Thomas Cranmer's 42 Boxes

"I personally don't look for secret messages hidden by Carroll in the text; rather, I look at themes and symbols as potential hints as to the sorts of things that were on Carroll's mind at the time."
Darien Graham-Smith, 2005-10-05

The image:

[B&W]: Upper part of Henry Holiday's illustration (1876) to The Baker's Tale in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark depicting some of the Baker's 42 boxes piled up outside the window. In 1552, shortly before the early death of Edward VI, Thomas Cranmer wrote down 42 articles, a protestant doctrine. In Henry Holiday's depiction of the staple of some of the Baker's 42 boxes piled up outside of the window of the Baker's uncle's room also the number 42 is visible.

[color]: Segment from a painting (c. 1570) by an unknown artist (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ed_and_pope.png).The segment is displayed in a mirrored view. Thomas Cranmer is located on the right side in the mirrored image. (Among other persons in the painting not shown in this segment: Edward VI, Henry VIII).
There is a book about this painting where Thomas Cranmer is identified: Margaret Aston, The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait, 1994.

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42 and Thomas Cranmer:

How could the number 42 get into anyone's mind? Douglas Adams made that number popular as an answer to everything. (But what was the question?) In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy he (similar to many other writers, e.g. Tom Stoppard) challenged his readers with allusions to the works of earlier writers. An earlier writer who had an obvious affinity to the number 42 is known as Lewis Carroll. And, as I learned from John Tufail, "before the 39 articles of Faith that Carroll [the Rev. Dodgson] declined to attest to, there were 42 articles [written by Thomas Cranmer]."

Of course, like Adams, Carroll wouldn't give any good reason for his affinity (not only in the Snark) to the number 42 either, but he surely knew, that "Forty-Two" is an important number in the history of Anglicanism: In the mind of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) the Forty-Two Articles of Thomas Cranmer surely had their place.

· · · · 021 · · There was one who was famed for the number of things
· · · · 022 · · · · He forgot when he entered the ship:
· · · · 023 · · His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings,
· · · · 024 · · · · And the clothes he had bought for the trip.

· · · · 025 · · He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,
· · · · 026 · · · · With his name painted clearly on each:
· · · · 027 · · But, since he omitted to mention the fact,
· · · · 028 · · · · They were all left behind on the beach.

· · · · 029 · · The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because
· · · · 030 · · · · He had seven coats on when he came,
· · · · 031 · · With three pairs of boots--but the worst of it was,
· · · · 032 · · · · He had wholly forgotten his name.

· · · · 033 · · He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry,
· · · · 034 · · · · Such as "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!"
· · · · 035 · · To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!"
· · · · 036 · · · · But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!"

· · · · 037 · · While, for those who preferred a more forcible word,
· · · · 038 · · · · He had different names from these:
· · · · 039 · · His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends,"
· · · · 040 · · · · And his enemies "Toasted-cheese."

· · · · 041 · · "His form is ungainly--his intellect small--"
· · · · 042 · · · · (So the Bellman would often remark)
· · · · 043 · · "But his courage is perfect! And that, after all,
· · · · 044 · · · · Is the thing that one needs with a Snark."

· · · · 045 · · He would joke with hyenas, returning their stare
· · · · 046 · · · · With an impudent wag of the head:
· · · · 047 · · And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear,
· · · · 048 · · · · "Just to keep up its spirits," he said.

· · · · 049 · · He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late--
· · · · 050 · · · · And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad--
· · · · 051 · · He could only bake Bridecake--for which, I may state,
· · · · 052 · · · · No materials were to be had.

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Background:

The Baker in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark has many features in common with Thomas Cramer. Many of his nick names are associated with heat or having been burnt : "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!", "Candle-ends" or "Toasted-cheese".

Cranmer later was accused of heresy and had to leave his articles behind him before he heroically recanted his recantations: "On 14 February 1556, he was degraded from his episcopal and sacerdotal offices in preparation for execution. Following his trial, Cranmer was put under intense pressure to recant. Desperately lonely and broken, Cranmer at last signed a series of six recantations, the last of which rejected his entire theological development. Although the more traditional practice was to impose a lesser sentence on recanted heretics, Mary maintained that Cranmer should burn. On 21 March 1556, Cranmer was to recant publicly, using a speech that had been endorsed by the government before suffering his punishment. Instead, he stunned the authorities and the gathered crowd by recanting not his earlier theological positions but the recantations themselves. He then ran to the stake and steadfastly held his right hand, the hand that had signed the recantations, in the fire. His heroic end undid much of the government's planned propaganda against him and his Protestant cause and earned him an honored place in Foxe's catalog of Protestant martyrs." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911)

"Mary Tudor suppressed the 42 Articles when she returned England to the Catholic faith; however, Cranmer's work became the source of the 39 Articles which Elizabeth I established as the doctrinal foundations of the Church of England. There are two editions of the 39 Articles: those of 1563 are in Latin and those of 1571 are in English." (Victorian Web)