Customer Reviews

Cranmer

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, I need to clear away some misconceptions about Belloc's historical biographies. He wrote a string of these books in the 1930s, mostly to support himself in the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed, and they usually do not rely on original research. Indeed, in the preface to this book he explicitly (and gratefully) acknowledges the scholarship of Professor Pollard. He then explains that his project is not to write a detailed biography of the subject but rather to provide his "take" on the life and times. Hence, do not expect the modern "warts and all" biography composed of finely-ground minutia and strained watery anecdote. Au contraire, this is a slab of 100-percent pure Belloc red meat served up with that Catholic tang that you either find delicious--moi--or revolting--pshaw.

So, if Belloc doesn't write what we think of as a "biography" then what does he concoct: A well-wrought work of art. Belloc is one of the greatest stylists of English prose. He could write about his favorite wine seller--and has--and it would be worth reading. Cranmer is structured as a tragedy with the decline and fall of the Archbishop of Canterbury presented as a cautionary tale. There is also a fair amount of discussion regarding Cranmer's own gifts as a great stylist of English prose. If of nothing else in Cranmer's life, Belloc is an unreserved admirer of Cranmer's prose and his contribution to the creation of the Common Book of Prayer, a work that in its own way is on the same level as Shakespeare. Belloc, though, does note that Cranmer, as Archbishop, did write from time to time as a bureaucrat (Belloc reproduces several examples of Cranmer's turgid formal writing which might make even the modern scribblers of post-modern jargon writhe in envy). So, if you are looking for an odd congeries of tragic tale and literary criticism, Cranmer is your book.

By the bye, this should be read in concert with Belloc's major biography of a near contemporary, Wolsey.