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Strengths of Catholic Church
1) Catholicism was ingrained into the lives of most (e.g. with ideas of Cult of Dead, Cult of the Saints.
2) Henry had no legal jurisdiction over the Church at the time.
3) Henry was a conservative Catholic - He wrote 'Defence of the Seven Sacraments' denouncing Martin Luther's anti-Catholic ideas in 1521.
4) Church building flourishing in 1520s.
5) Increased persecution of the Lollards (who were opposition)
6) Very rich - money raised from indulgences, pilgrimages, relics.
7) Barely any protest against papal supremacy
8) Monasteries owned 15% of land and had annual income of 200,000 per annum
9) Wolsey's Amicable Grant - 1/3 of taxes raised went to ecclesiastical lands.
10) 57% of people from Devon left money to the church in their wills.
Weaknesses of Catholic Church and Wolsey's Reforms
1) Wolsey planned to improve the educational standards of the clergy by dissolving smaller monastries.
2) Wolsey was committed to absenteeism and pluralism (as Bishop of Durham, LIncoln, Winchester and Archbishop of York)
3) Wolsey was hated by Archbishop of Canterbury (as Wolsey was made Lord Chancellor and Papal Legate by 1518)
4) Wolsey dissolved many religious houses with the money going to himself
5) Many humanists argued that Cardinal Wolsey 'embodied everything wrong with the Catholic Church' - he was pluralist, nepotist, illegitimate children and flamboyant lifestyle.
6) Spreading humanism led to wider criticisms of the Church - More criticized the clergy in Utopia and In Praise of Folly. - the clergy were criticized for not living up to what people expected of priests.
7) The relationship between the people and the church based off the money people had - e.g. rich families could buy high positions.
8) There was a decline for respect and enthusiasm for nuns, monks etc.
9) There was some opposition to the sacraments and religious guilds in the South East.
Historians - Strengths in Catholic Church
1) J.J. Scarisberick - 'the church was in no worse a position than it was 150 years before'
2) Christopher Haigh - only local tensions (e.g. South East, not widespread.
3) Eamonn Duffy - 'No marks of exhaustion in the church, & it was able to meet the new needs and conditions of the 1520s'
Historians - Weaknesses in Catholic Church
AG Dickens - widespread anti-clericalism, poorly equipped for the new age
GR Elton - state church was rotten, gluttony
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