There were further more bishops and priests who were guilty of pluralism who were constantly moving between their dioceses. As to add, many had grievances towards the bishops as they ignored their vows of chastity and had mistresses and illegitimate children.
Many peasants relied on many of the lower clergy and parish priests as they were the only representatives of their local rural communities. From figures quoted by G.R Elton, a 16th century survey of the diocese of Gloucester showed that of 311 clergy, 168 could not recite the 10 commandments and only 10 could perform the Lords prayer. Between 1500-50, 869 East Anglican clergy died and left wills, these reveal that only 158 possessed any books at all and only 17 Bibles were left. These statistics show that the education standards of the clergy were poor and that they were not setting good examples of Christian lives to the people.
Many Bishops and Priests encouraged superstition as it was a successful source of income for the church. They convinced many to worship objects left by saints and even sold indulgencies to forgive people. This misconception of Catholic traditions and teachings did exploit and misled souls away from God and money was also raised which was just spent on luxurious living instead of education and charitable works.
There were many groups of people who loved and valued the church, and because of this many were determined to voice their opinions when priests or religious practises disappointed them.
John Wycliffe was an example who attacked the church for its wealth, greed and superstitious practises. He started the Lollard movement which collapsed after many were executed for their heretical beliefs and attitudes against the church.
Richard Hunne was another case in which he was prosecuted after refusing to pay mortuary dues after his baby son died. This case lead too much debate in anti-clericalism and this alerted those educated in the Church.
After a combination of criticism regarding the church many humanists of the renaissance picked up on the weak points of the church and used anti-clerical insults to attack the church as they were unhappy with the educational standards of the clergy.
If we look at revisionist views of the pre-reformation church, men like J.J. Scarisbrick and C. Harper-Bill now argue that by the standards of the time the church in the late 15th and early 16th century was actually doing a reasonable good job.
According to Scarisbrick the bishops of the church were, “fairly conscientious men trying to do a conscientious job”. There is plenty of evidence to support their dedication to pastoral work and the fact that many of them took their jobs seriously. Fox of Winchester and Nix of Norwich were renowned for being both competent and industrious. According to Harper-Bill, Robert Sherbourne completely overhauled the administration of his diocese. To also add, some Bishops and Priests founded 9 colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. For example, Fox founded Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Scarisbrick felt that the Bishops were actually doing a good job of improving the educational standards of the clergy.
Many of the priests and Bishops had been accused of pluralism throughout the history of the church; however, technically this charge is undeniably correct. For example, John Colet was simultaneously Dean of St Paul’s, Vicar of Dennington, Treasurer of Chichester and Canon of York and Salisbury. The church and the government only had a small amount of educated talent to draw from so therefore, pluralism helped the church function efficiently.
It is very important to judge the parish priests by the standards of the time. Sexual impropriety was not viewed quite the same as today and neither was it necessarily common. According to Harper-Bill, in Winchester (1527-28) eleven clergy from 230 churches were accused of sexual misconduct and four of these cleared themselves of charge. Further more, it doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that monks, priests or bishops couldn’t marry.
Many believed that the economical situation of the clergy was rapacious. I believe that this statement is wrong. The average income in the diocese of Lincoln for the clergy was £5 3s 2d (£5.16) per year, however some years they were paid on average £2 9s 2d (£2.46). One must consider that this is barely enough to live on.
Many people believed the church was corrupt in many ways. One of the problems was the churches bitter rivalry between them and the king’s courts. Many lawyers were jealous of the riches and businesses which went to the churches courts and many of these lawyers dedicated their time to ‘blacken’ the name of the church.
We also must consider that both Protestants and the reformation party were deliberately looking for corruption in the church as they wanted a change. Many of these opinions were bias and some were even exaggerated over time. Statistics from the diocese from Norwich show that 90% left the church wills which show that the church was getting support from the people. The educational standards also showed an increase from 8% to 42% between 1370-1532. This actually shows that the church was improving in many ways and listening to views of reform and improvement given by the people.
In conclusion, I have found from my studies of the Catholic Church in early 1500 that the church was corrupt in many ways even though some of these ideas were exaggerated and bias. I agree in various ways with the argument although one must consider that many criticisms were from those who wanted change and therefore, picked on ‘weak’ areas of the church to attack. The church was an important institution to the people and therefore it was important for the clergy to follow the ways in which the Bible teaches and to maintain Catholic traditions.
