Thomas Cranmer. Churchman and Scholar.

One cannot deny that the celebrations around the quincentenary of Thomas Cranmer's birth were low-key; perhaps they came at a bad moment for the Anglican Church (Cranmer, ever self-effacing and harassed by cares of office, would understand and sympathise). Two useful collections of commemorative essays have emerged, the first largely aimed at a popular audience (M. Johnson [ed.], Thomas Cranmer: essays in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of his birth, Durham 1990). Selwyn and Ayris target a more academic market, despite a rather querulous preface from James Atkinson, who uses Cranmer as a stick with which to beat the modern Church of England.

Both editors provide highlights. Selwyn's article on Cranmer's library is outstanding: he rescues one of Tudor England's greatest working collections, containing perhaps 740 printed books and manuscripts, greater than the contemporary libraries of either university. Selwyn will be happy to learn that a significant stray from Cranmer's library, …