"Cranmer Was The Ð''Junior Partner' To Cromwell In The Religious Changes Of The 1530s", How Far Do You Agree With This Statement?

Cranmer's lack of policy objectives was something that made him different to Cromwell. Cranmer believed in royal absolutism and his number one duty was to obey his King, he was highly thought of by Henry, as he believed he had no hidden plans and therefore Henry trusted him a lot more than he had trusted anyone before. Cranmer was a reformist and it was Anne Boleyn's faction that bought him into a key role. In 1530 he argued the case for Henry's desired divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and in the same year he helped produce the documents helping Henry justify his divorce and govern his own church, these were called the Collectanea Satis Copiosa. These documents would help create significant religious changes; however Cranmer was only responsible for helping create them, not implementing them. It was Cranmer's position of Archbishop infact that Cromwell was able to introduce his Royal Injunctions without significant resistance.

In order to gain Henry his divorce Cranmer had to take a risk and declare Henrys marriage void, he also secretly married Henry and Anne in January 1535. Once he did this with the help of the Act of Restraint he declared Henry's marriage to Catherine null and void. These few events are significant in terms of Cranmer's role and what happens to Henry. Cranmer believed in giving Henry the best advice possible at any time whether he believed Henry would agree or disagree with it. Cranmer had a much closer role to Henry than Cromwell did, Henry believe that Cranmer was more trustworthy, whereas Cromwell seemed to keep some things hidden from Henry.

With Cranmer's supportiveness of reform Henry and Cromwell were able to make their religious changes such as the Royal Injunctions with little or no opposition from the leading authorities of the Church. During his time serving Henry, Cranmer was believed to be more Protestant in nature than the King would have liked him to have been. However this did not stop him getting involved in religious matters,