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Background to Reformation - Coggle Diagram
Background to Reformation
Long Term Criticism
Pope
The Pope was always a foreigner (except Adrian IV).
The Pope continued drawing money from England.
Ordinary people paid Peter’s Pence to fund St. Peter’s Basilica.
Clergy (bishops, abbots) paid £5,000 per annum to Rome.
Simon Fish criticized the Church, calling it a "cruel, devilish bloodsucker" draining England’s wealth.
These financial burdens affected all European countries, not just England.
The Pope rarely interfered in England’s affairs, even before the Act of Supremacy (1534).
English Higher Clergy
Included abbots and bishops.
Abuses in the Church: Pluralism, absenteeism, nepotism, simony (buying/selling church offices).
Bishops received sinecures: Money and title without fulfilling responsibilities.
King used bishops and churchmen as cheap labor.
Later historians: Bishops’ deputies were often competent, and bishops didn’t always perform poorly.
Lower Clergy
Seen as ignorant, immoral, and greedy (focused on collecting money).
Collected tithe tax from people.
Charged fees for services like marriage, birth, and death.
Owned and farmed glebes (land).
Diverted attention from church duties due to farming responsibilities.
Paid low wages: 10% earnings >20, 60% earned <£10 per annum
Monks + Nuns
General
Sources: Many were written by Protestants, leading to negative bias.
Abbots were the leaders of the abbeys (26 abbots still present).
Monasteries: Described as 'closed' institutes.
Monasteries had large amounts of land and wealth, with a total revenue of £136,000 per annum.
Novices: New monks in training to test monastic life.
Almonry: Charitable giving to the poor or providing education.
Criticism
Vices: Alcohol consumption, breaking celibacy, quarrelling, expensive clothing.
Breach of vows: Issues in discipline, devotion to fields.
Distribution of charity was criticized.
Lay Brothers: Worked part-time in the fields.
Monastic Ideal: Described as moribund (dying or fading).
Inmates: Term used to refer to monks and nuns living in monasteries
Opposing View
Some were seen as blameless and not subject to criticism.
Carthusian Monks: Highly strict and dedicated to their vows (e.g., Charterhouse).
Bridgettines: An order of nuns viewed as beyond reproach, highly respected.
Criticism of Church courts
○ Lawyers didn't like Court Christian
○ Canon law was practiced in Court Christian
○ Common lawyers were experts on cases though Wolsey would be involved with no experience
○ Simon king as a lawyer believed in caesaro papism- the king had ambitions to become the pope in charge of church
Example of Criticism
○ London Taylor taken by the church as refused to pay mortuary fees
○ He is accused of heresy, and then he was hung in lollards tower
○ Henry took opportunity that an act was passed to reduce mortuary fees and restricting pluralism
Richard Hunne was a Cause celebre- famous case of 1514
○ Claim of the 'benefit of the clergy' was criticised: faced lesser punishment if able to recite Latin for any punishment even murder
Hostility in Church
Political Explanation
Top-down view: Henry VIII is central to the break with Rome.
Henry and Cromwell made the Reformation with public and parliamentary support.
Parliament represented public opinion in supporting the split from Rome.
Religious Justifcation
Some historians argue religious factors made political reformation possible
By 1529, hostility against the Catholic Church was at its peak, indicating a popular reformation could have happened without Henry.
Heretic Movements
Lollards
Stressed individual relationship with God, questioned priests’ role.
Advocated for the Bible in English and doubted transubstantiation.
Lollardy seen as a heretical underground movement.
Lutherlan Infleunce
Luther’s ideas on faith alone and rejection of good works spread.
Tyndale and Simon Fish influenced by Luther’s ideas, promoting Royal Supremacy.
Lutherans had support in all main cities e.g London, Oxford, Cambridge
Humanist Reformers
Reformers like Erasmus, More, Colet, and Linacre aimed to purify the Church from within.
They wanted to return to original Greek texts of the gospels and emphasize free will.
Their critiques, though rooted in Catholic beliefs, set the stage for academic movement towards Lutheranism.
Critics (e.g., Colet) and their writings contributed to the intellectual foundation for later Reformation ideas.
The Church
Parliamentary anti-clericalism (cautious)
Avoid exaggerating problems of the Church – Whiggish perspective
Assumption that the Church was in a bad state when Henry shut it down
MPs (often lawyers) exaggerated due to hatred of secular courts & Courts Christian
Driven by self-interest – don't be too trusting (e.g., Edward Hall – very biased)
Clerical Standards
Knowledge and quality of clergy improving
More clergy receiving higher education (increase in Oxbridge graduates)
Ordinary people becoming more literate and critical
Anti Clericalism was mostly Wolsey
Wolsey was a poor example of clergy
Criticism of him generalized to all clergy – "tarred all clergy with the same brush"
A.G.R. Smith: "a glow of late Medieval piety"
Catholic Church was still vibrant – not in decline when Protestant ideas emerged