Legacy of the Saints from the 16th Century
Lady Jane Grey – On February 12, 1554, 16-year-old Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after a nine-day reign as Queen of England. As she stood on the scaffold on a gray winter morning, she looked calmly out over the crowd of spectators. Then, mustering the strength she had asked God to provide, she spoke with such a poise and conviction that even her executioners were moved.
Thomas Cranmer – was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. During Cranmer’s tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, he established doctrinal and liturgical structures of the reformed Church of England. After the accession of the Roman Catholic Mary I, Cranmer was put on trial for treason and heresy. After a long trial and imprisonment, he was forced to proclaim to the public his error in the support of Protestantism. Despite this, he was sentenced to be burnt to death in Oxford on 21 March 1556. As flames engulfed him, he stuck his right hand into the fire first, because he had signed his recantation with this hand.