Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Reform and Reformation in England, 1509-1558

1969; Iter Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.33137/rr.v17i1.12783

2293-7374

G. R. Elton, Kenneth R. Bartlett,

Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

wrote that "this is to be my last engagement with Thomas Cromwell, at least at book length."Such is not the case.Reform and Reformation is a study of Cromwell as much as it is an analysis of its stated theme.Indeed, the two subjects are mutually dependent in Elton's mind: he has predicated the successful development of the commonwealth's reform and the Church's Reformation on the personality, ability and principles of Thomas Cromwell whom Elton argues was the real architect of the Tudor Revolution -Henry VIII supplying only the necessary authority and managing the proceedings only very occasionally, and then to the detriment of the nation.This interpretation of the Tudor century has become very much Elton's trademark over the past twenty-five years.In his earlier studies, especially England Under the Tudors (Methuen, 1955) and "King or Minister?The Man Behind the Henrician Reformation" {History, 1954), Elton introduced and developed the idea that Cromwell was in fact the motive power, the factotum and, to some extent, the theoretician behind the events of the 1530's.And, although he claims to have refined and reconsidered this opinion in the light of later scholarship, Elton's preoccupation remains essentially unchanged, despite the appearance of such contrary and authoritive studies as J.J. Scarisbrick's Henry VIII (California, 1968), which argues strongly for the King's active participation in the proceedings of his reign.In a strange but characteristic way, Elton's worship of Cromwell's genius has provided a very neat and coherent structure for a book that covers fifty of the most momentous years in English history.Since in Elton's analysis reform and Reformation were improbableif not impossiblewithout the advent of Cromwell because of the temperament of the King, the generally unintelligent, pedestrain character of his noble councillors, and the lack of a national consensus and realistic programme, the book neatly divides into three sections: England before, during, and afterCromwell's exercise of power.The first division necessarily centres on the rule of Cardinal Wolsey, a man Elton clearly admires as a "superb amateur in government" (62), one who "had all the