104

Paul Ayris (Editor)

Paul Ayris (1957-2025) was Pro-Vice-Provost, Libraries, Culture, Collections and Open Science, at UCL. He previously published on aspects of Cranmer’s register and its significance. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, formerly President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) and chaired the Open Science Ambassadors group in LERU (League of European Research Universities).

Diarmaid MacCulloch (Foreword)

Diarmaid MacCulloch is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. He has written extensively on the sixteenth century and beyond it. His History of Christianity: the first three thousand years and the BBC TV series based on it first appeared in 2009; the book won the Cundill Prize, the world’s largest prize for history, in 2010. His three-part TV series for BBC2, How God made the English, aired in March 2012, and his BBC2 series, Sex and the Church, aired in early 2015. He has written Silence: a Christian History (2013) and his collected essays on the Reformation appeared as All Things New: Writings on the Reformation in 2016. His Thomas Cromwell: a Life appeared in 2018. He was knighted in the UK New Year’s Honours List of 2012.

‘Reformation scholarship owes a great debt to Paul Ayris. With his expertise in the administration of Cranmer’s archdiocese, based on long and close study of the original sources, he is the ideal person to present us with this edition. Only those who have worked in the field and used the original register will appreciate the heroic qualities of persistence which have led to this splendid result. Cranmer, most meticulous of record keepers, will look down on the work of this edition and add his gratitude and approval to that of the historical profession and of all who are fascinated by the strange revolution from above which fuelled England’s Reformation.’
From the Foreword by Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt FSA FRHistS FBA, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University

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Thomas Cranmer’s Register

A record of archiepiscopal administration in diocese and province

Publication date: January 19, 2026

Open Access PDF ISBN: 9781800089174

Paperback ISBN: 9781806550104

Hardback ISBN: 9781800089150

Trim size (hardback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm

Trim size (paperback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm

Page count (hardback): 898

Download free PDF online

https://uclpress.co.uk/book/thomas-cranmers-register/

Thomas Cranmer’s Register records turbulent change in England and Wales between 1533 and 1553. The crown abolished Roman jurisdiction, and the first steps towards the creation of a Protestant state were made. As archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer was a seminal figure in these developments, and his register is a key Reformation document.

The physical register at Lambeth Palace has been out of reach for many scholars. Paul Ayris’s extraordinary edition makes more of the text available to readers than ever before, with transcriptions and editorial introductions that illuminate the sometimes cryptic sixteenth-century text. Here, the appointment of Cranmer to Canterbury (at the hands of the papacy) in 1533 is recorded. Commissions and letters reveal how the crown assumed authority over the church and, through Thomas Cromwell as vicegerent in spirituals, supplanted the role of the archbishop as the principal minister of the king’s spiritual jurisdiction. The work suggests a new explanation for the inclusion/exclusion of the stipulation in the 1536 royal Injunctions concerning the Bible in English. Moreover, unpublished records for the diocese of Norwich in 1550 reveal that the order for removing altars in English churches emanated from Thomas Cranmer not, as is usually thought, from the bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley. This edition will be a touchstone reference for global scholars of the Tudor period.

Published in association with the Canterbury and York Society

‘Reformation scholarship owes a great debt to Paul Ayris. With his expertise in the administration of Cranmer’s archdiocese, based on long and close study of the original sources, he is the ideal person to present us with this edition. Only those who have worked in the field and used the original register will appreciate the heroic qualities of persistence which have led to this splendid result. Cranmer, most meticulous of record keepers, will look down on the work of this edition and add his gratitude and approval to that of the historical profession and of all who are fascinated by the strange revolution from above which fuelled England’s Reformation.’
From the Foreword by Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt FSA FRHistS FBA, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University

Paul Ayris (B01)

Paul Ayris (1957-2025) was Pro-Vice-Provost, Libraries, Culture, Collections and Open Science, at UCL. He previously published on aspects of Cranmer’s register and its significance. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, formerly President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) and chaired the Open Science Ambassadors group in LERU (League of European Research Universities).

Diarmaid MacCulloch (A23)

Diarmaid MacCulloch is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. He has written extensively on the sixteenth century and beyond it. His History of Christianity: the first three thousand years and the BBC TV series based on it first appeared in 2009; the book won the Cundill Prize, the world’s largest prize for history, in 2010. His three-part TV series for BBC2, How God made the English, aired in March 2012, and his BBC2 series, Sex and the Church, aired in early 2015. He has written Silence: a Christian History (2013) and his collected essays on the Reformation appeared as All Things New: Writings on the Reformation in 2016. His Thomas Cromwell: a Life appeared in 2018. He was knighted in the UK New Year’s Honours List of 2012.