Answer to a Crafty and Sophistical Cavillation

Thomas Cranmer's "An Answer to a Crafty and Sophistical Cavillation" emerged from the heated theological controversies surrounding the English Reformation's doctrine of the Eucharist. Written in 1551 during Cranmer's tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, this treatise responds directly to Catholic critics who challenged the reformed understanding of communion articulated in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and subsequent Protestant writings. The work represents Cranmer's most sustained defense of the symbolic rather than transubstantial interpretation of the Lord's Supper.

Cranmer systematically dismantles what he sees as sophistical arguments that confuse the sign with the thing signified in the Eucharist. He argues that Christ's presence in communion is spiritual rather than corporeal, received by faith rather than through sacramental transformation of the elements themselves. The treatise demonstrates Cranmer's characteristic blend of patristic scholarship and reformed theology, drawing extensively on early church fathers to show that Catholic transubstantiation doctrine represents a medieval innovation rather than apostolic teaching. Throughout, Cranmer maintains that the efficacy of the sacrament depends on the believer's faith and God's promise rather than on priestly consecration or physical change in bread and wine.

This work has remained significant for understanding both Cranmer's mature eucharistic theology and the broader Anglican via media between Catholic sacramentalism and Protestant memorialism. It influenced subsequent Anglican theologians seeking to articulate a reformed Catholic position on the sacraments and continues to be studied by scholars of Reformation theology and liturgy.

Who should read this: Students of Reformation theology, Anglican clergy and theologians interested in historical eucharistic doctrine, and scholars examining the development of Protestant sacramental theology will find this essential. This is not suitable for general readers seeking devotional material or those unfamiliar with sixteenth-century theological terminology.