Cromwell was sworn into the King’s council in January 1531. At this time two issues dominated Henry’s thinking: the King’s desire for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, his ‘great matter’; and the status of his imperial crown. An ambitious man would have to address these two issues if he were to gain Henry’s favour and promotion. The problem apparently lay in field of foreign affairs (war was financially impossible) but Cromwell’s experience of diplomacy was limited. How could Henry gain the imperative divorce if the Pope were unwilling or unable to decree it?

The solution to the impasse was domestic, pragmatic, Erastian and legal: to establish Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Cromwell had been influenced by Marsaglio’s Defensor Paris which promoted temporal leaders as reformers of the church; the Pope was not preeminent, for Peter had not been so among the apostles. The first step, the charge of Praemunire against the clergy, came in early 1531. By honouring Wolsey’s legatine authority the clergy had accepted a jurisdiction external to the King’s realm. In the prologue to the Praemunire the concept of the King’s ‘supreme headship’ was first aired, seemingly giving royal accent to Cromwell’s caesaropapism. Any actual supremacy was nullified, however, by the phrase ‘as far as the law allows’ and Henry seemed content to threaten the clergy and to take the 100 000 pounds charged for a pardon.

In 1532 Cromwell drew up the Supplication against the Ordinaries. This challenged the right of clergy in Convocation to ‘make divers fashions of law and ordinances concerning temporal things’ and amounted to a demand that the legislative independence of Convocation be abolished. Under pressure from Henry the clergy capitulated to this order without statute being passed by Parliament. Thus the legislative supremacy of the crown was established in all matters save doctrine. Papal power was further restrained by the Act of Conditional Restraint of Annates (1532) which removed the right of the Pope to tax the clergy.

The Act in restraint of Appeals (1533) contained the following assertion in its preamble ‘. . .that this England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and King . . .’. By using the term empire, Cromwell thereby designated England as a sovereign state and that the King was not subject to any foreign ruler or potentate.

The legislation of 1534 was the seal upon the royal supremacy. The Act of Restraint of Annates strengthened the earlier legislation by transferring the right of dispensation from the Pope to the Archbishop of Canterbury; the 1d ecclesiastical tax on households was also abolished. The earlier submission of the clergy under the Supplication against the Ordinaries was established by statute and the Act of Succession recognised the heirs of Henry and Anne Boleyn. The Act of Supremacy (1534) not only confirmed the supreme headship of the crown but also gave the King peculiar powers within the church. The crown now had the following quasi-episcopal rights: visitation; discipline of the clergy; correction of preachers opinions; and trial of heretics.

There is little doubt that the sequestration of the monasteries estates was primarily motivated by the need to improve governmental finances. It is also likely, however, that Cromwell had little sympathy with the ill-discipline of monastic houses which had long ago ceased to embody the ascetic ideal. In January 1535 Cromwell was appointed Vicegerent, Vicar general and Special Commissary to ‘exercise all jurisdiction inherent in the Supreme Head of the English Church’. His powers over the clergy included deprivation, suspension or sequestration, ‘even if they shine in archepiscopal or episcopal splendour’. Visitations of the monasteries began in July 1535 and monks and nuns were confined to their precincts and were forbidden visitors. An evil report was necessarily required by Cromwell to persuade Parliament to accept a dissolution bill. Gossip and hearsay were therefore deemed admissible as evidence and charges of superstitious practice, corruption and homosexuality were commonplace.

The Act of 1536 dissolved religious houses with an income of less than 200 pounds. This financial qualification for dissolution seems somewhat inconsistent with the moralistic basis of the visitations. Abbots and priors were given adequate pensions and the rank-and-file could either receive capacities to become secular priests or join larger institutions. The 1536 Act seems not to foresee the later more general dissolution and referred to ‘divers and great and solemn monasteries of this realm, wherein (thanks be to God) religion is right well kept and observed’. Nonetheless Cromwell’s agents brought pressure to bear on the larger houses and between 1537 and 1540 158 male and 30 female houses surrendered. The Dissolution Act (1539) formally granted royal title to the assets acquired from these surrenders and by 1540 half the wealth of the English Church was in possession of the crown.

In his role as Vicegerent Cromwell was able to issue orders directly to the clergy. Cromwell’s injunction of 1536 commanded that: the young should be taught the articles of faith and the decalogue in English; clerics should avoid superstitious devotions, card-playing and alehouses; rich clergy should give generously to higher education and to the poor; and children should be taught a trade to avoid begging.

His 1538 injunction continued the theme of reform. Concerning the English Bible the clergy were ‘expressly to provoke, stir and exhort every person to read the same’. The creed, pater noster and decalogue were also to be learnt by heart by those communicating and those persistently ignorant of these articles could be banned from the Eucharist. Sermons were to be given quarterly and were to avoid promotion of pilgrimages, indulgences, and relics. Preachers were to declare the gospel of Christ and exhort the hearers to mercy, love and faith based in Scripture. Images were tolerated but were to be considered as books for the illiterate. In the same year Cromwell established the keeping of parish registers for the first time in England.

Cromwell’s championing of the English Bible seems to come from a genuine conviction that the Scriptures should be available to all in the vernacular. As early as 1527 Miles Coverdale had written to Cromwell concerning his study of Scripture and had referred to their ‘godly communication‘. In 1530 Cromwell approached Tyndale and with Henry’s approval sought to persuade him to return to England. Tyndale, however, was afraid to return and by March 1531 Henry had turned against him. In December 1534 the Convocation of Canterbury under Cranmer had petitioned ‘that the holy Scripture shall be translated into the vulgar tongue. . .’. Coverdale was appointed to the task and James Nicolson, a Southwark printer, was chosen by Cromwell for the bible’s publication.

Both Cromwell’s injunctions of 1536 and 1538 contained directions to install the English Bible in churches. The earlier directive was withdrawn. however, perhaps because of the sensitivity of the recent execution of Anne Boleyn. The 1538 injunction permitted the use of the cheaper Coverdale or the dearer but better Matthew Bible, recently translated by John Rogers. By now Cromwell was planning a definitive English version and Coverdale was again given the task. The work, which was based on the Matthew Bible, (itself heavily reliant on Tyndale), appeared in 1539. To allay Catholic vulgate addiction, the text contained insertions in bracketed small print where Jerome had added anything to the Greek or Hebrew. As this was political rather than scholarly it is most likely that Cromwell was its instigator.

What were the contributions of Cromwell to cause of reform in England? Although the break with Rome might be considered Lutheran in its schismatic effect, its motivation was political and not doctrinal as it had been in Germany. The Act of Supremacy was concerned with establishing the jurisdiction of the King and Parliament over the empire of England. At the time the choice was not between autocracy and democracy, but between a powerful state and occasional anarchy. The national church became the English Catholic Church but the General Councils were still the source of doctrine.

It is undeniable, however, that the Act of Supremacy removed a strong resistance to reform. This is evidenced in Cromwell’s lifetime but became even more significant in the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. Cromwell’s injunctions of 1536 and 1538 were clearly reforming and seem to echo Erasmus (whom he greatly admired) in their concern for lay participation and education. The dissolution of the Monasteries, though financially motivated, eroded the power of conservative Catholic opinion in England and helped destroy the psychological bond with Mediaeval practice. It is perhaps his championing of the English Bible which might be considered Cromwell’s greatest contribution to reform. Although Mary Tudor temporally healed the rift with Rome and restored a few monastic houses, it was impossible for her to reestablish the ignorance by which many of the beliefs and practices of Mediaeval Catholicism had been maintained. Word Count 1493

B. W. Beckingsale, Thomas Cromwell (1978).

D. H. Pill, The English Reformation 1529-58 (1973).

W. J. Sheils, The English Reformation 1530-70 (1989).

1. G. Dickens, Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation (1959).

D. Loades, Revolution in Religion: The English Reformation 1530-1570 (1992).

A. G. Dickens, The English reformation (1967).

G. R. Elton, Reform and Renewal (1973).