Brooks Adams

“ The Reformation was the victory of this class over the archaic type of man, and with the Reformation the old imaginative civilization passed away; but with all its power the monied intellect has certain weaknesses, and neither in ancient Rome nor modern England have capitalists been soldiers. ”

“ You never saw prince or man who made greater show of his horns, or bore them more pleasantly." (9) His manners, like those of Cromwell and Norfolk, lacked the courtesy which distinguished men, even of his own generation, like Sir Thomas More. ”

“ Lacking physical force, this new nobility feared the ancient farming population whom they slowly exterminated; and they feared them with reason, for from among the yeomanry Cromwell drew his Ironsides. Therefore one of the chief pre-occupations of the Tudor nobility was to devise means to hold this dangerous element in check, and as it could not organize an army, it utilized the Church. The landowners had other purposes for the priesthood than simply to rob it; they had also to enslave it, and Henry's title to greatness lies in his having attained both ends. ”

“ For whereas Britannia alone, of all other nations, is and hath been, of her own proper nature, most superstitious; this Cromwell, being born of a common or base stock, through a divine method or policy of wit and reason received, suffered, deluded, brake off, and repressed, all the policies, trains, malice, and hatred of friars, monks, religious men, and priests, of which sort there was a great rabble in England. ”

“ At the apex of the new society stood Henry VIII., who, like Philip the Fair, had many of the qualities which make a great religious reformer in an economic age. In reaching an estimate of his nature, however, the opinions of Englishmen are of no great value, since they are usually distorted by prejudice. ”

“ The commercial conmmunity always demanded cheap religion. Under Henry they inclined toward Zwingli, under Elizabeth toward Calvin, under Charles they were Presbyterian; the gentry, on the contrary, were by nature conservative, and favoured orthodoxy as far as their interest in church plunder permitted them. Henry and Norfolk stood at the head of this class; Norfolk's conversion to Protestantism has been explained by Chapuys, and Henry remained a bigot to his death. ”

“ Cromwell's strength lay in his superiority to those scruples of truth and honour which hamper feebler men. He did what circumstances demanded. His object, like Philip's, was to blacken his victims that he might destroy them, and to gather the evidence he used instruments adapted to the work. To have used others would have demonstrated himself unfit. Mr. Gairdner has remarked in his preface to the tenth volume of the Calendar: "We have no reason indeed to think highly of the character of Cromwell's visitors." (21) This opinion of Mr. Gairdner is supported by all the evidence extant. ”

“ The enclosure of the commons and the confiscations of the monastic estates together formed a gigantic real estate speculation, with which faith had little to do, and which was possible only because force began to express itself through another type of intellect than that which had been able to defend its property during an imaginative age. ”

“ He had also certainly done something which put him in the power of Cromwell, for he wrote: "I know from my own experience how deadly it is for any man to incur your displeasure, . . . which I would not wish for my greatest enemy." (25)
The testimony of such witnesses would be of doubtful value, even had they expressed themselves freely; but the government only tolerated one form of report. A good example of the discipline enforced is to be found in Layton's correspondence. ”

“ A man must needs be nourished by good works; but first he must have faith. He that doeth good deeds, yet without faith, he hath no life. I can show a man that by faith without works lived, and came to heaven; but without faith never man had life. ”

“ Gifted with such qualities, Henry could not have failed to be a great religious reformer at the opening of a great economic age. More than five hundred years before, when society hung on the brink of dissolution, the Church sustained centralization by electing Hugh Capet king of France. A century later the armed pilgrimages to Palestine had accelerated the social movement, and consolidation again began. ”

“ In 1539 it had proved impossible to force the three great abbots of Glastonbury, Reading, and Colchester into a surrender to the crown, and accordingly Cromwell devised an act to vest in Henry such conventual lands as should be forfeited through attainder. Then he indicted the abbots for treason, and thus sought to bring the estates they represented constructively within the statute. The fate of Abbot Whiting, whom Layton incautiously praised, will do for all. ”

“ He needed money, and money in abundance, and Cromwell rose to a practical dictatorship because he was fittest to provide it. On all that relates to Essex, Foxe is an undoubted authority, and Foxe did not hesitate to attribute to Cromwell Henry's policy at this crisis. ”

“ At Grace Dieu two nuns were charged with incontinence. (33) The country gentlemen found there only fifteen White Nuns of Saint Austin, "of good and virtuous conversation and living." (34)
No one familiar with the development of police during the later middle ages could have much doubt that, on the whole, the discipline of the convents would correspond pretty accurately with the prevailing tone of society, and that although asceticism and enthusiasm might have declined since the twelfth century, subordination to authority would have increased with the advance of centralization. ”

“ Iron is marvellous scarce." He tried his prisoners by court martial, for he dared not trust the juries. Many of the farmers declared they had been forced to join in the insurrection through threats of violence, and these might have been acquitted. "They say I came out for fear of my life, or for fear of burning my houses and destroying of my wife and children." (6) But where Henry and Norfolk were concerned there were no acquittals.
In the same way Henry destroyed his ministers when he had done with them. Though Cromwell was sagacious, he was less crafty than Henry. ”

“ He not only plundered as no other man has plundered, but he succeeded in assuming the functions of God's high priest, and becoming Christ's vicar upon earth. Upon this point there can be no difference of opinion; not only are the formularies of the Church of England clear, but Anglicans themselves admit it. Macaulay was of Henry's communion ”

“ The Duke of Norfolk, having reproached him with all the villainies done by him, tore from him the Order of Saint George, which he wore about his neck; and the Admiral, to show himself as much his enemy in adversity as he had been believed to be his friend in prosperity, undid his garter. (7)
From one point of view, Henry's vanity was a weakness, for it laid him open to attack, and the diplomatic correspondence is filled with sneers like this of Castillon's: "Il n'oublye jamais sa grandeur et se taist de celle des autres." ”

“ There has been little doubt about the king, not so much for the fever as for the trouble with the leg which he has had, which trouble seizes him very often because he is very gross, and marvellously excessive in eating and drinking, so that you often find him of a different purpose and opinion in the morning from what you do after dinner. ”

“ Also in his visitations he refuseth many times his reward, though it be competent, for that they offer him so little and maketh them to send after him such rewards as may please him, for surely religious men were never afraid so much of Dr. ”