This is an extremely well researched biography of this key figure, the Archbishop who led the new Church of England at the outset of the English Reformation in the early and mid 16th century. The author draws reasoned conclusions from the evidence available to paint a picture that rejects both the Protestant hagiography of later centuries and the Catholic view that he was an evil heretic who subverted true religion for over twenty years (Queen Mary was keen that Cranmer be a scapegoat for her father's seismic shift in religious policy in abandoning Papal supremacy and establishing the Church of England). Cranmer emerges as a comparatively moderate and decent figure by the standards of the time. He often looked for ways to treat his Catholic opponents in religious disputes comparatively leniently (while at the same time treating considerably more harshly those Protestants whom he saw as betraying the Reformation); and he would argue with King Henry to try to soften some of his policies, while supporting him fully in public. Of course, from a modern humanitarian viewpoint, it must be acknowledged that Cranmer still sent religious opponents to their deaths, sometimes for beliefs that he himself had held and promoted at earlier and later times. But this was a characteristic of the time that seems so alien and horrible to us now - the fact that learned men could argue passionately and at length about issues such as the extent to which Christ was or was not physically or symbolically present in the bread and wine of the mass, and in all sincerity believe that their opponents should be imprisoned and killed for holding a different view on the issue. The many chapters that dwell on what are to the modern reader very arcane disputes do drag somewhat; but overall this is an impressive biography. ( )