G. W. Bernard

THE MAKING OF RELIGIOUS POLICY, 1533–1546: HENRY VIII AND THE SEARCH FOR THE MIDDLE WAY

Too often religious policy in Henry VIIIs reign after the break with Rome has been seen as fluctuating and inconsistent as he was influenced first by one group of ministers and courtiers and then by another. Here it is argued by contrast that Henry VIII was very much the dominant force in the making of religious policy and that his policy, which he pursued skilfully and consistently, is best characterized as a search for the middle way.

Anne Boleyn's Religion *

It has become fashionable to characterize Henry VIIIs second queen, Anne Boleyn, as evangelical in religion and as a patron of reformers. But this rests heavily on the later testimony of John Foxe and of one of Annes chaplains, William Latimer. Contemporary evidence of Annes activity, under critical scrutiny, turns out to offer a different impression, as does an analysis of episcopal appointments in the early 1530s. A remarkable sermon preached by John Skip, the queens almoner, a few weeks before her death, casts further doubt on the claims for Annes reformist zeal.

Elton's Cromwell

Sir Geoffrey Eltons presentation of Thomas Cromwell as the architect of ‘the Tudor revolution in government’ rested upon assumptions about Cromwells relationship with Henry VIII that are here scrutinized and questioned. Cromwells remembrances, in particular, are drawn upon to argue that, far from holding the government of the country in his hands alone, Cromwell was rather the kings hard-working servant.

Henry VIII: Catholicism without the Pope?

That Henry VIIIs religious policy after the break with Rome was ‘catholicism without the pope’ is a common characterization. Yet while it is fair to insist that he consistently rejected the teachings of Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli and never considered introducing a protestant reformation, Henrys attitudes to purgatory, to pilgrimage, to the intercession of saints, and to the monasteries were nonetheless a significant departure from straightforwardly orthodox catholicism. Desiderius Erasmuss ideas were the greatest influence on Henry whose reservations about aspects of ‘traditional religion’ were sharpened by his difficulties in securing his divorce and by the rebellions in 1536. The Church he then remade amounted not to ‘catholicism without the pope’ but was an idiosyncratic hybrid. If there were few committed Henricians, nonetheless the legacy of Henrys reformation would be felt in Elizabeths reign and beyond.

The Fortunes of the Greys, Earls of Kent, in the early Sixteenth Century

Noble power, if it is to survive, must be renewed and maintained from generation to generation. But not all those who came into a noble patrimony proved themselves able stewards. Richard Grey, third earl of Kent (d. 1524), whose life saw the collapse of his earldom, is a vivid example of a man smaller than his office. His relations with courtiers and royal administrators cast an unflattering light on the instruments of royal rule in early Tudor England. His dealings with Henry VII, however, suggest that the king wished to maintain a strong and well-endowed nobility. But as the life of Earl Richards successor, his half-brother Sir Henry Grey, shows, it proved easier to destroy than to recover an inheritance.