A.F. Pollard: "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation," Ch. 3--Royal...

1.     Cranmer and Royal Supremacy, 61-87. Prof. Pollard lays out an excellent predicate, historically, to the ascendency of the State over the Church, predating and inherited by Dr. Cranmer. Things had travelled some distance when an Emperor-suppliant in the snow of Canossa had become a Emperor sacking Rome. The Avignon Papacy also depressed Rome’s credibility but not its pretensions. In England, the CoE reached its zenith in the 13^th century, but gradually declined, we are told, helped by Wycliffism. The study of Roman law aided and abetted in the divinity-impulses notable in Henry VIII’s time. The early Reformation was not helpful to the likes of Warham and Fisher, both who feared encroachments on ecclesiastical powers. Wolsey’s 15-year ascendancy was shot down and a transition to laymen in government, as a pattern, was forthcoming, e.g. More, Audley, and Crumwell. Cranmer’s political theory? Not far off from Luther’s. Cranmer at his trial will go as far as saying that Nero was the head of the church to whom Paul owed allegiance. Campeggio, Du Bellay, and Clement VII saw the growing danger signs of independence. Du Bellay: “…Du Bellay declared on the eve of Wolsey's fall that the intention was, as soon as he was gone, to attack the Church and to confiscate its riches; he wrote the information in cipher, but said that such a precaution was really superfluous, because the policy was openly proclaimed” (66). The anti-clerical legislation was some mere whim of Henry VIII or a “chance suggestion on the part of any adviser” (68). Parliament in Nov 1529 began the wing-clippings: limit fees for probate, checks on abuses of pluralities and non-residence, and denials to clergy to own breweries or tanneries. Bishop Fisher: “`My Lords’ cried Bishop Fisher, `you see daily what bills come hither from the Com- mons' House, and all is to the destruction of the Church. For God's sake, see what a realm the kingdom of Bohemia was; and when the Church went down, then fell the glory of that kingdom. Now with the Commons is nothing but `Down with the Church!' And all this, meseemeth, is for lack of faith only’” (68). In 1531, Praemunire was threatened if the clerks did not own Henry as the “Supreme Head of the Church.” $$. Vicars of Bray complied. Warham: ira principis mors est (69), but Warham was no A’ Becket, but was a gentle and venerated man, not a combat veteran.  “In 1532 the Act forbidding the payment of Annates to Rome was passed, and the famous petition of the Commons against the clergy was presented” (69)—floated as a possibility and, like Damocle’s sword, hung over CoE leadership and the fella in Rome. $$--again. This is the hot politico-ecclesiastical mess into which the Cambridge don walked. UPSHOT: “Dr. Cranmer, you are minister in `our’ jurisdiction, me at the top, and you as the servant of the state.”