1412–1534: culture and history

doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521853439.008

8 - 1412–1534: culture and history

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2011

Vincent Gillespie

Edited by

Samuel Fanous and

Vincent Gillespie

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Vincent Gillespie: Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Samuel Fanous: Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Vincent Gillespie: Affiliation:
University of Oxford

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Summary

For of old custom it longith unto kynges

First holy chirche to meyntene and goverene

And for ther sogetys in al maner thynges

For to prouyde and prudently discerne

To showe themseylf lyk a clere lanterne

With lyght of verteu ther sogettys tenlumyne

Both by example and vertuous doctryn.

John Lydgate, Cartae versificatae

Strong kings with a mission to reform their national churches mark the beginning and end of this period. The two Henries (V and VIII), both lavishly gifted and devout sons of usurping monarchs, sought to reform their ecclesiastical inheritances as part of a policy of buttressing their own imperial power. But whereas Henry V aligned his church more closely and immediately with the international struggle against heresy and schism, and with a movement for radical reform of the institutions and life of Christianity, Henry VIII, despite closely and deliberately imitating the political and religious example of his illustrious namesake, ended up isolated from the universal church and from most of its Protestant offshoots. The defender of the faith (defensor fidei) became known as the destroyer of faith (destructor fidei). Yet the different outcomes should not cloud the very real similarities between their attitudes to the ecclesia anglicana (the English Church, a phrase that would have been familiar to both).

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Mysticism , pp. 163 - 194

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521853439.008 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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8 - 1412–1534: culture and history

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