A Clash of Theologians: The Debates and Power Struggles of Thomas Cranmer and Stephen Gardiner

In the year 1517, a German monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 grievances against the Catholic Church to the front door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, starting what we now know as the Protestant Reformation. This reformation saw the rising of several protestant reformers who, while all were united in their opposition to the Catholic Church, all held various beliefs on how worship should be practiced. On the island of Great Britain, the ideas and discrepancies of and between Luther and these reformers would reach many academics and clergymen, including the likes of Stephen Gardiner and Thomas Cranmer. Today, our story focuses on Gardiner and Cranmer, two highly religious and ambitious men who through an intense rivalry, decide the fate of England and the English Church through one question: when one consumed the Eucharist, were they consuming the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ?