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To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?
The pre-reformation Church in England (the Catholic Church) lost with the Reformation its primacy as the official religion/church of the kingdom. Therefore, by its destruction it will be understood in this essay this lose of primacy by the Church, and not its physical disappearance, because the Catholic Church never disappeared in England and it actually exists in this country still nowadays. This essay will study what was wrong with the Church that made it moved over to the Protestants, with the creation of a new an independent national church: the Church of England. This is what the Reformation was, and not the destruction of the Catholic Church. The traditional historiography of the English Reformation has always assumed that the reason why the pre-reformation Church collapsed is simply because it was corrupt and obsolete and, therefore, ended up destroying itself. However, a completely new historiography of the Reformation emerged during the last decades of the 20th century1. The revisionist historians which appeared then, and of whom Eamon Duffys and his Stripping of the Altars (Yale, 1992) might be the best known, offer us a completely different vision of the topic. By looking at their research, this essay will show that the pre-reformation Church was in a very good estate. After studying, first the piety and beliefs of the people in a local level, secondly the situation of the ecclesiastical institutions, thirdly the unorthodox beliefs emerging in this period and lastly the relations between Church and state; it will be concluded that to just to a little extent the causes of the Reformation can be found within the prereformation Church . There were some little aspects that needed to be changed, but they were more the justification for the Reformation rather than its cause.

C. Haigh, So why did it happen? Rewriting the Reformaiton: 1, The Tablet, 20 April 2002.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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The above mentioned traditional historiography, referred to by many as Whig and composed mainly by Protestant historians, defends the view that the common people in the late Middle Age were unhappy with their religion, which was unintelligible to them. It had rites in a strange language (Latin) and in which they could not participate, was full of superstitions and magical elements, separated the educated from the uneducated and its clergy was corrupted and was not concerned with the spiritual care of the parishioners. Thus, this unhappiness of the people ended up provoking or at least welcoming the Reformation2. However, recent research in diocesan and parish records has proved a completely different reality3. New studies based on this evidence show us that religion was an essential aspect in common peoples life, focused on the parish church. It is true that they did not understand the Latin of the mass, but they perfectly knew what was going on, because it had been taught to them by many means, like plays in which they themselves participated4. They valued the mass as something essential and this can be seen in their usual going further than just fulfilling the requirement of providing the objects for the liturgy: God was made present in the mass and they could worship Him through prayer and by enhancing the experience of the ceremony5. Because of the widespread illiteracy, communication in the liturgy was established through a symbolic language which also explains the development of devotion by the use of images. Religion was not an obscure and static cultural element from the past which was imposed upon them; it was the active expression of their beliefs, with spontaneous new devotions and practices appearing, like pilgrimages and cult to new saints.

C. Haigh, The recent historiography of the English Reformation, Historical Journal XXV (1982), 995-1007, repr. in his The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge, 1987), pp 30-31. R. Rex, Did England Need a Reformation? Priests & People, (October 1993), p407. 3 C. Haigh, So why did it happen? Rewriting the Reformaiton: 1, The Tablet, 20 April 2002, p12. 4 E. Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars (Yale, 1992), pp63-68; R. Rex, Did England Need a Reformation? Priests & People, (October 1993), p406; P. Marshall, Catholic England 1480-1530, Reformation England 1480-1642 (Arnold, 2003), p4. 5 P. Marshall, Ibid.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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There were differences between the religiosity of the literate elites and the illiterate levels of society, but it was only in particular aspects (not in the nuclear points); it was a broad Church, a spectrum, rather than a polarity, with no barrier in between. All the new devotions, prayers, pilgrimages, etc. developed by the masses, were just a consequence of the enthusiastic acceptance and putting into practice of the teaching of the social and ecclesiastical elites6. Religion was a factor of unity for the community. Social status meant different roles in the parish, but this did not deter people from feeling responsible for the maintenance of the building and of the priest7. Apart from celebrating the sacraments, the priest had the role of intermediary in conflicts and they usually managed to keep social harmony in their parishes. Although there were some elements of the traditional religion8 which needed to be changed (apparition of superstitions because of a lack of education, social differentiation in parish life, etc.), it cannot be said that they were the seeds that caused of the Reformation, but rather some aspects which were later used by the reformers to justify it. The causes of the Reformation have also been explained on the basis of the corruption and obsolescence of some of the institutions of the late medieval Church. For example, it has been the common assumption that monasteries were closed down by Henry VIII because they were in decline, in terms of numbers and moral standards. Revisionists now say that numbers declined because of the Black Death and that by the time of the Reformation vocations were generally increasing in large numbers. The assumption of a moral corruption is based on a generalisation from the snapshots of the Visitation Records. There were some abuses, but it was only in some particular cases and which the visitations helped to improve. We tend to
6 7

Idem. R. Rex, p405. Idem. E. Duffy, p132. Idem. P. Marshall, p4-7. 8 Rex points out that the fact that Duffy in The Stripping refers to a traditional religion as opposed to a popular, is because the latter has some political and sociological connotations that have been used by Marxist historians like Antonio Gramsci. Rex defines traditional religion as a body of beliefs and practices which is received, preserved, and transmitted by a community as such. Tradition in this sense is as much the creator as the creation of the community (Idem. R. Rex, p405).

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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focus on the few negative aspects shown by the visitations; and to forget that, overall, they offer a very positive view of the religious houses. Monasteries in general, apart from being centres of prayer were monks where trying to fulfil their Christian vocation through contemplation, were actively working for the spiritual edification of the laity and accomplished charitable activities for the poor. There is no evidence to claim that the monasteries were in crisis9. It seems, G.W. Bernard says, that the reason for Henry VIII to close down the monasteries is just because they were a potential opposition to the schism with Rome10. Criticisms of corruption among the bishops are often based on Colets Convocation Sermon11. Colet attacked the covetousness and secularity manifested by all levels of clergy12 and castigated their greed for tithes and promotions, manifested in pluralism13. Nevertheless, revisionism shows that, in general terms, bishops before the Reformation were far from what Colet claimed against them. Marshall says that they were predominantly graduated in Law, were benefactors of education and kept a conscious eye on their dioceses, policing heresy and keeping discipline among clergy and laity through visitations and the Church courts. Bishops were active in their dioceses, if not personally, through competent deputies14. Colets criticism of bishops non-residence is thus irrelevant. If regularly people were being confirmed and priests ordained, sacraments conferred by the bishop of the diocese, it means that the non-residence was not a big problem15. Bishops were fulfilling the pastoral needs of

Idem. P. Marshall, pp12-14. For a more detailed account of the situation of the English monasteries on the eve of the Reformation, see Abbot Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (London, G. Bell and sons, LTD., 1910), preface, introduction and c1. 10 G. W. Bernard, The Church of England, 1529-1642 History 75 (244), 182-206, Historical Association (1990), p184. 11 The sermon was preached at St. Pauls on February 1512 and can be found in English Historical Documents V 1485-1588 ed. C. H. Williams (London, 1967), pp 652-60, where it is printed from J. H. Lupton, Life of John Colet (London, 1887), appendix C, pp 293-304. See C. Harper-Bill, Dean Colets Convocation Sermon and the Pre-Reformation Church in England, History 73 (238), Historical Association (1988), note 1. 12 Idem. C. Harper-Bill, p192. 13 Idem. P. Marshall, p11. 14 Ibid. P20. 15 Idem. C. Harper-Bill, p201.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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the people they were in charge of. Nonetheless, there were still some abuses. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, for example, has been regarded as the personification of all abuses complained of in Colets sermon16. However, it is to be noted that these were only particular cases and that usually those who committed the abuses were the same ones who called for reform. Wolsey advocated schemes to increase the number of dioceses and tighten up the administration of canon law. Colet was a pluralist himself17. At parish level, local clergy also met the needs of the people. There is no evidence of a widespread anticlericalism. People were usually happy with their parish priests, despite some occasional unavoidable differences in their opinions regarding tithes and other dues18. Parish clergy were often under direct economic control of the people, who were able to choose their priest and usually got to love them as their spiritual and material pastors, providing the sacraments and maintaining peace in the community. There is little evidence to claim anticlericalism in the pre-reformation church. Visitation records show few isolated complaints regarding pastoral care and seminaries were full at record levels19. Again, it seems that the institutional situation of the church on the eve of the Reformation was not as bad as to warrant the origin of the Reformation. As with the traditional religion described above, there was some room for improvement an some little occasional abuses that needed to be corrected, but the seeds of the destruction of the prereformation Church can definitively not be found here. A.G. Dickens relates with his theory of a rapid reformation from below (as described by Haigh20), the advent of this quick reformation process to some links that were being established between the late Lollardy and the early Protestantism21. For Dickens, the

16 17

Idem. P. Marshall, p12. Ibid. 18 Idem. C. Harper-Bill, p204. 19 Idem. P. Marshall, p14-15. 20 C. Haigh, The recent historiography, pp 19-33. 21 Ibid. p21.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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Reformation was more a matter of conversion rather than of coercion22. Meaning that the new Protestant influences came to complete what had been started by the reforming movements that were already developing in England; movements which sought to fulfil the religious needs of the people needs which the clergy (who were too involved in politics or were poor and uneducated, was failing to meet. Haigh argues that in order for this theory to work, two assumptions have to be accepted: firstly, that there was disrespect for the different institutions and authority of the church; secondly, that Protestantism appeared in a very attractive way that captured the imagination of the people. However, the rejection of the authority of the church should therefore have been based on an anticlericalism that, as we already have seen, did not exist in the English pre-reformation Church23. Moreover, it is unlikely that a Protestantism which referred to the Bible as the only source of revelation, rejecting all kinds of images, a Protestantism that was a religion of the Word, captured the imagination of the illiterate common people who, as we have also seen, made use of a symbolic language for their religious expressions24. Lollardy was opposed to images, pilgrimages and the cult of saints. It denied the value of the sacraments. All was based on a stressing of the importance of the Bible, demanding its translation into English, which eventually also leaded to their rejection the legitimacy of the authority and property of the Church25. Therefore, it seems that it came to attend to the new piety developing within the educated gentry, which was tending to a more interiorized religiosity, as oppose to the external oral and visual religious expressions of the illiterates, and which was making use of the printed word for their piety. Nonetheless, these new religious tendencies of the educated were being attended through the activities

22 23

Ibid. p22. Idem. P. Marshall, p14-15. 24 Idem. C. Haigh, p24. Idem. P. Marshall, p10. Idem. R. Rex, p406. 25 Idem. P. Marshall, p15-19.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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organized by friars and confraternities, many times transcending the local parish level 26. In fact, educated people and those who became Lollards never cut themselves off from the life in the parish27. They indeed became the most active in the parish and the community28. Haigh argues that the Protestant heretics (perhaps meaning the Lollards) in the 1520s and 1530s formed a very small minority whose real significance has been exaggerated because their own rejection of Catholicism was, much later and for accidental political reasons, to triumph nationally29. Marshall goes even further, arguing that Lollardy was not a counter-church movement but just a kind of added spiritual dimension to the parochial religious life. Although still heretics, Lollards did not separate from the community as a new independent sect30. It seems that the unorthodox religious beliefs in the late medieval church, though they were persecuted for socio-political reasons (they threatened social harmony), were not as significant so as to be the main motors for the Reformation in England. Finally, we will look at the relations between the Church and the state before the Reformation. There were two legal systems operating in England; the Church courts administering canon law, and the common law courts with the Crown as their source of jurisdiction31. These two systems operated without tensions and an agreed division of labour. Nevertheless, sometimes common lawyers accused the Church courts of stepping beyond their boundaries, for example when they applied justice on cases of unpaid debts, considering them as spiritual crimes32. However, the reality used to be precisely the opposite. Susan Brigden, talking about London specifically, points out that there was a direct correlation between breaking the laws of the Church and those of the city, and, therefore, local authorities intervened insistently and increasingly, in cases which were under the
26 27

Idem. R. Rex, p408. Idem. P. Marshall, p17. 28 Idem. R. Rex, p408. 29 Idem. C. Haigh, p22. 30 Idem. P. Marshall, p17. 31 Ibid. p21. 32 Ibid.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts33. Despite some occasional and particular conflicts, the Ecclesiastical courts were nevertheless, by the standards of the time, honest, speedy and cheap, their authority was acknowledged by all and they met important social needs when appeasing conflicts and regulating relationships34. The Ecclesiastical courts before the reformation were in a good state, and so did relations between the Crown and the Church seem good. Tudor-papal relations had been good since the beginning to the royal dynasty in 148535. Apart from the political motivations (it has to be taken into account that at the time the Pope was also a political leader, and no one except of the Lollards maybe seemed to have had any objection to it), this relations were good probably for the fact that the Tudor monarchs were good Christians themselves: Henry VIII had been given by the Pope in 1521 the title of Defender of the Faith36, for his defence of the Catholic doctrines against the attacks of Martin Luther. However, during the reigns of the different Tudor monarchs, the Crown progressively took more and more administrative control over the Church in England. This, to the extent that Henry VII and Henry VIII squeezed out of the English Church over two and a half times the sum that the Popes did37. The increasing patronization of the Crown over the Church resulted in a progressive nationalization of the institutions of the Church, by which the members of the hierarchy became increasingly more dependent to the Crown. This can explain why the bishops focused their loyalty primarily on the Crown38. In addition to the expanding control over the Church by the Crown, Rex and Armstrong make and interesting study of Henry VIIIs ecclesiastical foundations, which gives some tips of the religious attitudes of this king. Their conclusion is that, as well as his
33

S. Brigden, Religion and Social Obligation in Early Sixteenth-Century London, Past and Present 103 (1984), p71. 34 Idem. C. Haigh, p23. 35 Idem. P. Marshall, p19. 36 Ibid. p20. G. Redworth, 'Whatever happened to the English Reformation', History Today 37 (October, 1987). 37 Ibid. p19. 38 Ibid. p20.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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predecessors, he was delighted to promote the worship of God [through the foundations]. What differentiated him is that he was delighted, but only if it cost him little or nothing39. Although he had a remarkable personal devotion, Rex and Armstrong had detected in Henry VIII a lack of enthusiasm for significant features of late medieval piety40. If there were any seeds for the reformation in England, those would probably not be found in the Church but in the figure of the king himself, in his increasing auto-legitimized control of the Church and in his remarked but pragmatic religious devotions. In conclusion, the seeds of the moving over of the pre-reformation Church cannot be found within itself. In local parish level, people were as engaged and committed with their faith as they had been throughout the middle ages. The institutions of the Church were successfully meeting the needs of the faithful. Some unorthodox beliefs were present, but they were movements which involved only a minority of the population and which did not seek to abolish the established order, but to improve it in their own unorthodox ways. There were no big tensions in the relations between the Church and the state as to claim that a break with Rome was predictable. The revisionist historiography shows a flourishing and untroubled pre-reformation Church which had been like that since the times of Bede and which would have continued in the same course if the political events from 1530s onwards had not impeded it. Nowadays, historians generally agree that the Reformation was not particularly expected at the time, and that when it happened, it had the figure of the king as its cause and epicentre41. However, there is now a new trend, referred by some as post-revisionism42, which first assumes that the late medieval Church was not corrupt but in very good condition, and

39

R. Rex and C.D.C. Armstrong, Henry VIIIs ecclesiastical and collegiate foundations, Historical Research, vol. 75, no. 190 (November 2002), p407. 40 Ibid. P392. 41 Idem. P. Marshall, p25. 42 C. Haigh, So why did it happen?; P. Collinson, The world did move, Rewriting the Reformaiton: 2, The Tablet, 27 April 2002.

To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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then moves to the study of how the reformation developed in order to understand how it is possible that the centenarian Catholic England became Protestant in such a short period of time (1530s-1640s). Research in this area has opened new doors through which an answer to the title of this essay question can be reached. Authors like Lucy E.C. Wooding43 or P. Collinson44 argue that the reason why Protestantism succeeded in England was, apart from the impositions of the authorities, because many Catholics, either for personal interest, lack of fervour or because they feared for their lives, consented with the new order. Sir Christopher Trychay, parish priest of Morebath, is a good example of a Catholic who decided for apostasy, and not just once: he, with all his parish following him, became a Protestant under Henry VIII and Edward VI, then a Catholic again under Mary and finally a Protestant again under Elisabeth I45 (This also shows that Reformation in England was not just one instantaneous homogeneous change over). Moral judgements apart, it can be said that the Catholics who, for whatever reason, decided not to defend their faith to the last consequences, may have been the true seeds of the destruction of the pre-reformation Church in England. (63%)

Bibliography:
S. BRIDGEN, Religion and Social Obligation in Early Sixteenth-Century London, Past and Present 103 (1984). P. MARSHALL, Catholic England 1480-1530, Reformation England 1480-1642 (Arnold, 2003).
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Lucy E.C. Wooding argues in his book Rethinking Catholicism (Oxford Univ. Press, 2000) there were some catholic reforming movements acting before and during the English, and that this is the main reason why the Reformation succeeded: that Catholics in some ways consented with it. However, Haigh criticises her point because in his view, Wooding is failing to take into account that the majority of the Catholics who surrendered to the Reformation, did so because they were being forced by the circumstances. C. Haigh The strange death of Catholic England, The Catholic Herald (8 December 2000). 44 Idem. P. Collinson. 45 E. Duffy The Voices of Morebath (Yale, 2001). Duffys justification, in the book, of Trychays actions during the English Reformation is criticised in a review of the book by Michael Knowles, published in Star (November 2002).

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To what extent did the pre-reformation Church contain the seeds of its own destruction?

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C. HARPER-BILL, Dean Colets Convocation Sermon and the Pre-Reformation Church in England, History 73 (238), Historical Association (1988). G.W. BERNARD, The Church of England, 1529-1642 History 75 (244), 182-206, Historical Association (1990). G. REDWORTH, 'Whatever happened to the English Reformation', History Today 37 (October, 1987). C. HAIGH, So why did it happen? Rewriting the Reformaiton: 1, The Tablet, 20 April 2002. - The recent historiography of the English Reformation, Historical Journal XXV (1982), 995-1007, repr. in his The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge, 1987), pp19-33. - The strange death of Catholic England, The Catholic Herald (8 December 2000). E. DUFFY, The Structures of Traditional Religion, The Stripping of the Altars (Yale, 1992), part 1 (pp9-377). R. REX, Did England Need a Reformation? Priests & People, (October 1993). R. REX and C.D.C. ARMSTRONG, Henry VIIIs ecclesiastical and collegiate foundations, Historical Research, vol. 75, no. 190 (November 2002).
Abbot GASQUET, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (London, G. Bell and sons, LTD., 1910), preface, introduction and c1.

P. COLLINSON, The world did move, Rewriting the Reformaiton: 2, The Tablet, 27 April 2002.
MICHAEL KNOWLES, The Voices of Morebath, Views and Reviews, Star (November 2002).

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