March 21, 1556: Church and State

Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake during Queen Mary I's backlash to the English Reformation.

Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Early to mid-16th-century England dealt with a monarch who wished to exert power over his state, as well as his own ability to indulge in lecherous and self-aggrandizing pursuits. The outcomes of Henry VIII’s reign would have a cataclysmic impact on the world as a religious can of worms traveled from contine…