Thomas Cranmer

In the latter years of officiating at weddings in my former church, couples often asked if they could write their own vows. “Go ahead,” I told them, “Have at it, but keep in mind it’s harder than you think.” Most couples attempted to write something meaningful and gave up, reverting in the end to the traditional vows. Try as they might, they just couldn’t improve upon Thomas Cranmer’s (1489-1556) marriage vows in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, “to have and hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish.” The vows spoken by the bride and groom were identical with one caveat. The bride had one additional pledge to “love, cherish and obey.” Yikes! You’ll be pleased to know that “obey” was dropped from the marriage vows in the 1922 version of the Book of Common Prayer. Notwithstanding the heartburn over obeying, Cranmer’s masterful, lyrical writing never seems to grow old. We have Thomas to thank for memorable phrases such as “dearly beloved” and “speak now or forever hold your peace.” He was especially fond of triplicate phrases, as demonstrated in his funeral prayer, “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” He compiled the Book of Common Prayer to make worship and prayer more accessible to people in their vernacular. The only prayer book used in public worship in Thomas’s day was an eleventh century Sarum Rite, but it was written in Latin, and priests were the only ones with access to it. Thomas not only translated and simplified prayers from the Sarum Rite but also contributed his own prayers. One of Thomas Cranmer’s collects (a collect is a short prayer) leads us to pray: