Errata Page 61, line 3, page 63, line 24, page 71, line 16, for Edmund 65, 72, 99 99 85, 89, read Edward Howard 26, for D'Albert read d'Albret 18, for Sands read Sandys 9, for Banbridge read Bainbridge 10, for Navarra read Novara ,, 212, note 2, for James read Jacques B. Bossuet UNIY CALIFORNIA THE DAWN OF MODERN ENGLAND HENRY VIII (1509-1525) INTRODUCTION THE first thing that seemed necessary in the study of such a period was the finding out of some common denominator by which one could with ease distinguish not merely the Reformers from the Catholics, but also those whose sympathies and tendencies were with Wittenberg and Geneva and against Rome. But diligent as the search was, it merely revealed the impossibility of such a common invariable principle. 'Justification by Faith alone' was soon found useless for such a purpose; mere hatred of Rome' was even too narrow a mesh. But besides this mere difficulty of inclusion and exclusion, the thing itself was unsatisfactory. In the progress of the future, however great the part it played during the B Reformation itself, such a dogma as 'Justification by Faith alone' in the centuries to come was seen to be discarded and forgotten, while the division of Christendom remained as bitter as ever. The history of the Reformation as written from a dogmatic view clearly could not explain the message of the Reformation, however much interlarded by vague references to a contemporaneous social revolution; as Professor Maitland has said, 'Many currents and cross currents were flowing in that turbid age.'1 And the mention of Professor Maitland turned one's thoughts to the History of Law. Here again there was turmoil and change; was it possible to find here the mainspring of all the turmoil of the sixteenth century? Maitland's warning in the lines immediately preceding those just quoted seemed to forbid the way. 'Some German historians, as the reader is aware, have tried to find or fashion links that will in some direct and obvious manner connect the Reform and the Reception. In one popular version of the tale (Janssen) Protestantism finds a congenial ally in the individualism and capitalism of the pagan digest. In truth I take it that the story is complex.' That the history of the Reformation is complex one need not doubt, but it seemed necessary, highly necessary, to see if there was not 1 English Law and the Renaissance, p. 11. |