The first major biography of its subject in more than thirty years makes use of new British manuscript sources to draw a rich portrait of Henry VIII's archbishop of Canterbury who guided England through the Reformation. UP.

The scope of the various essays is wide, encompassing his intellectual relations with Erasmus and Luther, his period of ambassadorial service on the Continent, his remarkable command of the English language at one of the most important ...

Through his Articles of Religion (42, later reduced to 39) and the Book of Common Prayer, he set the parameters within which the Church of England was to operate.