Reform and Renewal

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Reform and Renewal
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Elton
SeriesThe Wiles Lectures
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:188
Dimensions(mm): Height 215,Width 140
Category/GenreHistory
ISBN/Barcode 9780521098090
ClassificationsDewey:362.924
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 1 March 1973
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Scholarship has established the prevalence of a reformist ideal of 'the Commonwealth' in early Tudor England, but concentration on scholars and writings has led to a neglect of affairs and politics. This study attempts to discover the fate of reforming programmes when efforts were made to translate them into reality, and it uses the administration of Thomas Cromwell as a test-case. Cromwell, it is well known, favoured advanced thinkers and promoted much parliamentary legislation; how far can we see him as a proponent of 'commonwealth' politics and what success did we have? A close look establishes him as a man who without formal training practised the techniques of the learned and behaved as an intellectual. He also emerges as an evangelical in religion, a believer in the via media between extremes on which the Church of England was to erect its particular form of religion. As the only experienced parliamentarian in the group, he also knew how to handle the instrument of reform. The study discusses this work in two main respects: reforms in the economy and reform of the law.