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Thomas Cranmer’s Appropriation of the Eucharistic Theology of Cyril of Alexandria: The Construction and Defence of a Reformed Agenda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2025

Brian E. Douglas
Brian E. Douglas*
Affiliation:
Theology, Charles Sturt University Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Canberra, Australia
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Thomas Cranmer appropriated the eucharistic theology of Cyril of Alexandria for the purposes of constructing a Reformed eucharistic theology and in a way that did not do justice to Cyril’s eucharistic theology. Cyril argued for a mingling of both the corporal and spiritual presence of Christ in both the incarnation and the Eucharist, whereas Cranmer affirms such a mingling in the incarnation alone but not in the Eucharist. Ashley Null has recently defended Cranmer’s appropriation of Cyril for the construction of Reformed eucharistic theology. This article concludes that both Thomas Cranmer’s appropriation and Null’s defence of Cranmer are not viable interpretations of Cyril’s eucharistic theology.

Keywords

AppropriationcorporalCyril of AlexandriadivineEucharistHumanspiritualThomas Cranmer
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 15
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust

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References

1 Thomas Cranmer, ‘Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Saviour Christ’, in The Works of Thomas Cranmer, ed. G.E. Duffield (Appleford, Berkshire, UK: The Sutton Courtenay Press, 1964), pp. 45-231 and Thomas Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, ed. J. Cox (Cambridge: The Parker Society, 1844).

2 Ashley Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, in Christian Theologies of the Sacraments: A Comparative Introduction, eds. Justin Holcomb and David A. Johnson (New York: New York University Press: 2017), pp. 209-232 and Ashley Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’s Reputation Reconsidered’, in Reformation Reputations: The Power of the Individual in the English Reformation, eds. D.J. Crankshaw and G.W.C. Gross (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), pp. 189-221.

3 See Cyril Richardson, ‘Cranmer and the Analysis of Eucharistic Doctrine’, The Journal of Theological Studies, n.s., XVI (1965), pp. 427-437; Gordon Jeanes, Signs of God’s Promise: Thomas Cranmer’s Sacramental Theology and the Book of Common Prayer (London: T&T Clark, 2008), pp. 6-10; and Brian Douglas, A Companion to Anglican Eucharistic Theology, Volume 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 87-90.

4 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 231, note 66.

5 Note that in the 1551 edition of Cranmer’s Writings and Disputations Cranmer uses the word ‘mystical’ rather than ‘material’, in what is perhaps an attempt to spiritualise a material presence.

6 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 170. Note that Cranmer here cited Cyril, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, Lib ix, cap 5.

7 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 225.

8 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 225. Null does not define ‘appropriation’ but the word suggests the making of Cyril’s eucharistic theology by Cranmer to be his own, or to his own use. This suggests using Cyril’s theology for the construction of a particular purpose, such as a Reformed agenda, which may not do justice to Cyril’s theology.

9 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 225.

10 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 225.

11 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’s Reputation Reconsidered’, pp. 204-206.

12 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’s Reputation Reconsidered’, p. 208.

13 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, pp. 225-226.

14 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 222.

15 Richardson, ‘Cranmer and the Analysis of Eucharistic Doctrine’, p. 422.

16 Richardson, ‘Cranmer and the Analysis of Eucharistic Doctrine’, p. 422.

17 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 12.

18 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 317.

19 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 49.

20 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 94.

21 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 11.

22 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 17.

23 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 224.

24 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 170.

25 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 224.

26 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’, p. 225.

27 Richardson, ‘Cranmer and the Analysis of Eucharistic Doctrine’, pp. 421-437.

28 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’s Reputation Reconsidered’, p. 208.

29 Cyril Richardson, Zwingli and Cranmer on the Eucharist: Cranmer Dixit and Contradixit (Evanston, Illinois: Seabury-Weston Theological Seminary, 1949), p. 54

30 Richardson, Zwingli and Cranmer on the Eucharist: Cranmer Dixit and Contradixit, p. 422.

31 Jeanes, Signs of God’s Promise, p. 7

32 Douglas, A Companion to Anglican Eucharistic Theology. Volume 1, pp. 87-90.

33 Cyril of Alexandria, A Commentary Upon the Gospel According to S. Luke, Part II, trans. R. Payne Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1859), pp. 664-665 and p. 668.

34 Daniel Keating, ‘Divinization in Christ: The Appropriation of Divine Life’, in The Theology of Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation, eds. Thomas Weinandy and Daniel Keating (London: T&T Clark, 2003), p. 160.

35 For a detailed treatment of Cyril’s Christology and its relationship to the Eucharist see McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy. See especially pp. 175-226.

36 John McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy (Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir’s Press, 2004), p. 176.

37 Thomas Weinandy, ‘Cyril and the Mystery of the Incarnation’, in The Theology of Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation, eds. Thomas Weinandy and Daniel Keating (London: T&T Clark, 2003), p. 27. Here Weinandy quotes from Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, Volume 2, trans. R. Payne Smith (London: Walter Smith, 1885), p. 117.

38 Cyril of Alexandria, ‘Epistle to Nestorius’, ed. and trans. Henry Bettenson, The Later Christian Fathers. A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Cyril of Jerusalem to St. Leo the Great (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), 2:10, p. 253.

39 Cyril of Alexandria, ‘Epistle to Nestorius’, 2 Preface, p. 254.

40 McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, pp. 184-185.

41 McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, p. 186.

42 McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, p. 186.

43 Cyril of Alexandria, Letter To Calosyrius, Bishop of Arsinoe, against those saying God is anthropomorphic’, in The Fathers of the Church. St Cyril of Alexandria Letters 51-110, Volume 77 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1987), Letter 83, Paragraph 6, p. 111.

44 McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, p. 187.

45 Cyril of Alexandria, ‘Thesaurus’, in J. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 75, iv, p. 324. Translation from Edward Pusey, The Doctrine of the Real Presence as contained in the Fathers from the death of S. John the Evangelist to the Fourth General Council (Oxford and London: Parker, 1855), p. 628.

46 McGuckin cites paragraph 7 of the ‘Third Letter to Nestorius’, see McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, pp. 270-271 and Number 11 of “Explanation of the Twelve Chapters”, see McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, p. 292.

47 McGuckin, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, pp. 187-188.

48 Lawrence J. Welch, Christology and Eucharist in the Early Thought of Cyril of Alexandria (Lanham, Maryland: International Scholars Publications, 1994), p. 5.

49 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, Volume 1, trans. E. Pusey (Oxford and London: Parker, 1874), p. 109.

50 Cyril of Alexandria, ‘Thesaurus’, in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol 75, xx.t.v.1, pp. 200-201. Translation from Pusey, The Doctrine of the Real Presence, pp. 174-175.

51 Ruth Siddals, ‘Logic and Christology in Cyril of Alexandria’, Journal of Theological Studies, ns, 38 (1987), 2, pp. 353-354.

52 Siddals, ‘Logic and Christology in Cyril of Alexandria’, p. 354.

53 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, Volume 2, p. 56.

54 Welch, Christology and Eucharist in the Early Thought of Cyril of Alexandria, p. 47.

55 Cyril of Alexandria, ‘Against the Blasphemies of Nestorius’, ed. and trans. Henry Bettenson, The Later Christian Fathers. A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Cyril of Jerusalem to St. Leo the Great (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), 4:5, p. 257,

56 Ezra Gebremedhin, Life-Giving Blessing: An Inquiry into the Eucharistic Doctrine of Cyril of Alexandria (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1977), p. 69. Here Gebremedhin cites two important Greek verbs 1. μεταποιειν (remodelled), in Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew, in J. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 72, p. 452 where Cyril cites the President of the Eucharist praying: ‘διὸ και ήμεῖς, ἀπ᾽ ὄψεσι Θεοῦ τὰ προειρημένα τιθεντες, δεόμεθα ὲκτενῶς εις εὺλογίαν ήμῖν μεταπλασθῆναι τὴν πνευματικὴν …᾽ which Gebremedhin translates on page 59 of his book as ‘earnestly that they (bread and wine) may be remodelled for us into a spiritual blessing’ and 2. μεθιστάναι (transformed) in Cyril of Alexandria, A Commentary Upon the Gospel According to S. Luke, p. 668.

57 Gebremedhin, Life-Giving Blessing, p. 70.

58 Gebremedhin, Life-Giving Blessing, p. 83.

59 Cyril of Alexandria, ‘De Adoratione in Spiritu et Veritate’ (On Worship in Spirit and Truth), in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 68, L, ii, p. 97. Translation from Pusey, The Doctrine of the Real Presence, p. 615.

60 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, Volume 1, p. 370.

61 Null, ‘Thomas Cranmer’s Reputation Reconsidered’, p. 208.

62 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, Volume 1, p. 371.

63 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, p. 372.

64 See Cyril of Alexandria, A Commentary Upon the Gospel According to S. Luke, Part II, pp. 664-669 where Cyril comments on Luke 22:17-22 and specifically excludes the literal flesh and blood meaning.

65 Richardson, ‘Cranmer and the Analysis of Eucharistic Doctrine’, p. 429.

66 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 35.

67 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 27.

68 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 111.

69 Richardson, ‘Cranmer and the Analysis of Eucharistic Doctrine’, p. 430.

70 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 199.

71 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 25.

72 Cranmer, Writings and Disputations of Thomas Cranmer, p. 160.