H
5. Counter-Reformation
enry VIII’s son Edward, who came to the throne at the age of
9, reigned only 6 years and died of tuberculosis. There was an
unsuccessful attempt to shift the royal succession of the Tudor to
the Dudley family. Although Edward’s cousin Lady Jane Grey was
proclaimed Queen, she was never crowned as Henry VIII’s elder
daughter took control of the kingdom and had Lady Jane Grey executed
in the Tower of London. The crown went toMary
Tudor also known
as Bloody Mary.
The only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary
was a Catholic. She reestablished Roman Catholicism as the nation’s
only creed and burned 283 Protestant martyrs. After marrying King
Philip of Spain she joined Spain in a war against France and lost the
remaining English possession on the Continent, Calais (1558). Upon
her death, the throne went to her half sister Elizabeth, the daughter
of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyne.
6. Renaissancehumanists
Renaissance in Europe
Together with the ideas of the Reformation came the ideas of the Renaissance. Emerging from feudal despotism, the Renaissance in Europe developed all that was original in medieval ideas by the light of antique arts and literature. The literature and the fine arts of the Renaissance were notable for their glorification of man and the discovery of his virtues. The names of Dante, Petrarch, Bocaccio, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in Italy; Rabelais in France; Erasmus in the Netherlands; Copernicus in Poland; Thomas More, Francis Bacon and Shakespeare in England make the treasure throve of world cultural heritage.
The great geographical discoveries evoked a lively interest in nature, history and life in other countries. There was hardly any man of importance at the time who had not travelled extensively, who did not speak four or five languages, who did not shine in a number of fields. Albrecht Durer was a painter, an engraver, a sculptor and an architect. Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, a mathematician and an engineer. Machiavelli was a statesman, a historian, a poet and the first notable military author of his time.
The wave of progress reached the shores of England only in the 16th century. Foreign scholars and artists appeared in England during the reign of Henry VIII. In painting and music, the first period of the Renaissance was that of imitation. Painting was represented by the German artist Holbein, and music by Italians and the French. With literature the situation was different. Much of the new learning was popularized by native English poets and dramatists. The freedom of thought of English humanists revealed itself in anti-feudal and even anti-bourgeois ideas, showing the life of their own people as it really was.
Thomas More
T
he
most prominent figure of the time was Thomas More(1478-1535),
the first English humanist of the Renaissance. The son of a prominent
judge, he was educated at Oxford and could write a most beautiful
Latin and Greek. On his return to London in 1494, More continued to
study law at Lincoln’s Inn and in 1501 became barrister. While he
was at Lincoln’s Inn, More decided to dedicate himself to monastic
service. It was only his sense of duty and responsibility that made
him serve the country in the field of politics.
In 1499 More made friends with Erasmus of Rotterdam who spent a number of years in England teaching at Oxford and Cambridge and greatly influenced the ideas of English scholars and philosophers. Their acquaintance turned into a lasting friendship and correspondence. When Erasmus wrote his famous work Praise of Folly in 1509, he dedicated it to Thomas More.
During the reign of Henry VII, he became Member of Parliament (1504 or 1505) and later was made Speaker of the House of Commons (1523). As Speaker he helped the establish the parliamentary priviledge of free speach. One of his first acts as an MP was to urge a decrease in a proposed appropriation for Henry VII. Although the Tudor monarchy was absolute, and Parliament had little power to resist the king, there was one privilege which Parliament enjoyed: to grant money to the monarch. When Henry VII wanted Parliament to grant him 800,000 pounds, the Members of Parliament sat silent until Thomas More spoke up and urged that the request should be refused. After a long discussion, a sum less than half the amount originally requested, was granted and that sum was to be spread over a period of 4 years. In revenge, the king imprisoned More’s father who was released only after the king’s death in 1509.
During the next decade, More attracted the attention of Henry VIII. He accompanied the king on his visit to Flanders, was made a member of the Privy Council and finally was knighted in 1521. Thomas More was an earnest Catholic and helped Henry VIII in writing his Defence of the Seven Sacraments criticising Luther. In 1529 Thomas More was made Lord Chancellor, the presiding officer in the House of Lords and the highest judge.
But when Henry VIII broke with Rome Thomas More refused to swear allegiance to him as the head of the Church of England. Neither could he recognize the legitimacy of Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyne. Soon More fell a victim to the king’s anger. He was accused of treason, thrown into the Tower, and finally beheaded in 1535. His last words were: ‘The King’s good servant, but God’s first.’ He was canonized in 1935.
‘Utopia’
Thomas More wrote both in Latin and in English. His English writings include discussions and political subjects, biographies and poetry. The work by which he is remembered today is Utopia which was written in Latin in 1516. By now it has been translated into all European languages. Utopia, which in Greek means ‘nowhere’, is the name of a non-existing island. The author gives a profound and truthful picture of the people’s sufferings, points out the social evils existing in England and presents his idea of what the future society should be like. The word utopia has become a byword to denote an unattainable ideal, usually in social and political matters. Thomas More’s Utopia was the first book to proclaim the ideas of communism. It was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More’s time and grew popular again in the 19th century.