Reform of the Church

Weaknesses of the Church

Weaknesses of the Church

Corruption:

• Pluralism - receiving the profits of more than one post

• Simony - the purchase of Church office

• Non-residence - receiving profits of a post but not performing its duties

• Cardinal Wolsey was arguably the most corrupt clergyman

Anticlericalism:

• Opposition to the political and social importance of the Church

• Some common lawyers objected to the influence of the law of the Church

• There were objections to the legal privileges of the clergy

• 1529 attack on the clergy

Evidence of early English Protestantism

• Little evidence of a substantial movement towards Protestantism in the years following Luther’s attack on the Catholic Church in 1517

• At an intellectual level there was a group of future reformers based in Cambridge in the 1520s

• Most influential member was Archbishop Cramner

Erasmianism and the Reformation

• Years from 1529 showed a group of humanists with shared ideals based on the ideas of Erasmus helping to shape royal policy

• Evidence that a humanist approach to reform persisted during the final years of Henry VIII’s reign

• The king turned to humanists John Cheke to tutor his son and heir, and Roger Ascham to tutor Princess Elizabeth

• There was a humanist circle around the king’s last wife Katherine Parr - who had a humanist education and was a patron of the arts and literature

Changes to the Church’s structure

• King becomes supreme head of the Church - confirmed by the Act of Supremacy in 1534

• King appoints Cromwell Vicegerent in Spirituals in 1534 - Gave Cromwell considerable power and now outranked the archbishops and bishops

• Six new dioceses (areas under the jurisdiction of a bishop) were created - an attempt to improve the Church’s administration

• No other changes were made to the Church - and the Church of England differed from the reformed churches in continental Europe

• Spiritual jurisdiction was still in the hands of archbishops and bishops

Dissolution of the monasteries

• Can be traced back to the Valor Ecclesiaticus - a survey set up by Cromwell in 1535 to see how wealthy the Church was

• Visitors were sent round the country to inspect monastic institutions - found evidence of weakness and corruption

• Provided Cromwell with enough evidence to justify bringing in an Act of Parliament in 1536 to dissolve the smaller monasteries with an income of under £200 per annum

• Presented as an argument for improving the quality of monasicism

• Scope of dissolution widened after the Pilgrimage of Grace

• 1539 - Act dissolving all the remaining monasteries was passed - all of the remaining religious houses had been dissolved by March 1540

The attack on traditional religious practices

• 1536 and 1548 injunctions

• First one placed a restriction on the number of holy days to be observed and discouraged pilgrimages

• Second one - pilgrimages were condemmed as works devised as men’s fantasies

• Clergy who upheld the virtues of pilgrimages were required publicaly to recant

• The implications of the 1538 injunctions for traditional worship were undoubtedly radical

The English Bible

• Injuctions of 1538 required each parish church to have an English Bible and encouraged aver person to read it

• First edition of the Great Bible appeared in 1539

• Within 4 years Henry had become fearful of allowing the wrong sorts of people to read the wrong parts of the Bible

• Led to the 1543 Act for the Advancement of True Religion

• Restricted the public reading of the Bible to upper-class men and upperclass women only permitted to read it in private

• Women and men of other classes were restricted on reading

Changes to doctrine

• Protestant beliefs were introducted

• However there was no consistent pattern of doctrinal change

• Reflected the king’s inability to make up his mind definitively about such matters

• 1536 Ten Articles

• 1537 Bishops’ Book

• 1539 Six Articles Act

• 1543 King’s Book

1536 Ten Articles

• Praying to sains for remission of sins (Lutheran) was rejected, but confession (Catholic) was praised

• This was an ambiguous document which showed both Lutheran and Catholic influences on the development of doctrine

1537 Bishops’ Book

• Restored the four sacraments omitted from the 10 Articles, but were given a lower status

• Therefore a more conservative document than the Ten Articles

1539 Six Articles Act

• Reasserted the Catholic doctrine

• Denial of transubstantiation was deemed heretical

• This was a triumph for the conservatives

• Founded on the assumption that there had been too much religous controversy and that this undermined the good ordering of society

• Two reforming bishops resigned their posts

1543 King’s Book

• This revised the Bishops’ Book

• The emphasis was largely conservative, but with some Lutheran hints