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Thomas Cranmer was born in 1489 at Nottingham. He was educated
at Cambridge, and became a priest following the death of his
first wife. Cranmer served as Archbishop of Canterbury during
the reigns of the English kings Henry VIII and Edward VI. Thomas
Cranmer entered the ministry for a simple reason: his father
only had enough land to give his eldest son, so Thomas and his
younger brother - as poor members of the gentry - joined the
clergy. Cranmer was given a fellowship at Jesus College,
Cambridge in 1510, which he lost when he married the daughter of
a local tavern-keeper. She died in childbirth, at which point he
was re-accepted by the college and devoted himself to study. He
took holy orders in 1523. A plague forced Cranmer to leave
Cambridge for Essex. Here, he came to the attention of King
Henry VIII, who was staying nearby. The King found Cranmer a
willing advocate for desired divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
Cranmer argued the case as par