The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-12-22
NEW LIGHT ON THE REFORMATION
The Religious Change Resented and
Resisted by the Common People.

A late issue of the Dublin Re-
view brings an extensive analysis of
q valuable contribution to historical
research on a very interesting and
important phase of the Reformation in
England, '.The Pilgrimage of Grace
and the Exeter Conspiracy" by Made
line Hope Dodds and Ruth Dodds, OBJ
serves the Central Verein Bulletin. Be
sides shedding light on a little known,
though important phase of the
Reformation, the book in question and
SO ably studied in the Dublin Review,
is of particular value in this, that it
is the product of non-C catholics who
have, as the writer states, treated the
pilgrimage, with which we are now
solely engaged, lin a fair and even
judicial manner"
The usually received idea of the
reformation is that in all the coun.
tries affected it was solely move
ment of the people for emancipation
from the CALLING letters of an unen.
durable ecclesiastical bondage; an up
rising for freedom of conscience and
purity of doctrine and practice, init
ated by the refermers. The work
under discussion gives the lie to this
theory and bases it's conclusions on
Facts gathered from documentary
evidence. In the beginning of the Ref
ormation movement in England the
people, or commons, as they were
called at that time, did not appreciate
the full meaning of the changes pro-
posed and under discussion and the
object of controversy in the ranks of
the clergy. For as the authors re.
mark: THE Papal authority was not
always popular in England, men
sneered at the Pope, grumbled at him,
criticized him; but that he was the
only supreme head of Christianity
was as firmly believed, and as con.
fidently accepted, as that the sun rose
in the East" The mere discussion
therefore, of the Kings supremacy
did not touch the common people to
the quick. When, however, theory
was put into tangible practice, and
the, commons were given tangible
proof that Henry meant what he as
sumed; when the feasts, SO dear to
the people, were abolished and the
monasteries suppressed and plumber
ed, and the villages and country side
thus deprived of their best friends
and supports, sullen discomfort was
slowly translated into active resist
ance. This resistance took tangible
form in the Pilgrimage of Grace in
1886, led by Robert Aske and Lord
Darcy, men, as the authors of the
new work picture them, of truly
heroic and knightly mould. Indeed
it was their very chivalry and honesty
that led to their undoing and to the
failure of the uprising against the
wanton tyranny of the royal blue
beard. Esteeming Henry as sincere
as themselves they were no match fol
The man of whom a noted American
author, Brooks Adams, in his "Tht
Law of Civilization and Decay says
Cruelty was one of Henry's mos
salient traits, and was, perhaps, thu
faculty by which he succeeded in inn
posing himself most strongly upon hi.
contemporaries He not only murder
led his wives, his ministers, and hi
friends, but he pursued those who op
posed him with a vindictivenes'
which appalled, them" Nor coult
they cope against leader like How
-
author says: HE never wearied o
boasting of his lies and of his cruelty
he wrote to assure Henry he woult
spare no pains to entrap them (thos'
taking part in the uprising) ant
| would esteem nc promise he made II
the rebels, for surely shall observ'
no part thereof, for any respect o