James Cranford (c.1592–1657) was an English presbyterian clergyman. He was active as a licenser of theological publications during the 1640s, and belonged to the heresy-hunting wing of the London presbyterians, writing a preface to the ''
Gangraena'' of
Thomas Edwards.
Life
He was the son of James Cranford, master of
Coventry free school, and was born there in 1592. He entered
Balliol College
Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world.
With a governing body of a master and ar ...
, Oxford, in 1617, and received a B.A. 17 October 1621, and M.A. 20 June 1624. He took holy orders, became rector of
Brockhall, Northamptonshire
Brockhall is a civil parish and village in West Northamptonshire in England. Brockhall, like many estate villages, is a small settlement that has developed around its eponymous hall. The village - Brocole in Old English - was recorded in the Do ...
, and on 16 January 1643 rector of
St. Christopher, London.
Under the Commonwealth he was a licenser for the press, and prefixed many epistles to the books which he allowed to go to the press. The licensing process was part of a broader power struggle; Cranford became a target for the
Independents who disliked his palpable bias, and was singled out by
Henry Robinson in developing his arguments for
religious tolerance
Religious tolerance or religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, ...
, for skewing the debate. The widening discussion drew in
William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele
William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele (28 June 158214 April 1662) was an English nobleman and politician. He was a leading critic of Charles I's rule during the 1620s and 1630s. He was known also for his involvement in several companies ...
, whom Cranford maligned, and who said that Cranford was beholden to the Scots such as
Robert Baillie
Robert Baillie (30 April 16021662) was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters. , and
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, KB, PC (; 11 January 1591 – 14 September 1646) was an English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the 17th century. With the start of the Civil War in 1642, he became the first Captai ...
. Cranford controversially licensed works by
David Buchanan. In 1649 the presbyterians played their hand to the utmost against the army, and in March of that year Cranford was removed from his post.
[Jason Peacey, ''Politicians and Pamphleteers'' (2004), pp. 149-150 and pp. 156-7.]
Early in 1652 he held two disputations at the house of William Webb in Bartholomew Lane, with
Peter Chamberlen the third
Peter Chamberlen M.D. (1601–1683), known as Peter the Third, was an English physician. The obstetrical forceps as invention has been credited to the Chamberlen family: the earliest evidence of what was a family trade secret points to his having i ...
, on the questions: '1. Whether or no a private person may preach without ordination? 2. Whether or no the presbyterian ministers be not the true ministers of the gospel?' Cranford argued in the negative on the first question, and in the affirmative on the second. A full report of the debate was published 8 June 1652. He died 27 April 1657, and was buried in the church of St. Christopher. A son, James Cranford, was also in holy orders and succeeded his father in the living of St. Christopher, but died in August 1660.
Works
Cranford wrote:
*''Confutation of the Anabaptists'', London, n. d.
*Expositions on the Prophecies of Daniel'', London, 1644.
*''Haereseomachia, or the Mischief which Heresies do'', London, 1646, a sermon preached before the lord mayor 1 February 1646, to which a reply was issued in broadsheet form, under the title of ''The Clearing of Master Cranford's Text'' (8 May 1646).
Cranford also contributed a preface to the ''Tears of Ireland'', 1642, the whole of which is usually attributed to him. It is an exaggerated account of the cruelties inflicted on the Protestants in Ireland in the
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and ...
, with vivid engravings. Prefatory epistles by Cranford appear in
Richard Stock's ''Stock of Divine Knowledge'' (addressed to Lady Anne Yelverton), London, 1641; in Thomas Edwards's ''Gangraena'', pt. i. and pt. ii. London, 1646;
Christopher Love
Christopher Love (1618, Cardiff, Wales – 22 August 1651, London) was a Wales, Welsh Presbyterian preacher and activist during the English Civil War. In 1651, he was executed by the English government for plotting with the exiled Stuart cou ...
's ''The Soul's Cordiall'', 1652; and in
Benjamin Woodbridge's ''Sermons on Justification'', 1652. In 1653 the last contribution was severely criticised by
William Eyre in his ''Vindiciae Justificationis Gratuitae'', in which Cranford's doctrine of conditional
justification by faith
(or simply ), meaning justification by faith alone, is a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheranism, Lutheran and Reformed tradition, Reformed traditions of Protestantism, among others, from th ...
is condemned.
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranford, James
1592 births
1657 deaths
English Presbyterian ministers of the Interregnum (England)
17th-century English Presbyterian ministers