Frederick Praying Before the Madonna,as
among his best work. He produced wood-
cut engravings for the first German edi-
tion of the New Testament in 1522. He
worked for both Catholic and Protestant
patrons, however; and his workshop in
Wittenberg became a productive center
that attracted artists and patrons from
throughout northern Germany.
SEEALSO: Dürer, Albrecht; Luther, Martin
Cromwell, Thomas ............................
(1485–1540)
Chief minister to King Henry VIII of En-
gland and a key figure in the Protestant
Reformation that established the Church
of England. Thomas Cromwell was born
in Putney, the son of a humble artisan. He
traveled to the continent as a young man
and was employed by a merchant bank of
Italy as a broker in the Netherlands. He
also served in Rome as an agent for an
English cardinal, Reginald Bainbridge. In
about 1512 Cromwell returned to England,
where his abilities as a lawyer brought him
to the attention of Cardinal Thomas Wol-
sey, who hired him as a secretary. Crom-
well was elected a member of the English
Parliament in 1523; he was favored by
Henry for his support of the king’s efforts
to obtain a divorce from Catherine of Ara-
gon. He became a counselor to the king in
1530 and was named chief minister in
1532.
Cromwell played a key role in the Ref-
ormation of England. Under his guidance,
the English government threw off papal
authority and placed church property un-
der the control of the king, church courts
answerable only to the pope were dissolved
and replaced by royal courts, and the
Church of England was founded. Crom-
well wrote an important law known as the
Act in Restraint of Appeals that denied
anyone convicted of the right of appeal to
the pope. He also guided important legis-
lation known as the Act of Supremacy that
recognized Henry as the head of the
Church of England. The king appointed
Cromwell as “viceregent in spirituals,” giv-
ing Cromwell the authority to investigate
the religious orders and seize and distrib-
ute their property. For his role in directing
the English Reformation he was rewarded
with the noble title of Earl of Essex.
Cromwell ran afoul of many powerful
nobles in England, however, and was also
despised by many commoners for his ruth-
less methods in seizing church property.
He incurred the anger of the king after the
death of Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife.
He advised the king to marry a German
princess, Anne of Cleves, in order to tie
England more closely to Protestant princes
of northern Germany in an alliance against
the Catholic emperor, Charles V. Unhappy
with his German bride, however, Henry
abandoned her and allowed Cromwell to
be arrested and imprisoned in the Tower
of London at the instigation of Cromwell’s
sworn enemy, the Duke of Norfolk. Soon
afterward Cromwell was convicted of trea-
son and heresy and beheaded.SEEALSO: Henry VIII; More, Sir ThomasCromwell, Thomas