The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-07-04
REAL SOURCE OF THE ENGLISH
REFORMATION

In lengthy editorial in the London
Spectator for May 2, on. Roger Bige-
low Merriam's Life and Letters OF
Thomas Cromwell" the writer says:
''Mr. Merriam has perhaps done all
that is now possible to dispel the OBJ
security which surrounds the character
of the man who for ten years was the
most powerful parsonage inEngland,
not excepting the king. (Henry VIlI.)
It becomes, then, of interest to as
certain the estimate thus made of a
man so signally influential in that Re-
formation movement in England, to
which we have of late given so much
space in our columns. The Specta-
tors reviewer says:
"tI is difficult for Englishmen to
look back on the ten years during
which Cromwell governed England
without feeling of humiliation. Never
before or since were the nobility, the
Parliament. the Church, and the peo-
ple of England reduced to a condition
of servile terror such as existed be-
tween the years 1880 and 1910. Little
consolation is to be derived from con-
templating the character of the man
who was the leading figure in this
Reign of Terror. We are disposed to
think that he had a certain preference
for Professionalism as a religion. He
certainly desired to unite England by
a religion, as we'll as by political al
lance with the Protestants of the con-
tinent. AS Protestants, however, we
have no sort of desire to claim Crom-
well. and should view, not merely
with equanimty, but with the utmost
satisfaction, evidence that he had no
personal sympathy with the Reformed
religion. For the view that he was a
patriot in the sense Of desiring the
true welfare of the English people we
can not find a shred of evidence"
In regard to the dissolution Of the
monasteries, the Spectators reviewer
remarks
"Cromwell's motive was to enrich
the Royal Treasury, and to make Heu-
ry, as he had promised, the richest
King in Europe. He selected, there
fore, agents who were as destitute of
scruples as himself, and he instructed
them to get up condemnatory evidence
at all costs. Cromwell's unscrupulous |
management of the business has made |
it impossible, even for historians who
approve of the dissolution of the re-
ligious houses, to assert with conf |
dence that the monks and the friars |
deserved their fate, so untrustworthy !
is the evidence which was produced |
against them"
OF this man, whose strength" to
quote the Spectator again, was large
ly founded on an entire absence of
moral and honorable scruples," and
who was always ready with sugges-
tions to enable the King to accomplish
mis- wishes, whatever they were," we
also read:
"He kept himself informed of what
was going on in the country by means
of vast system Of espionage, and
this, along with the cruel vengeance
with which he visited oposition, Great
ed Reign of Terror throughout the
land. If it is a wise policy to rule
men solely through their fears, then
Cromwell was a great statesman 1t
may fairly be argued that the practi-
cal transferences of the Papal powers
70 I16 MO0dTcn leu subsequently TO T
hose arbitrary dealings with the
church, and to those outrages on the
of men, which were the
main cause of the original secessions
rom the Established Church, seces-
iions which to the present day are
disturbing element in the religious
ife of the country"
Mr. Merriam saws,
"Cromwell's utter lack of emotion
enabled him to tick off in his memor- r
.ndo the lives of human beings as if
hey were items in an account; or to T
end people to trials, of which the YER
icts had been determined beforehand
S the Abbot of Redying to be sent
own to be tried and executed at Re
ying.' He totally disregarded the
1stness or morality of any action; its
tility was for him its morality, and "
reated its justification"
Such is the character of the Eng
sh layman who acted as vicar gen.
raj to Henry VIII, the Supreme Head
the English Church.-Sacred Heart
eview y