| Summary |
This thesis re-assesses Thomas Cromwell's role in the Henrician Reformation by examining the influence of Marsilius of Padua's Defensor pacis on his ecclesiopolitical beliefs, which guided his efforts at reforming the commonwealth. Cromwell revived the fourteenth-century anti-papal treatise by sponsoring the first English translation, The Defence of Peace, for the royal propaganda campaign, implemented to support Henry VIII's divorce case against Catherine of Aragon and then the break with Rome and formation of the English Church. Marsilius formulated an Erastian doctrine to resolve the church-state conflict that developed during the Middle Ages when the pope's power grew to rival the secular rulers'. Secular and papal monarchs argued that their power came from God as revealed in the Bible. Consequently, theories of secular kingship and papal monarchy evolved with both sides professing absolute sovereignty: Rulers maintained they were absolute monarchs and popes claimed plenitude of power. Marsilius wrote the Defensor pacis in defense of Emperor Louis TV's struggle with Pope John XXII, and Cromwell sponsored The Defence ofPeace in support of Henry's conflict with Pope Clement VII. Marsilius and Cromwell believed that the papacy was causing civil chaos within their respective kingdoms, which would ultimately lead to utter destruction. England's impending doom, triggered by papal interference with the succession by postponing a decision on the divorce, was partly resolved with The Act in Restraint of Appeals. It provided for English determination of the divorce, essentially severed the judicial link with Rome, proclaimed England an empire, and established Henry as rex in regno suo est imperator. The Act also announced the royal supremacy or Anglicized Erastian doctrine, which was later detailed in The Defence of Peace. Henry owed his success at attaining his goals to his servant's tireless efforts to achieve his wishes. Where others had failed, Cromwell triumphed, but only briefly. In the short time in which he was the second-most powerful man in England as the king's chief minister and vice-gerent in spirituals, he made a profound contribution to the Church of England as well as the state: He implemented the Henrician Reformation, the Tudor revolution in government. |
