London: T. Davies, 1769-1774
[Rare] *Cc [Granger]
James Granger (1723-1776) produced his Biographical History of England as a catalogue of engraved portraits. He categorised famous Englishmen from royalty (class I) down to ‘persons … chiefly of the lowest order of the people’ (class XII). Thomas Cromwell (1485?-1540) appears under category II for the Henrician period, ‘Great officers of state and of the household’. As Henry VIII’s chief minister, Cromwell was significant in forwarding the early days of the English Reformation. Granger’s brief sketch highlights Cromwell’s administration of the dissolution of the English monasteries. In addition, Cromwell engineered Henry’s divorce of Katherine of Aragon and later the downfall of Anne Boleyn; drafted legislation reinforcing royal supremacy over the church; helped (using the printing industry) to discredit the papacy; attacked the cult of saints and use of images; and was behind the publication of the Great Bible (1539), the first English-language Bible to be made available in all parish churches. Contemporary opinion of Cromwell and posterity alike have ranged from regarding him as an agent of Satan (Cardinal Pole) to leading a life devoted to advancing ‘the right knowledge of the gospel and reform of the house of God’ (John Foxe).