CIGARETTE PAPERS.

Southland Times, Issue 21659, 22 March 1932, Page 8

CIGARETTE PAPERS.

CRANMER’S HAND. The merest accidents made Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury. Having married the young woman from the Dolphin when he was a young man, he might never have taken holy orders if she had not died suddenly a few months after the wedding. And it was only because he was fleeing from the plague that he chanced to meet the perplexed Henry VIII in E'sex. At that time King Hal was obsessed by one topic—how to rid himself of Catherine of Aragon. The Court buzzed with the problem, but to no avail until this Cambridge scholar showed the way out. The lady had been married to Prince Arthur. Surely marriage to a brother's widow was illegal. "This man has the right sow by the ear,” said Henry. That same argument, elaborated, Cranmer took to Rome and Germany, and as soon as he had completed his rapid rise to the Primacy that argument he confirmed in his own court. It was he who stood godfather to the next Queen’s child, Elizabeth. He crowned little Edward VI. and stood at his deathbed. Once Mary was Queen it was certain what his fate would be. The blow fell and Cranmer winced under it. He recanted, but recovered his strength and on March 21, 1556, at Oxford, plunged into the flames the hand which had signed the recantation. —CRHTCUS.