“True and Catholike”

Abstract The twentieth century saw recurring debate over what Archbishop Thomas Cranmer meant by placing John 6:63 (as the verse is now numbered) on the frontispiece of his Defence of the True and Catholike Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Saviour Christ (1550), his major work on the Eucharist. This paper surveys approaches to John 6 printed during the first half of the reign of Edward VI in order to better determine a plausible interpretive range for Cranmer’s choice of Biblical text. Especially close attention is paid to Erasmus of Rotterdam’s Enchiridion and New Testament Paraphrases . In his Injunctions of 1547, Edward VI directed all clergy to own and study the Paraphrases . All parishes were to purchase and make it available for public reading as well. As the author of an “official” confessional text for the Edwardine Church of England, Erasmus can helpfully elucidate Eucharistic debate in England, and the views of Archbishop Cranmer in particular.