Another grievance towards the Bishops was that many of them ignored their vow of chastity by having mistresses and illegitimate children.
The lower clergy and parish priests hadn’t got a better reputation. They were viewed as both rapacious and ignorant. Because people at this time lived in isolated rural communities and the priests were the only effective representatives of the universal church, they were very important for the vast majority of the English people. And if these priests were ineffective, many peasants would suffer.
It was argued, that they are not doing their jobs properly. That could be traced back on the low educational standard and that it was so very easy for somebody to become a parish priest. An example: A 16th century survey of the diocese of Gloucester showed, that out of 311 clergy 168 could not recite the Ten Commandments, and 33 could not locate them in the Bible. 10 could recite the Lord Prayer, and 39 did not know where to find it in the Bible.
The Church was the central building – usually the largest – in any English village or town. In the beginning of the 14th century, many of these buildings even in very poor areas were undergoing restoration, refurbishment and especially enlargement. This indicates that the Churches at the local level were thriving and that their congregations were increasing. This was another factor, which made the church unpopular.
The exactions of the church caused dislike and created disharmony. In some areas the clergy were seen as being too efficient. The main source of income for the holder of a parish was what he gained from tithes- the offering to the church of a tenth of each man’s income, whether in form of crops, animal products, commercial profits or wages.
But this was not the only payment they had to do. Priests could charge for weddings, churching, funerals, confessions and taking communion to the sick.
The example of the ‘Hunne Case’ shows, how people tried to evade the duties. Richard Hunne, a London merchant, who refused his rector’s demand for his recently deceased son’s burial cover as a mortuary payment for the child. Hunne was imprisoned and, on the basis of some books, which were found in his house, was accused of heresy. Before his case could have come to trial he was found dead in his cell. The Bishop of London’s chancellor and two others were accused of the murder of Hunne. The whole affaire caused considerable resentment in London, especially when the dead man was found guilty of heresy and his widow and children left alone in poverty.
It has also been argued, that the English church was a ‘relic of the Middle Age’, that it had failed to allocate resources in accordance with changes in the population, leaving many parishes nearly empty and many crowded parishes with too few priests and that it was a ‘stagnant pool of wealth, a venal and ritualistic institution inadequate to the needs of its increasingly sophisticated communicants’.
The relations between priests and people were neither particularly close nor particularly strained. The rights claimed by the clergy did indeed give rise to murmurings and complaints in certain quarters, but these were neither so serious nor so general as to indicate anything like a deep- rooted and sharp division between priests and people.
Another cause of considerable friction was the ‘privilegium fori’, by which clerics were exempted from punishment by a secular tribunal. But in 1512 Parliament passed a law abolishing this privilege and though it was to have force only for two years it excited the apprehension of the clergy more on account of what it heralded than of what it actually enacted.
With the time, the number of people, who were dissatisfied with the condition of the church increased, and voices for changes got louder.
England had its native heretic tradition in the Lollards, the followers of John Wycliffe, who posed a threat to the church that had sole authority on the Bible. They wanted the clergy to live alms and their own labour, rather than labours of others. One of their main concerns was that the clergy had become so caught in secular affairs that they had forgotten their spiritual obligations. The lollard use of the bible as the main authority in their eyes, gave them justification for criticizing some of the practices of the church. Among other things, Lollards believed, that Christianity should be closely based on the bible, that the ideas of personal piety should be held up, that everyone should have access to a vernacular bible and be allowed to interpret the bible’s meaning for themselves.
A number of the beliefs were similar to the new German heresy of Martin Luther, who had first published 95 theses in which he had contentions against the indulgences. There is some controversy over whether or not Luther actually nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of the Wittenberg Church. What is known is that his Theses were rapidly distributed, first among his peers and not long after among many others in Germany and abroad. People realized that Luther clarified the hidden facets of their faith by questioning the authority of the Pope. The Catholic Church suppressed certain facts. A public discussion of these facts would undermine the authority of the church, which promised a change in church, and other areas.
Though some historians, like C. Haigh have argued that,
“…The English people had not turned against their church and there was no widespread yearning for reform. The long-term causes of the Reformation- the corruption of the church and the hostility of the laity- appear to have been historical illusion.”
I have come to the conclusion, that the Church in England in 1529 needed considerable reforms, because many abuses, undoubtedly, had occurred in various departments of religious life.
