THE EVE OFTHE REFORMATION
FRANCIS AIDAN GASQUET, D.D., O.S.B.
THE EVE OF THE
REFORMATION
STUDIES IN THERELIGIOUS LIFE AND THOUGHT OF THE ENGLISHPEOPLE IN THE PERIOD PRECEDING THEREJECTION OF THE ROMAN JURISDICTIONBY HENRY VIII
BY
FRANCIS AIDAN GASQUET, D.D., O.S.B.
AUTHOR OF
“HENRY VIII. AND THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES,” ETC.
LONDON
JOHN C. NIMMO
14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND
MDCCCC
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press.
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I. | INTRODUCTION | 1 |
| II. | THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS IN ENGLAND | 14 |
| III. | THE TWO JURISDICTIONS | 51 |
| IV. | ENGLAND AND THE POPE | 78 |
| V. | CLERGY AND LAITY | 114 |
| VI. | ERASMUS | 155 |
| VII. | THE LUTHERAN INVASION | 208 |
| VIII. | THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE | 236 |
| IX. | TEACHING AND PREACHING | 278 |
| X. | PARISH LIFE IN CATHOLIC ENGLAND | 323 |
| XI. | PRE-REFORMATION GUILD LIFE | 351 |
| XII. | MEDIÆVAL WILLS, CHANTRIES, AND OBITS | 387 |
| XIII. | PILGRIMAGES AND RELICS | 415 |
The English Reformation presents a variety of problemsto the student of history. Amongst them not the leastdifficult or important is the general question, How arewe to account for the sudden beginning and the ultimatesuccess of a movement which, apparently at least, wasopposed to the religious convictions and feelings of thenation at large? To explain away the difficulty, we areasked by some writers to believe that the religious revolution,although perhaps unrecognised at the momentwhen the storm first burst, had long been inevitable,and indeed that its issue had been foreseen by themost learned and capable men in England. To some,it appears that the Church, on the eve of the Reformation,had long lost its hold on the intelligence andaffection of the English people. Discontented withthe powers claimed by the ecclesiastical authority, andsecretly disaffected to much of the mediæval teachingof religious truth and to many of the traditional religiouso