30.3 Europe: a.d. 1501 to 1600  (Page 21/29)

In the meantime, after 1517 Thomas More underwent a profound intellectual and emotional transformation. His appointment to the Privy Council changed him from the humanist writer of Utopia to an instrument of Henry VIII's tyranny and the rise of Lutheranism in Europe turned him from an intellectual into a religious fanatic. Becoming a great persecutor of heretics, it seemed that he inwardly felt his original humanism was responsible for Lutheranism. He constantly wore a hair shirt beneath his outer clothing and regularly flogged himself with a knotted rope.

Finally in August of 1525, peace was agreed upon with France, the latter ceding no territory but agreeing to pay an enormous indemnity. England then changed sides in the struggle between France and the empire. Allied with the former, Henry could think of nullifying his 15 year marriage to Catherine (who had given him no male heir), since her nephew, Emperor Charles, was then the current enemy. The Lord Chancellor Woolsey spent the next many, many months trying to get the pope to accommodate Henry in this regard and Henry, himself, had already fallen in love with the young Ann Boleyn. No one knows exactly why Lord Woolsey fell from power, although there were many factors from which to choose - his failure to get the annulment or divorce for Henry from Catherine, the loss of public support because of the opulence of his life and immense wealth and a multitude of small offences and irregularities collected by- the king's secretaries over a 15 year period. At any rate, he was arrested on the charge of "praemunire", a grave offense just short of treason and punishable by life imprisonment. The charge was based on Woolsey's exercise of powers as Papal Legate, in which, as a representative of a foreign potentate he had usurped some of the king's powers. He was replaced as Lord Chancellor by Thomas More. Woolsey soon fell ill and for the first time in his life showed an interest in the spiritual side of religion. Although losing most of his estates and most of his wealth, he was essentially pardoned by the king and simply banished to York. It is interesting to note that even in that predicament he traveled there with 600 gentlemen and servants and 12 carts carrying baggage. But he was arrested once again in 1530 and on his way to the Tower of London he died, apparently of intestinal hemorrhage, cause unknown.

The new Lord Chancellor spent all his efforts persecuting heretics. In his mind every ill in the world was caused by Luther - even the terrible sacking of Rome by the emperor's troops. As King Henry gradually became more and more infuriated with the pope, More alone remained in favor of Catholic policy. Parliament convened in 1529 to stay in session for nearly seven years, during which time it placed the church under royal authority, repudiating the Papal Supremacy and recognized Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. More's objections to this eventually caused him to lose his head. (Ref. 292 ) It was in 1531 that Henry assumed ecclesiastical leadership of the church and made Thomas Cromwell the chief administrator. The latter, in turn, sought to make the king supreme over every aspect of English life and was ruthless in his persecution of those attempting to remain Catholic. In spite of this, he too ended up beheaded. Between 1535 and 1547 all monasteries were dissolved by Henry and the spoils were distributed to minor nobles or business men who supported the king. The government did protect industry with tariffs and the manufacturers profited from cheap labor, so that the textile industry grew and made wealthy men, some of whom then became the new aristocracy of England. With the destruction of the monasteries, however, education almost disappeared and strangely enough, mead also disappeared. The monks of the monasteries had raised bees to get wax for votive candles and the mead had been made incidentally from the honey. The people of England were still surrounded by sheep, but now many only wanted cow dairy products. Their entire agricultural process was changing in the beginning of an agricultural revolution, with the development of the iron plow and soil liming, among other things. (Ref. 57 , 229 , 211 , 8 ) Technicians imported from the continent discovered in 1543 how to cast satisfactory iron cannon, thus cheapening the big guns to about one-twelfth their former cost. (Ref. 279 )