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Henry VII and Christian Renewal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Anthony Goodman
Anthony Goodman*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Extract

Henry VII, wrote Knowles, ‘was not personally interested in religion in its theological or devotional aspects, still less in its spiritual depth, but neither was he a critic or libertine. His actions and policies, as we see them, were earthbound’. However, Storey has written that ‘Henry’s piety must be emphasised . . . [his] devotions went far beyond those of his contemporaries’. The king’s most recent biographer, Chrimes, remarks on his meticulous religious observances, his contemporary reputation as a sound churchman, and his discriminating religious patronage. Chrimes’s verdict on Henry’s relations with papacy and church is that they were ‘in no way remarkable’, and on his patronage of learning that it is ‘far from clear’ whether ‘much in the way of humanistic influences were at work in his court’. Speculating on whether the king possessed ‘genuine religious feeling’ he inclines to Knowles’s steely verdict.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 17: Religion and Humanism , 1981 , pp. 115 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1981

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References

1 Knowles, , RO 3 (1959) p 3 Google Scholar.I owe thanks for bibliographical help to Miss Marilyn Dunn, Professor Kenneth Fowler, Mrs. Jacqueline Goodman, Mr. Peter Lewis, Dr. Angus MacKay and Miss Kate Mertes. Professor C. N. L. Brooke and other members of the Ecclesiastical History Society made helpful suggestions about this communication, some of which are incorporated in the footnotes.

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