A GUILDMAN’S VIEW OF THE REFORMATION

New Zealand Tablet, 19 August 1920, Page 37

A GUILDMAN’S VIEW OF THE REFORMATION

[Mr. Arthur J. Penty, one of the leaders of the 5 National Guilds Movement (“Guild Socialism’’) in England, in the course of a series of papers which he is publishing in the New Age (London), . dis- , T. cusses at some length the suppression of the Monasteries in England and the origin of the Pro- - testant Reformation. We quote a few salient passages, which are of special interest as coming from a non-Catholic writer. New York Truth. In the absence of any other intelligible explanation of the origin of the Reformation in England I feel I have no option but to accept the version of the Roman Catholics who assert that its immediate cause is to be found in the lusts of Henry VIII. It is certain that Henry was not moved by any sympathy toward the ideals of Protestantism. Had Luther not begun his work until a few years later Henry would doubtless have espoused the cause of Protestantism at the very start, for nothing would have suited him better than a new religion which allowed Luther and seven other of his brother leaders in the Reformation to grant a license to the Landgrave of Hesse to have two wives at one and the same time. But, unfortunately for Henry, not only had he not adopted this new religion before its possibilities and solid advantages for him had become manifest, but what was a still more serious affair, he had in 1521 opposed it, and had received from the Pope as a reward for his written defence of the Catholic faith the title of “Defender of the Faith,”, a title which English sovereigns still use, it being popularly supposed that the Faith referred to is Protestantism and not Catholicism, as is actually the case. Repudiated Papal Authority. Henry was married to Catherine of Arragon, and with this lady he lived in the married state for 17 years. He had three sons and daughters by her, only one of whom survived, a daughter, who afterwards was Queen Mary. But at the end of this period, being 35 years of age while Catherine was 43, he cast his eye on a young lady, an attendant on the Queen Anne Boleyn, whom he determined .to marry; and after six fruitless years of negotiation, being unable to persuade the,Pope to take any steps toward the granting of a divorce, he resolved to overthrow the power of the Pope in England by making himself the head of the English Church. In this task he was aided and abetted by the perfidious and cold-blooded Thomas Cranmer, whom he immediately afterwards made Archbishop of Canterbury, and who speedily granted Henrv the divorce he desired. . . It will be unnecessary for us to follow the matrimonial relations of this Bluebeard. It is sufficient for us to know that it was in order to gratify his lusts that Henry separated the Church of England from r a +-u ° v B y making himself the supreme head ot the Church he made himself master of its property too, including that of the monasteries, which he determined to suppress partly in order that his position s ould remain unchallenged, but mainly, I imagine, out of love of plunder. The Princes of Germany had shown him the way, and he was not slow to learn their lesson, tor it soon became apparent that sweeping confiscations were to be made. Doubtless many of Henry’s councillors and courtiers who were hoping to share in for ri Un i er f Were , by no ™ e , anS averse to such measures, tor the Reformation could not have proceeded apart from the concurrence of Parliament. But this'could l a -1 °{ Parli ament as a whole. For the Act of monasteries property of the smaller monasteries, 376 in number, to the Kin S and his heirs untd lg m fl the + Lov " er House, and was not passed until Henry threatened to have some of their heads. Suppression of the Monasteries. suppSsinr tLn Vh ° m f entrusted the work of He had Wn ' monasteries was Thomas Cromwell, He had been an underling in the family of Cardinal

Wolsey, and had recommended himself to the King by ( his sycophancy and by his treachery to his own master. Henry made him a peer and appointed him Royal Vice-regent and Vicar-General. In this capacity he took first ■ place in all meetings of the clergy, sitting even before the Archbishop of Canterbury. The procedure adopted in the suppressions was first to set on foot a visitation" of the monasteries. In this work Cromwell was assisted by deputies who were as villainous as himself. They prepared reports full of false accusations in order-to find pretences for confiscating monasterial property. They menaced those who objected with charges of high treason. Subsequent visitors appointed by Henry from among the country gentry sent in formal reports distinctly contradicting ■ many of the facts alleged by Cromwell’s agents. Bfit such protests were of no avail. Henry was out for plunder, and as Cobbett rightly observes in this connection, “When men have power to commit and are resolved to commit acts of injustice, they are never at a loss for pretences.” The monastic Orders were never heard in their defence. There was no charge against any particular monastery or convent the charges were loose and general, and levelled against all those whose revenues did not exceed a certain sum. Shared the Plunder. It is clear that the reason for stopping the confiscations at the point where the revenues did not exceed a certain sum was that the public had to be brought into line before any seizure' of the great monasteries could be safely attempted. The weak were first attacked, but means were soon found for attacking the remainder. Great promises were held out that the King, when in possession of these estates, would never more want taxes from the people. Henry employed preachers and ministers who went about to preach and persuade the people that he could employ the ecclesiastical revenues in hospitals, colleges, and other foundations for the public good, which would be a much better use than that they should support lazy and useless monks. It is possible, of course, that Henry may have thought that he would be able to fulfil these promises; but he soon found out that he would not be able to keep the plunder for himself, and that the nobles and gentry could oilly be persuaded to allow him to continue his dastardly work on condition that he agreed to share the spoil’ with them. They so beset him that he had not a moment’s peace. After four years he found himself no better off than before he confiscated a single convent. . . . And thus it was that from confiscating the property of the smaller monasteries he went on to seize that of the larger ones, for there was no stopping half way once he had begun. Where opposition was encountered Cromwell and his ruffian visitors procured the murder of the parties under pretence of their having committed high treason. Here and there the people rose in rebellion against the devastations. But the local outbreaks came to nothing, since as nearly everyone of any consequence was sharing in the plunder the people were deprived of their natural leaders. During the Middle Ages England had been the most prosperous and happiest country in Europe,, perhaps the happiest country at any time in history. These monasteries were wealthy and full of things of gold and silver ; and society was so well ordered that these things remained untouched, though there was no standing army or police. But Cromwell and his ruffians stripped them bare of alb such things. . . Among the libraries destroyed was that of St, Alban’s Abbey, which was the greatest library in England. But the destruction of libraries at the Reformation was not confined to those of the monasteries. The original Guildhall Library, founded by Whittington and Carpenter, was destroyed, as” were also the Library of St. Raul s Cathedral and the predecessor of the Bodleian Library at Oxford Anything which was decorated apparently ranked then as . Popish superstition which was a convenient cloak for the* pursuit of plunder. ' ’ Structures Wantonly Destroyed. After the monasteries’ WPTP. A Ci i

and gutted, they were razed to the ground, and in most cases gunpowder was employed in order to get through the job quickly. For in .granting these estates, it was in most cases stipulated that they should be destroyed. The reason may be easily understood. These wonderful Gothic buildings could not be allowed to stand, for they would not only have been a constant reminder to the people that these estates had been plundered, while their destruction deprived them of all hope of the old order ever being restored. The only comfort there is in this terrible story is the knowledge that Cromwell, after having, done his work, after he had plundered, pillaged, and devastated England, was sent to the block by Henry once he had no further use for him. But Henry, the chief instigator of these crimes, got off scot free. : The circumstances that the suppression of the monasteries was carried through with little more than local and ineffectual risings suggest that the monastic Orders did not occupy the same place in the popular affection as they had done at an earlier date. All the same, their suppression was for the people a loss of the first magnitude, and they paid dearly for their baseness in allowing themselves to be bought off by promises which were never fulfilled. . . When these . estates passed into the hands of the landlords, they speedily raised the rents and enclosed the commons. In other cases the peasantry were simply turned out of their holdings in order that sheep farming might be substituted for tillage. Charity was Banished. It may be said that these changes created the problem of poverty. For though there was some poverty in the Middle Ages, the monasteries did on the whole successfully grapple with it. But after „ their suppression and the passing of land entirely into the lands of men who regarded the land purely commercially, the problem became a very urgent one. Great numbers were left destitute of means of existence, and took to begging and thieving. It was not only in the sphere of economics that the suppression of the monasteries made for evil. It left a gap in the educational system of the country which the attempted reforms of the nineteenth century has attempted in vain- to fill. The reason why so many of the great educational endowments date from the sixteenth century is not to be found in the surmise that about that time a sudden desire for enlightenment came over society, but to the fact that when the monasteries were suppressed an enormous number of educational establishments were destroyed at the’ same time, and certain people, feeling the gap which had been left in society, gave money for the establishment of such institutions. The abbeys were not only centres of learning, but educational establishments, each of them having persons set apart for the instruction of the youth of the neighborhood. Moreover, each of the monasteries had a peculiar residence in the universities which were and still are organised on a Guild basis the whole course and the taking of degrees being parallel to the years of apprenticeship in any of the old callings regulated by the Guilds. The suppression Of the monasteries reacted unfavorably upon the uninearlv qm V^ here^ s there were in the Middle Ages heady 300 halls and private schools at Oxford besides the colleges, there were not above eight remaining tohi ar i d B24 e Gobb ff° f the !r nteenth century." Writing m 1824, Cobbett says there were only five halls -e maining, and not a single school. n lo rl- Ed T at T lStS might do worse than study the medieval and monastic system of education, for It obsystem tL i/w gl^'lng defects of ibe present system—the gulf between elementary and higher ednwhich mad lld this i ‘, did b y a System of local autonomy which made every elementary school part of an insti of tearSif r primari *y int ™ in the pursuit, eJs-sehti^r'; e x r<Lr~ sr dividuahty was strangled by the requirements of a

code. - On the contrary, the whole system was free and humane, while it was - organic from the . top to the bottom; and this was possible because the medievalists were not interested in an abstraction calledrV'education,” but in certain definite things which they were anxious to teach. y-v-h/.' • I .■ K ■ ' h-ir :