Essay
A* Early Tudors Henry VIII Exemplar Essay 2
'The pre-Reformation Church was considered ripe for reform by many contemporaries because of the existing abuses of it.' Explain why you agree or disagree with this view.
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Henry VIII practice essay 2'The pre-Reformation Church was considered ripe for reform by many contemporaries
because of the existing abuses of it.' Explain why you agree or disagree with this view
There were certainly many abuses of the pre-Reformation Church which
angered contemporaries. The Church was powerful and wealthy, earning between
£320,000 and £360,000 per annum, and yet only 3% of this wealth went to charitable
causes. This suggests that the Church was greedy and unscrupulous in its aid for the
aged, infirm and poor, and hence it was ripe for reform. Continental Humanism began to
make its presence felt in England, and the works of Dutch humanist Erasmus and Luther
began to impact on the thinking of the literate. The spread of literacy and the impact of
printing press provided greater access to religious literature, which encouraged debate
and the growth of dissent among the general population. The Church refused to accept
criticism, even though it openly encouraged education, and so many contemporaries
resented the Church's attempts to control their lives. Indeed, the Act of Supremacy ruled
that the Pope had usurped jurisdiction over the English Church; he was referred to as
the 'Bishop of Rome', a figure hungry for power rather than social improvement.
According to historian G.R. Elton (writing in 1977), 'the state of the Church was widely
believed to be rotten' and 'if the Church was to survive reformation was essential'.
Therefore, growing anticlericalism among the common people and gentry alike
necessitated reformation of the English Church due to the very fact that the abuses
meant the Church's choice was to change and improve or suffer a complete overthrow,
and ultimately the decision to reform the Church was taken.
Nevertheless, it would be frankly false and naive to assume that the Reformation
took place solely because of the effect on the King's moral conscience. Once Henry had
secured his annulment, Thomas Cromwell incited his hubris and xenophobic desires by
promising to make him 'the richest king in all of Christendom'. Cromwell had a
significant influence in the decision to reform the Church - Henry realised that he could
gain powerful abilities to rule his Kingdom without any foreign influence from Rome,
and this was important for a king who relished the chance to become the most powerful
King in English history. The justification for the Act of Supremacy was in reality, merely
symbolic, as the influence of the Pope clearly had not been cause for concern for Henry
prior to his attempt to secure an annulment in his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Therefore, the real reason why the pre-Reformation Church was reformed was
motivated by political factors. With the Act of Supremacy, Henry was solely in control of
the Church in spiritual and temporal matters; previously, these powers had been
exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Convocation as a whole, however now
these powers were shifted to the King. This helped lead to the Submission of the Clergy
and further legislation such as the aptly named Act Extinguishing the Authority of the
Bishop of Rome, culminating in a drift towards Protestantism with the passing of the Act
of the Ten Articles. Moving towards Protestant doctrine would ultimately give Henry
indisputable control over his subjects, and so later events demonstrate that royal
authority was the real reason for the changes of the pre-Reformation Church, especially
as no legislation was passed after 1533 to directly eliminate the abuses of the Church.
In any case, the pre-Reformation Church had few abuses within it, and so there is
little justification for the argument that this precipitated the Reformation. According to
historian C. Haigh (writing in 1987), 'the long term causes of the Reformation', including
widespread corruption and dissatisfaction among the common people, 'appear to have
been historical allusions'. Indeed, the pre-Reformation Church was stable and popular,
providing essential services such as burials, marriages, and christenings as well as
charity, education and employment. Unlike in Germany, where the Reformation began
where the Church appeared weak, the English Church was generally well regarded, and
most parishioners seemed genuinely happy with their obligations to the Church and the
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