In yesterday's battle of the apostles, Peter triumphed over Paul 65% to 35%! For our next match we return to the DenomiNATION Domination section of the bracket with two Anglican ancestors. Read on and cast your vote!

Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker is considered the "Father of Anglican Theology." He was highly educated, a priest, a theologian, a scholar, a philosopher, and a leader in the Protestant Revolution. And we have Hooker to thank for the familiar metaphor of the three-legged stool!

He was born in England in 1554, the year Mary was crowned queen and reestablished Roman Catholicism in Protestant England, and just a few years shy of the dawn of the Elizabethan era. Hooker boasted an impressive formal education and graduated from Oxford. For good reason, Hooker is considered one of the most important theologians of the 16th century.

The year 1581 was pivotal in many ways: Queen Elizabeth 1 was now on the throne; Parliament approved strict anti-Catholic laws; Hooker was ordained a priest and was married.

Though serving flocks throughout the English countryside, he was far more than a country parson. Hooker’s mastery of various skills would come in handy. In addition to his deep thinking, he had a command of the English language and an astute understanding of the law.

As a priest, he served churches in Salisbury, near Canterbury, and outside London. That changed in 1586 when Queen Elizabeth named him Master, or senior cleric, of the Temple Church in London, a prestigious posting.

While in London, Hooker’s preaching angered the uptight Puritans, who claimed he strayed from the beliefs and practices of predestination. In true form, his response was measured and methodical. It was at this point that Hooker began writing the seminal document “The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity,” a comprehensive defense of the Reformation.

In this treatise, he argued that all belief is grounded in Scripture, tradition, and reason - hence that three-legged stool! Among the key points he made – and there were many! – were the defense of the Book of Common Prayer and counterstrikes against attacks by the Puritans. He forged the Anglican via media between Protestantism and Catholicism.

“The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity” consisted of eight books printed over five years, some published posthumously.

After London, Hooker returned to parish life in Salisbury, where he served as the subdean of the Cathedral, and then later in Kent. He died at Bishopsbourne on November 3, 1600, survived by his wife and four daughters. His commemoration is on November 3.

— Neva Rae Fox

Collect for Richard Hooker

O God of truth and peace, you raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Thomas Cranmer

Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. What is there to say? A whole lot, but I’m not sure you haven’t heard it before. When one reads about the life of Thomas Cranmer, it’s hard to not see the way in which relationships were key to how he moved through the world, and maybe harder to divorce his legacy from that of King Henry VIII —a lot harder than it was for Henry to divorce all of his wives.

In 1532, while on the road in Italy, Cranmer received notice that he now occupied the seat of Archbishop of Canterbury, thanks to the woman being courted by Henry, Anne Boleyn. Soon, Cranmer, as Archbishop, would be annulling Catherine’s marriage, excommunicating Catherine, blessing Anne and Henry’s marriage, baptizing their first child, and within three years giving Anne last rites before she was executed for her, it seems, inability to bear a son. Cranmer publicly mourned her death and begged the King not to divorce her. Bless.

By 1543, Cranmer’s quiet leanings toward reform of the Catholic Church and public support and closeness to Henry had provided protection in anti-reform movements, so he began to turn to reforming not just the theology, but the liturgy. On May 27, 1544, we get the great-great-grandfather to our BCP: Exhortation and Litany, a liturgy in English. Eventually there was the need for a more Common Book of Prayer, and in 1549, the first version of BCP was used in worship. By 1552, Cranmer was leading the charge of reform of the Church in England with the Forty-two Articles. It is clear that the pre-teen king didn’t occupy quite as much of his time as his father did.

After Edward’s death in 1553, his sister Mary, a devout Catholic and anti-reformer, took the throne. Within six months, Cranmer was charged with high treason and condemned to death. Cranmer was imprisoned for nearly two years before he recanted all of his writings and works, but it was not enough though this should have saved his life, he was burned at the stake on March 21, 1556. He was killed, but not before he renounced his recantations from the pulpit at the Oxford University Church pulpit. As record has it, as the flames surrounded him, he placed his right hand into the middle of the fire, as it was “the unworthy hand” that wrote the renunciations.

Cranmer’s legacy remains, and there’s much to cover in little time. I didn’t even get to tell you about his not-secret/secret wife at the end of his life that denied his priestly call to celibacy, but that’s for next time.

— Becca Kello

Collect for Thomas Cranmer

Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like your servants Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer we may live in your fear, die in your favor, and rest in your peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.