A Brief History of the English Reformation by Derek Wilson

Author:Derek Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849018258
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

Chapter 7

Building a Christian Commonwealth

Any triumphalist Catholic who thought that the fall of Thomas Cromwell was the prelude to a far-reaching purge of evangelicals, a return to traditional orthodoxy and a rapprochement with Rome soon learned that these were not the king’s intentions. Henry’s religious policy was governed by two concerns. It would be no exaggeration to call them passions. He was determined to maintain the royal supremacy and he urgently sought the unity of his people. One way of achieving the former was by dramatic demonstrations against religious deviants, whether radical or reactionary. Two days after Cromwell’s execution, a gruesome assertion of the royal will was enacted at Smithfield. Three recalcitrant papists were hanged, drawn and quartered, while Robert Barnes, sometime emissary to the Lutheran princes, and two other evangelicals were burned. The only offence uniting the six victims was that they had, in various ways, challenged the royal supremacy. Debate might rage over some points of doctrine but Henry’s subjects were not allowed to doubt that he was their father in God.

Henry still assumed that bullying would work and, for many people, such deterrents were effective. But there were, by now, enough men and women of conviction in England to thwart negative policies. Some of them were in Henry’s own household. A conversation that occurred on 15 September 1540 provides us with a fascinating glimpse of backstairs court gossip. Three members of the chamber staff were discussing recent events. John Lascelles, just returned from a spell of leave, asked his colleagues Johnson, Maxey and Smithwick, ‘What news . . . pertaining God’s holy word, seeing we have lost so noble a man, which did love and favour it so well?’ The response was not encouraging. Maxey reported that Norfolk now ruled the roost and that he was a sworn enemy of reform. In the great chamber the duke had declared that he had no intention of ever reading the English Bible. ‘It was merry in England before this new learning came up,’ he said. Norfolk clearly took no pains to conceal his religious sentiments. Maxey also narrated an exchange the peer had had with an Exchequer official. Norfolk had upbraided the man for marrying an ex-nun. He had replied that he recognised ‘no nuns nor religious folk in this realm, nor no such bondage, seeing God and the King have made them free’. To this Norfolk had snapped, ‘By God’s body sacred, it will never out of my heart as long as I live.’ Smithwick was all for confronting the court traditionalists but Lascelles advised caution: ‘If we would let them alone and suffer a little time, they would overthrow themselves, standing manifestly against God and their prince.’1 Eventually it was agreed that a written deposition would be presented to Sir Nicholas Hare, a senior judge and Speaker of the late Parliament. This zealous group were sufficiently serious about causing trouble for Norfolk to have their evidence weighed by a leading legal authority.

John Lascelles was one of Cromwell’s

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