The sixty-six year-old Cranmer, enfeebled from his…
February 1556 CE
The sixty-six year-old Cranmer, enfeebled from his long captivity, is induced him to make an abject recantation of his whole religious development.
In his first four recantations, produced between the end of January and mid-February, Cranmer had submitted himself to the authority of the king and queen and recognized the pope as head of the church.
He is degraded from holy orders on February 14, 1556, and returned to Bocardo.
He had conceded very little and Edmund Bonner is not satisfied with these admissions.
A writ is issued to the mayor of Oxford on February 24 and the date of Cranmer's execution is set for March 7.
A fifth statement, the first which could be called a true recantation, is issued two days after the writ is issued.
Cranmer repudiates all Lutheran and Zwinglian theology, fully accepts Catholic theology including papal supremacy and transubstantiation, and states that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.
He announces his joy of returning to the Catholic faith, asks for and receives sacramental absolution, and participates in the mass.
Cranmer's burning is postponed and, under normal practice of canon law, he should have been absolved.
Mary, however, decides that no further postponement is possible.
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