Petbonal
influence of
the Tudois
in producing
ecclesiastical
changes.
Injuries
done by the
church of
Rome to the
church of
England.
The eccle-
siastical
position
λ∖ eakened
by the con-
nexion.
542 Constitutional Historij. [chap.
reformed. But neither this nor the jealousy of ecclesiastical
wealth, nor disgust at ecclesiastical corruption, nor the dislike
and contempt with which men like. More viewed the rabble of
disreputable and superfluous priests, nor the growth of a desire
for purer teaching, would have determined the crisis of the
Reformation as it was determined, but for the personal agency
of the Tudors, Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth ; and the
irresistible force of that personal agency proved the weakness
of the ecclesiastical position. The clergy had relied too much
on Rome, and too much also on the balance of force between
the other estates and the crown. ‘ Rome alone you will have ;
Rome alone will destroy you,’ Ranulf Glanvill had said to the
monks of Canterbury1 ; the prophecy was true of the monastic
body, and it had a partial application to the whole medieval
church system.
465. In the first place the papal policy had taken the innate
life and vigour out of the ecclesiastical constitution, and sup-
plied or attempted to Supplythe place with foreign mechanism :
legations, Iegatiue authority, appeals, dispensations, licences ;
the direct compacts between the crown and the popes to defeat
the canonical rights of the clergy in the matters of elections ;
all the policy which the statutes of praemunire and provisors
had been intended to thwart, had fatally impaired the early
idea of a self-governing church working in accord with a self-
governing nation. The attempt to compel a universal recourse
to Rome had destroyed the spiritual independence of the
national episcopate ; and when the real strength of Rome,
her real power to work good and carry into effect her own
resolutions, was waning, the more natural and national power
of the episcopate was gone beyond recall : it stood before
Henry VIII, tmagni nominis umbra;’ the monastic system
fell at once ; the convocations purchased a continued and
attenuated existence by an enormous fine: the facilities of
doctrinal change and the weakness of the reformed episcopate
proved that the religious sanction, which had so long been
1 Geivase, Cluon. vol. ɪ. p. 448 : ‘ Solam Romain quaeritis; sola Roina
destruct vos.’
XXI.]
The Baronage.
543
regarded as the one great stay of the ecclesiastical position,
had been tasked far beyontl its strength. Nothing in the
whole history of the Beformation is so striking, and it is a
lesson that ought never to be wasted upon later ages, as the
total unconsciousness apparent in even such men as Warham,
Tunstall and Fisher, of the helplessness of their spiritual posi-
tion, the gulf that was opening beneath their feet.
466. In the second point, that of their political security, the Weaknessof
ɪ . the political
prelates of the sixteenth century were scarcely more upon their position of
ɪ .-Ii1-I. . the clergy,
guard; although they might have learned to mistrust their
political position when they saw the apathy of the commons
and the collapse of the baronage. Here they knew that they
had no spiritual sanction to fall back upon : their stronghold
was that office of mediation which they had so long sustained ;
the function of mediation ceased when all rivalry had ceased
between the forces between which it had acted. When the
crown was supreme in wealth, power and policy ; when the
commons were bent on other work and had lost their political
leaders ; when the baronage was lying at the feet of the king,
perishing or obsequious; when in other lands absolutism was
set up as the model government of a full-grown nationality1,—
the medieval church of England stood before the self-willed
dictator, too splendid in wealth, fame and honour, to be allowed
to share the dominion that he claimed. It was no longer a Fall of the
mediator, but a competitor for power : the royal self-will itself fore the king,
furnished the occasion for a struggle, and the political claims
of the church proved their weakness by the greatness of the
fall.
467. The historical position and weight of the baronage, the Pointsin
. . . . τ Ji 1 . . ʌ c thθ history
variations of the baronial policy, the changes in the form of of the no-
qualification, and in the numbers of the persons composing the tahty'
house of lords, have formed an important part of our last
chapter. But some points, such especially as may help to
1 ‘ They blame Lewis XI for bringing the administration royal of
France from the lawful and regulate reign to the absolute and tyrannical
power and government. He himself was wont to glory and say that lie
had brought the crown of France Juirs de p∣J<je, as one would say, out of
wardship;’ Smith, Commonwealth, bk. i. c. 7.