Exploiting weaknesses in the Church

What made Cromwell’s task earlier?

Church had become weaker in a number of aspects

What had the Catholic Church as an institution been weakened by?

Humanist criticisms of Colet and Erasmus and the anticlerical satire of Simon Fish

Who challenged the Church’s claim to legal supremacy?

Lawyer Christopher St German

What did Christopher St German assert?

The superiority of English law over the canon law of the Church

What did Christophers assertion help prepare?

The way for the parliamentary attack on the Church’s power

What was the Collectanea Satis Copiosa?

A collection of historical documents compiled by two Cambridge theorists- Thomas Cranmer and Edward Foxe

How had H8 been supplied with more intellectual justifications?

Given the Collectanea Satis Copiosa

What did Cranmer and Foxe want to justify?

The king’s divorce on the basis of legal and historical principles

What had H8 received expert opinions on?

Marital situation

Where did H8 get expert opinions?

Continental universities

How did the king humiliate Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More?

Required him to present these favourable opinions to both houses of Parliament