Account for the popularity of the Pre-Reformation Church.

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Darren Harnett

Account for the Popularity of the Pre-Reformation Church.

   The pre-reformation church had many strengths and criticisms that would have made it popular with some people but not so popular with others.

Most people had grown up with the church and for them it was part of their lifestyle but this meant that some people went to church through habit rather than faith. This doesn’t make the church unpopular though as it meant people were going to church and obeying it.

At a sermon in convocation, 1511, John Colet attacked what he saw as the main problems with the church. Mainly he criticised the clergy for greed and being immoral in a quest to gain power. He also said, about the clergy, that they were “greedy and covetous, and took too much interest in worldly affairs”. Although this gave a low opinion of the clergy, Colet’s points were generalised and exaggerated. Yet it did show that there were people out there that didn’t like the church, therefore showing some unpopularity.

Absenteeism was a problem in the pre-reformation church and there were many cases of it in the church. Often Bishops would not attend there dioceses, meaning that they were run instead by suffragan bishops who, in most cases were uneducated. Although many people didn’t like this it was nothing unusual. Absenteeism had been going on for decades before the 1500’s and it was not really seen as a problem for the church and did not cause that much unpopularity within the church.

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Most absenteeism was due to pluralism. This was when a clergyman held more than one position within the church. Wolsey was a famous pluralist, holding many bishoprics and abbeys, but he was an exception and not the rule. Although he didn’t carry out his jobs, there were plenty of people working beneath him that did them. This was one of the reasons why the church was able to offer so many jobs, making pluralism a positive and negative thing. As with absenteeism, pluralism had been going on for a number of years and was only seen as a minor problem. ...

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