CRA 35 



Cranium, with man in his most distinguishing characteristic, the 

 Crsnrner. possession of reason. The ancients (as we have al- 

 v """ "Y"""'' ready mentioned under Craniometry) were well ac- 

 quainted with these circumstances, and have extended 

 the facial angle of their heroes and philosophers to 90", 

 and that of their gods to 100°. 



The foramen magnum occipitale in man, is placed 

 in the basilar aspect of the head, near the middle, be- 

 ing but little iniad of the middle part of the base, and 

 its direction is nearly horizontal. As we descend in 

 the scale of beings it recedes iniad, and in the lower 

 animals we find it situated in the inial aspect. This 

 was first noticed by Soemmering. The situation of this 

 foramen is admirably adapted to the economy of the 

 animals, and the positions they assume in walking. In 

 proportion as the volume of the brain increases in com- 

 parison to the whole body, so does the occiput become 

 more convex and prominent ; and the foramen mag- 

 num is removed farther from the inial aspect, and the 

 level of this opening approaches the horizontal direc- 

 tion. This position of the opening, which places the 

 head in a state of equilibrium upon the neck, and brings 

 the face forwards in the natural erect position, would, 

 if man went on all fours, prevent him from elevating 

 the head sufficiently to see before him, because the mo- 

 tion of the head would be stopped by the projection of 

 the occiput meeting the cervical vertebrae. 



As the situation of the occipital hole diners very con- 

 siderably in various animals, it has become a matter of 

 importance to distinguish by some determinate rule its 

 variation ; for this purpose let a line be drawn along the 

 level of this opening ; it will pass from the inial edge 

 of the foramen, along the surface of the condyles, and 

 if continued anteriorly, will terminate just under the 

 orbits. It forms a short and almost horizontal line, 

 which intersects, nearly at right angles, the vertical 

 line of the body and neck, when the head is held 

 straight, being neither inclined backwards or for- 

 wards. 



The difference in the direction of the foramen may 

 be estimated by noting the angle formed by the union 

 of a line drawn in the manner above-mentioned, ac- 

 cording to the direction of the opening, with another 

 •line passing from the posterior edge of the foramen to 

 the inferior margin of the orbit. Their angles is of 

 30° in man, and of 37 ° in the orang-outang. The same 

 angle which is termed the occipital angle, is 47° in the 

 lemur, and 90° in the horse. 



Other differences, existing in the teeth, upper jaws, 

 &c. are noticed as characters by which man is distin- 

 guished from other animals. For a more particular ac- 

 count of these distinctions, see Anatomy, Mammalia, 

 and Teeth, (w. e. l.) 



CRANMER, Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, was 

 born at Aslacton, in Nottinghamshire, July 2, 1489. 

 His father, who bore the same name, was a gentleman 

 of a family which for many ages possessed Cranmer Hall 

 in Lincolnshire, and is said to have been able to trace 

 his pedigree to the time of the conquest. The advan- 

 tages of a well-directed education, which young Cran- 

 mer improved, fonned at a very early period his manly 

 character, and laid the foundations of his future fame. 

 His admittance into Jesus College, Cambridge, when 

 only 14 years of age, opened up a wide field for the ex- 

 ertion of his keen and piercing intellect ; but though 

 the range of his understanding was only bounded by 

 the whole circle of science, yet religious/and, in parti- 

 cular, biblical knowledge, was his favourite pursuit. 

 A fellowship, and a degree of master of arts, were the 



5 CRA- 



honourable rewards of his abilities and industry ; but 

 the former he forfeited by marrying a lady to whom he 

 was tenderly attached ; and he immediately after became 

 reader in Buckingham College. The happiness which 

 he enjoyed in the fond affection of a kindred spirit, was 

 cruelly terminated by the death of his wife, which took 

 place a short time after his marriage ; but if his afflic- 

 tion could have been soothed by the love and esteem 

 of the good, he must have found some consolation in 

 the admiration of his friends, who again dignified him 

 with his fellowship in the university, an honour almost 

 unprecedented. Refusing a fellowship at Oxford, which 

 Cardinal Wolsey offered him, he took the degree of 

 doctor in divinity, 1523, and, in consequence of his in- 

 tegrity and learning, was appointed to give lectures on 

 theology, and to examine the candidates for academical 

 honours. Even in that age of comparative darkness, 

 the penetrating mind of Cranmer, though still entan- 

 gled with the bewildering dogmata of papal supersti- 

 tion, had learned, from an intimate acquaintance with 

 the scriptures in then original language, not merely to 

 despise as useless, but to detest as destructive of the 

 beauty and the power of religion, all those distinction - 

 without difference, all those technical phrases without 

 meaning, and all those definitions of things undefina- 

 ble, which composed the lifeless body of school divi- 

 nity, and which, in some degree, are blended with the 

 systematic religion of the present day. Hence, as he 

 refused degrees in divinity to every person who was 

 ignorant of the language and doctrines of scripture, he 

 became, at first, obnoxious to the ignorant and the am- 

 bitious ; but, in a short time, many of those who most 

 bitterly reproached him, were filled not only with ad- 

 miration of his virtues, but with gratitude for the hap- 

 piness which he had conferred upon them. 



To fulfil Cranmer's future destiny, he was forced by 

 the plague, which broke out at Cambridge, to visit a 

 Mr Cressy, an intimate friend of his, who resided at 

 Waltham Abbey. Whilst he enjoyed there the plea- 

 sures of literary friendship, Henry VIII. who, in 1529, 

 sought to divest his mind from the disappointment 

 which he experienced in his divorce from Catharine of 

 Arragon, took a tour through part of his kingdom, and 

 happened on his return to stop at the house of Mr 

 Cressy. Here Dr Fox, the king's almoner, and Dr 

 Gardiner, then secretary, afterwards bishop of Win- 

 chester, met with Cranmer at supper, and as the king's 

 divorce became the subject of conversation, Cranmer, 

 from that acute discernment which he naturally pos- 

 sessed, observed, that whilst they paid such unlimited 

 regard to the ecclesiastical law, the business would ne- 

 ver be terminated : the question was simply, " whe- 

 ther a man may marry his brother's wife I" This could 

 be decided by scripture only ; and if the universities of 

 Europe were consulted respecting the doctrine of scrip- 

 ture on this point, the affair would soon be over ; for 

 if the scriptures permitted it, the conscience of the king- 

 would be at rest; and if they did not permit it, the 

 authority of scripture, supported by the suffrages of all 

 the learned bodies in Christendom, would compel the 

 pope to pronounce a definitive sentence agreeable to 

 scripture. Fox and Gardiner, struck with the force of 

 the observation, resolved to communicate the informa- 

 tion to the king ; and justice requires that we should 

 state, that whilst the latter invidiously proposed to con- 

 ceal the author, and take the merit of the discovery to 

 themselves, the former generously rejected the un- 

 manly proposal, and fairly revealed the scheme and iu 

 author to Henri'.. 



Craiiiner. 



