More from the Ackroyd Book

Last week, I quoted Peter Ackroyd's book, TUDORS, in connection with the dispossession oif the Catholic monasteries in Tudor England.


Today, I'll quote a passage form a bit later in Ackroyd's story. As my readers probably know, Henry III was succeeded on the throne by his only son, Edward. King Edward (beloved among those of us who read The Prince and the Pauper as youngsters). As some may not know, the young King and his circle of advisors pushed the Protestant Reformation a good deal further than Henry had. Henry was interested in the power of the pope and the wealth of the monasteries, but he wasn't interested in making changes in doctrine. He didn't see himself as an ally of Lutherans in another other than their possession of common foes.


But under Edward, the English Church came under the control of people who very much did have doctrinal quarrels with Rome -- over the role of Mary as intercessor, over the veneration of saints, over the miracle of transubstantiation, and so forth.


After Edward's death without issue, it was his older sister Mary's turn. Mary was the daughter of Katherine of Aragorn, and the English Church had been invented largely so that the King could rid himself of her Mom. Mary had remained Catholic [and Roman Catholic] herself through all the upheavals, even at grave risk.


Mary made Reginald Pole (pictured above) the Archbishop of Canterbury, and with pole's assistance she proceeded to do her best to roll back the Edwardian changes. Not, though, the Henrician changes. This brings us to the passage I want to quote.


"[Pole] tried to refurbish the finances of the Church; he  appointed twenty bishops; he established seminaries where young priests could be trained. He had long been a resident in Rome and was therefore eager to embrace papal sovereignty; but the Lords and Commons had gone beyond that point. It was not practical. He had also wanted to take back the monastic lands that had been expropriated in Henry's reign, but there were too many vested interests to make that course feasible. what lord or gentleman would surrender what they had owned for thirty years? the imperial ambassador remarked that in any case 'the Catholics hold more church property than the heretics.'"


I hope to provide two more quotes from this book next week.