Anticlericalism and renewal in the late-medieval

Church.Religion and Religious Change in England, c.1470-1558

The ‘Church’ problem:

Duality:◦ Church was at one an

immensely power and wealthy institution

◦ And the very body of Christ - His spirit resided in believers.

◦ Contradiction – open it up to charges of hypocrisy and irreligion.

◦Problem for all organised religions: preach the rejection of the

world, but have to exist in it.

◦Poverty, rejection of the world and this life in favour of the next: very visibly in tension with

the realities of funding that lifestyle and the political power which the Church inevitably wielded.

Especially re: monasteries.

The Religious Orders:

Traditional view:◦D. Knowles – declining zeal after the Anglo-Saxon period.

Increased ‘worldliness’ led to a loss of calling, and left the Orders unpopular and open to criticism at the Reformation.

Revisionists:◦B. Harvey, R. Swanson, J. Clark, K. Stober – role changing.

Orders adapted themselves to the world, and became centres of innovation.

Redefined cultural movements outside the monastery’s walls in light of ideals from within them.

Anticlericalism:

Used to be seen as an obvious ‘cause’ of the Reformation.◦ Historiography:

For: A.G. Dickens The English Reformation (2nd ed 1989); ‘The Shape of Anticlericalism and the English Reformation’ in E Kouri and T Scott eds. Politics and Society in Reformation Europe (1987) and in Dickens’ - riposte to Haigh.

Against: C. Haigh: ‘Anticlericalism and the English Reformation’, History (1983).

See also: R.N. Swanson, ‘Problems of the Priesthood in Pre-Reformation England’, English Historical Review, (1990).

But what can historians do with criticism?◦ Can we cut through it to see if the clergy were fulfilling their role?

Perhaps it was actually a sign that the Church was healthy?

The Clergy & their roles:

Position & Status: Parish Priests: ‘Secular’ – parish priests, itinerant priests. ‘Religious’ – those in orders, separate from

the world. C. 1500 – 30,000 in England:

◦ 1/3 Parish Priests◦ Rest itinerant Priests, friars, monks.

Separate:◦ Visibly distinct from the clergy

Embodies their role as sacerdotal mediators of grace.◦ Dress◦ Addressed as ‘Sir’.

Outside civil law:◦ Under the Church’s jurisdiction.

Celibate:◦ C11th◦ Danger of clerical dynasties.◦ Fundamentally about holiness:

Purity of handling the sacrament. Related to how people understood their bodies. Celibacy the ideal.

Ordination:◦ 1 of the 7 sacraments.◦ Performed by a Bishop.◦ Status depended upon this – NOT learning.

Patron:◦ Fund a Church, right to appoint.◦ Gentry, monastery, noble.◦ Clearly opportunity for corruption, favouritism and

purchase of an office.◦ But Reformation not end the practice.

10% University educated:◦ Would change at the Reformation.◦ Read, but not necessarily understand, Latin.◦ Ex opere.

Not a preacher:◦ Sermons not prevalent in Church.◦ 1281 by a degree by Archbishop Pelham.

Expound the faith 4X per annum.◦ Role is to perform sacraments and the liturgy.

Was this changing on the eve of the Reformation?

People not power: Other clerics: a varied body.

Religion as a verb:◦ Not there to teach their flock, but to pray from

them, to guide them through the sacraments of the church – the rites which applied God’s grace to particular human situations.

Responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of his flock.

The community’s memory, and often its centre-point.◦ Shared a series of intimate – and emotional –

moments with him.◦ For all his distance and distinction, part of the

community.◦ Also its conscience – moral power an obvious

source of conflict.

Chantry priests:◦ Masses for the dead.◦ Significant social role – but withdrawn.

Itinerant priests:◦ Scrape a living providing extra services.◦ Sometimes lay work, too – blurred the

boundaries.◦ Tutors◦ Private chaplains in wealthy households.

Variation between parishes:◦ Size and character important for

determining the precise nature of the priest’s role.

Monasticism:

Ran a selection of parishes:◦ Impropriation.

Part of the fabric of social life:◦ Schools◦ University education.◦ European-wide scholarship.◦ Patronage of the arts and music.◦ Scriptural studies & printed books.◦ Landlords – farming essential◦ Devotions – essentially houses of prayer,

logic of purgatory.◦ Social responsibilities – house travellers,

clean roads, tend borders, bury royalty. Thriving or declining? English evidence:

◦ Benedictines building expand C15th Increasing finery.

◦ Numbers go up 30% 1400-1500◦ Evidence from wills in Norwich & Salisbury

shows people donating generously and frequently.

Perennial debate about monasticism & spiritual vitality:◦ A continual balancing act: vita contemplativa

vs vita activa: Endowments, gifts, patronage meant that

moving away from poverty. Had to adapt to engagements in the world.

◦ Dependent on how phrased.◦ No absolute standard.◦ Younger orders v. different to the older –

debate & criticism. Largely continued to provide cycle of

canonical prayer, avoided moral depravity. But:

◦ Resisted Wolsey’s austerity reforms during the 1520s.

◦ Ease with the world could lead to a loss of distinctiveness.

◦ Voices of criticism who thought this was indicative of decline.

◦ Increasingly expected to justify their position and privilege.

Anticlericalism:

The ‘traditional’ view:◦ Simply case of ‘cause’ & ‘effect’.

Points of conflict:◦ Tithes◦ Worldly Bishops more interested in politics than

piety◦ Lower clergy too stupid and uneducated to

satisfy the growing desire for personal involvement in religion which the Reformation would eventually satiate.

Narrative of tension:◦ Statues of 1489, 1497, 1512 on benefits of

clergy.◦ Hume/ Standing affair 1512-15◦ Wolsey◦ Reformation parliament ‘anticlerical’ legislation.

Danger of teleology:◦ Move from the study of Church history through

printed propaganda of reformers and other anti-clerical critics.

◦ To how actually worked on the ground.

Education:◦ Not meeting C21st standards, but adequate

for the role in the C15th. Bishops active & engaged:

◦ Chichester, Ely, Lincoln, Norwich and Winchester all engaged in substantial reform and re-engagement.

◦ Diocesan administration◦ Improve clerical standards & pastoral

activity. Church Courts not tyrannous:

◦ Delivered justice speedily, honourably and cheaply

◦ That used so frequently by the laity suggests popular.

Complaints about tithes rare:◦ Diocese of Lichfield: 600 parishes – 10 tithe

disputes 1525, 4 in 1530. Haigh: Anticlericalism a localised affair. But, there WAS criticism of the Church.

Erasmus, In Praise of Folly (1509)

‘Yet if any of these were to reflect on the meaning of his linen vestment, snow-white in colour to indicate a pure and spotless life; or of his two-horned mitre, both peaks held together by a single knot, signifying perfect knowledge of both Old and New Testaments; of his hands, protected by gloves, symbolic of purity, untainted by any contact with human affairs, for administering the sacrament; of his crozier, a reminder of his watchful care of the flock entrusted to his keeping, or the cross carried before him as a symbol of his victory over all human persons – if, I say, any of them were reflect on these and many kindred matters, wouldn’t his life be full of care and many kindred matters, wouldn’t his life be full of care and trouble? But as things are, they think they do well when they’re looking after themselves, and responsibility for their sheep they either trust to Christ himself or delegate to their vicars and those they call brethren’.

Three questions:

1) What can historians make of criticism?

2) Was this a reminder of an ideal, rather than its rejection?

3) Or, is it evidence that the ideal form of clergy was changing before the Reformation?

Criticism:

Scribner – anticlericalism as a language.

Critics actually clerics. John Colet:

◦ Dean of St. Paul’s.◦ Convocation of Canterbury in 1510

Hoped for a large-scale campaign against clerical irregularity and indiscipline.

Rejuventation of the parishes by humanist educated clerics

And a way of hunting out Lollard heretics as a way of safeguarding the Church.

Results mixed.

Problem: Did such rhetoric legitimise

criticism of the clergy? Severe self-criticism is

laudable.◦ But it also means that it is

hard to defend from attack.◦ KEY: this rhetorical

traditional/self-examination may have left the Church vulnerable to Reform when it did emerge.

The Nature of the Church:

• Speak about medieval religion in terms that not really help us in understanding it. THE Church; Catholicism; Institution Sounds more bureaucratic, more homogenous than actually was or could

be.◦ Rather an amalgam of voices interpreting Christ’s scriptures, doctrines, rituals

and practices in often conflicting ways. Blossoming of monasticism; but also those who severely critical of monasteries

hiding away from world. Stress communal experience of Christ in the Mass; also those who experience Him

in an intensely personal manner – mystics. Upsurge in rituals, pilgrimages, relics and other aspects of devotions; also those

who thought that those aspects of the Church focussed too much on the material – rather than the contemplative – aspects of religion.

Point is: not mistake disagreement, discussion and debate as something fundamentally riddled with dissent.

European renewal:

Conciliarism:◦ idea of the balance of power between

bishops and the papacy was not cut and dry.◦ Some argued that when all bishops

assembled in a general council of the Church it had more power than the Papacy. Way of curbing political aspirations Ensuring aspects of local tradition against

assertions of papal uniformity. Attempts at reform sincere, but lacking in

success.◦ 1511 Council of Pisa◦ 1512-17 5th Lateran Council◦ Plenty of soul-searching, and tussling for

power between the French monarchy and the Papacy

◦ But inconclusive – memory of the schism in the previous century too neat for Papal reform to be considered.

Devotio Moderna:◦ New style of C15th piety – intense,

introspective and an imaginative mode of reaching out to God.

◦ Series of practical action and organisation of thoughts and life encapsulated in The Imitation of Christ (best-seller).

◦ New order: Brethren Of The Common Life. Important members: Thomas a Kempis;

Gabriel Biel; Pope Adrian VI.◦ But origins, C14th Dutch Geert Groote –

never passed beyond Deacon. Evidence of a ‘popular’ engagement in

the Church, of pious activism. Promised that the laity could aspire to

the high personal standards that previously only attainable by the clergy.

European renewal:

News orders:◦ Urge to self-reformation is perennial in a body of

people who commit themselves to live in austerity.

◦ The temptations and weakness of the flesh require constant safeguarding.

◦ Hardly a century in Church history where calls for greater severity do not exist.

◦ Ensure commitment to self-mortification and examination kept – even more severe C14th and C15th.

Franciscans:◦ Various branches almost compete between to

be the most severe in inflicting the agonies of self-examination.

◦ Spain, Cardinal Ximenes bolstered the Observant Franciscans

◦ 1507 – Minims in Spain and France◦ 1529 – Capuchins in Italy.◦ Ireland – Gaelic parts in West.◦ KEY: vehemently pious men actively lobbying to

found new Orders; and that there was demand for them.

English orders:◦ Benedictines.◦ C14th strict proposal of papal rules for

monastic reform.◦ Single general chapter supervised their affairs,

imposed regular visits upon their houses. Financial stability Increased membership from the 1480s Lively intellectual life – fervour. Many monks attend university, particularly

Oxford.

Individual reformers:◦ Bishop Christoph von Utenheim◦ Humanist scholarship & Devotio Moderna to

promote reform of Church’s liturgy in Switzerland.

◦ Collaborated with other reforming Churchmen:◦ Jacob Wimpfeling (humanist author)◦ Johannes Geiler von Kayserberg (preacher from

Strasbourg).◦ New form of sermon/service: prône.

Erasmus:

Context: hope for the future & the Renaissance.

One of the most important Humanist scholars.

European-wide scope:◦ All of Europe was desperate to claim

him as their property:◦ Spanish Church may overtures to get

him to Spain◦ Bishop of Cracow, Pietr Tomicki◦ Remarkable stream of letters across the

continent exchange ideas and friendship with many of the period’s great minds.

◦ Early part of C16th at Oxford, friend to Thomas More & also many of the key figures who would begin England’s Reformation.

Embodies the contradictions of the late-medieval Church.

As a young man, inspired by the Devotio Moderna.◦ Briefly enters an Augustinian

monastery at Steyn.◦ Hated it, and became convinced

that it was wasteful: Believed that the austerity and

learning of that brand of introspective piety should be unleashed in the world rather than remaining a cloistered ideal.

Translation of the New Testament (1516)

Applied his learning – particularly his mastery of languages – to biblical texts.

Back to the source: Greek – opened up the learning of the

Church Fathers. The New Testament:

◦ Would inspire many Protestants – which horrified Erasmus – largely because his Latin translations superseded the traditional Vulgate Bible, making the sense clearer.

TO ATTACK JEROME WAS TO ATTACK THE WESTERN CHURCH, BECAUSE HIS BIBLE FOUNDATION OF MUCH OF WHAT THAT CHURCH TOOK FOR GRANTED.

Key translations with regard to the Gospels.◦ John the Baptist cries out in the

wilderness ‘metanoeite’: Jerome, translated as ‘poenitentiam’ –

‘do penance’.◦ Basis of medieval Church’s

doctrine of penance: Fundamental part of Church as

the mediator of grace, priestly power in granting absolution.

Erasmus – ‘metanoeite’ – ‘repent’.◦ i.e. come to your sense, repent.

Insular, individual, not action-based. MUCH TURNED ON ONE WORD.

Erasmus

Raises questions about the Cult of the Virgin Mary:

Wellspring of devotion to her in period – pilgrimages, prayers, relics, etc.

On basis of handful of references to her in the bible.

◦ Church expand through allegory i.e. reading biblical texts indirectly. Especially true of Old Testament

texts (before Christ). E.g. female personification of

Wisdom in the Book of Sirach; beautiful bride in the Song of Songs.

Erasmus loathed this supporting of the cult of Mary through such flimsy evidence.◦ Thought that such allegories referred to

Christ and the Church, not Mary.

Rewrote Angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary:◦ Foundation of the Hail Mary◦ ‘gratiosa’ (‘gracious’) rather than ‘gratia plena’ (‘full of

grace’ – that is, full of the merits of God and therefore a medium).

◦ Problematized Mary as a prop for devotion and for Good Works, & therefore many of the Church’s activities in procuring salvation.

Loathed the materiality of the Church’s rites:◦ Went on to satirise pilgrimages to English shrines to

Mary at Walsingham and Canterbury in his Colloquies.◦ Loathed much of the physicality and tactility of

catholic devotion, seemed to be a religion of the flesh, not the spirit.

Enchiridion Militis Christiani (‘Dagger for a Christian Soldier’).◦ Approach God in a different way.◦ Knowledge of God to reign in all – pure knowledge of

God would reform the body, living a contemplative life inspiried by Christ.

◦ Outward ceremony and ritual replaced with quiet and persistent contemplation on the life of Christ.

Erasmus – a prequel to the Reformation?

Mary’s ‘Virginity’:◦ Jerome had based on a reading of

Ezekiel 44:2: Shutting of the gate which only the Lord

could enter◦ Erasmus could not read texts which

supported Mary’s perpetual virginity as Jerome had done. ‘We believe in the perpetual virginity of

Mary, although it is not exclaimed in the sacred books’.

◦ Some matters of importance had to be taken ‘ad fontes’ (in faith), because the Church said that they were true, not in bible:

◦ Key problem for Ref: did the bible contain all truth?

◦ Difference between him and Prots – ‘no’, ‘yes’.

Not a prequel. Embodied the Church’s ambiguities:

◦ For all his criticisms of the Church as an institution, and its practices, he was heavily reliant upon it for his livelihood.

◦ Happy to accept patronage from bishops and those who directly profited from the practices he debunked

◦ Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham, provided pension

◦ Money in question should have sustained pastoral duties in Aldington, Kent

◦ Town which produced Elizabeth Barton, the Maid of Kent – ecstatic visions became source of revenue. Even during the reformation when

Warham replaced as Archbishop of Canterbury by Thomas Cranmer, Erasmus concerned that his pension kept coming.

Erasmus:

Here was a man who was intensely pious, considered himself a Catholic, but was content to criticise the Church to which he belonged severely:◦ That he saw Christianity differently

from many people was a sign not of its fundamental ruptures, but of its fecundity.

◦ Of its ability to house many different types of Christian.

And, for all he shared revulsion at many of the Church’s practices, loathed Reformers.◦ Huge debates – especially Luther, on

Free Will and Faith Alone.

Concluding Thoughts:

Three key points:◦Distinction between the existence of criticism and a nation

simmering with revolutionary discontent.◦Standards by which we hold the clergy are often teleological

Ritual and sacrament; pastors and pillars of the community Not preachers.

Church that was trying to renew itself – not moribund and static; but vibrant and evolving.

But, if not anticlericalism, then what?