The Lollards were definite threats to the Roman Catholic monopoly on religious belief in England in the 1520s. Henry VIII was at this time a devout Catholic and repressed the movement savagely in the early 15th century. There is however some evidence that Lollard beliefs were still in circulation in some rural areas amongst the lower classes. There is little evidence that they had any influence in England and don’t appear to have been a major part of the reformation. The fact that Henry repressed the Lollards so savagely shows that at this time he was deeply religious, he was also granted Fidei Defensor by the Pope, meaning “Defender of the Faith”, he was granted this as he was such a strong believer in Catholicism and fought to protect his beliefs.
Other groups at the time included the Humanists, who were perhaps more influential than the other groups at the time. They wanted to reform the church and the purify it. The greatest of the Humanists was a scholar called Erasmus; he also had supporters such as Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More and the Dean of St Paul’s, John Colet. They did not want to destroy the church, so they were critics and not opponents to the church.
The Lutherans were those who believed in Martin Luther’s ideas and wished the church to be radically reformed to fit in with these ideas. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Rochester were both quite influenced by Luther’s ideas. However, Luther’s ideas never really had any real impact on religious change whilst the King was still fully backing it and so Luther was not a major factor in the English Reformation.
Protestant ideas began to pour over the border, several of the cantons broke from the Catholic Church and became Protestant while other cantons remained firmly Catholic. Of the cantons that adopted Luther's new movement, the most important and powerful was the city-state of Zurich under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli. He was popular in Zurich for his opposition to Swiss mercenary service in foreign wars and his attacks on indulgences; he was, as significant a player in the critique of indulgences as Luther himself. Zwingli rose through the ranks of the Catholic Church until he was appointed "People's Priest" in 1519, the most powerful ecclesiastical position in the city. In 1523, the city officially adopted Zwingli's central church reforms and became the first Protestant state outside of Germany. From there the Protestant revolution would sweep across Europe.
The only individual that had a real influence over religious thinking was William Tyndale. He was strongly influenced by Lutheran ideas and was a powerful critic of the church, especially when it came to the practice of indulgences, low level of education of the clergy and the doctrine of purgatory. Tyndale was most influential with his translation of the New Testament into English. His beliefs were considered quite an important part of Protestantism; however there is no evidence to suggest that they were the cause of it later in the century.
The traditional view of Catholic Church was that it was corrupt, inefficient, immoral and lacking in religious fervour. The Bishops were seen as men who served the king as civil servants rather than as supervisors and trainers of their clergy. Monasteries were seen as rich institutions which failed to make proper use of their wealth for charity and education. Many of the members of the church were pluralists, meaning they had many jobs, were paid for all of them and did little actual work for any of them. A good example of a pluralist and an absentee at the time was Thomas Wolsey; he was Archbishop of York, papal legate and a bishop of many areas both in England and abroad.
Modern research has shown that many people in England were quite content with the Roman Catholic Church at the time. They continued to go to church and give money to the church for good purposes. They showed that they fully supported the burning of heretics and there is evidence that there was a good relationship between Church, State, King, Pope and people. There were also many bishops such as Bishop Longland of Lincoln who insisted on residence of the clergy and a high standard of behaviour and training. Many of the important members of the church did their job and served the church. Records at the time suggest that pluralism and absenteeism were not a major issue. There were exceptions such as Wolsey and Bishop Stephen Gardiner but these cases were not the norm. The monasteries were probably the part of the church that was most open to criticism. When Cromwell sent out his commissioners in 1536 to investigate the monasteries they found examples of bad behaviour and misuse of funds meant for good purposes, however it is quite clear that the commissioners were sent out to find what little corruption and scandal they could.
The monasteries had large resources and great wealth but they failed to play the part in educational, religious and welfare life of the country their numbers warranted. The abbots became a lot like rich aristocrats or gentry. Increasingly the feeling was that the monasteries were out of date as they had been founded in a very different age, one where there was much greater piety and religious zeal. The fact that Henry VIII was able to close them with such ease in the 1530s suggests that perhaps they no longer commanded as much respect or affection as they had done in the past.
In conclusion the Catholic Church was a large and powerful organization, still fully accepted by the English people. There was open criticism in some areas of the church, especially the monasteries, however these criticisms were normally constructive and helped the church more than damaged it. Any opposition to the church was either swiftly dealt with by Henry VIII, who was a great follower of the church at the time, or did not fully surface until after England broke away form the church. Therefore it would be quite safe to say that the religious changes taking place in the 16th century were not due to the people’s dissatisfaction with the church.
