Belloc on Wolsey and Cranmer

Os Justi Press is carrying two books by Hilaire Belloc: Wolsey and Cranmer. They have been brought back into print by Mysterium Press in the U.K. The U.K. publisher has sent me copies of both books to read!

As the publisher describes the book about Wolsey:

In Christendom on the eve of its destruction, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was to be identified with England. In one hand was held the ropes of Church and State, and when he fell what he had made was used to destroy all that he had known. A peerless administrator who blundered abroad but remained supreme at home, Wolsey's intelligence and industry were matched by his ambition and myopia, and his inability to comprehend the inmost thoughts of man proved fatal. Master historian Hilaire Belloc paints a portrait of the low-born cleric who might have stopped the Reformation, but who in putting himself first, and distracted by the closest thing to hand, unwittingly steered England toward its ruin.

Belloc has not written biographies per se but studies about each man's role in the events of Henry VIII's reign and (in the case of Cranmer) Edward VI's.

In his study of Wolsey, for example, Belloc casts his story as a tragedy, with chapters titled The Stage, The Programme, The Plot, The Cast, and five Acts with an Interlude. Wolsey is his tragic hero with fatal flaws: lack of vision in spite of his intelligence and the "defect of ambition . . . the putting of oneself before one's chief task". (p. 3) Belloc narrates this tragic play in declarative, positive sentences even as he explains the complex and different world of Renaissance England and Europe, with the concentration of wealth, the powers of the Church, the aura of the princes, and divisions in Christendom in the background as the drama of Henry VIII's marital issues proceeded. He wants to help the reader understand "the mood" of a past era. Note that he wrote Wolsey and Cranmer in the 1930's.

Among the cast members are Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon (who possessed the courage of her mother without the astuteness of her father); Anne Boleyn, whom Belloc believes is older; Thomas Howard, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk; three popes: Leo X, Adrian VI, and Clement VII; Francis I; Charles V; Lawrence Campeggio, the Papal Legate ("that kind of many to whom all men listen with respect and whom--since the fall of man--nobody follows", p. 79); Bainbridge, Cardinal and Archbishop of York (Wolsey's predecessor) who died in 1514 so that Wolsey could succeed him in those offices; Richard Foxe of Winchester; and Thomas Cromwell, the Supplanter.

Contradicting Mantel, Belloc posits Cromwell as the cause of Wolsey's fall; Henry VIII was still concerned about Wolsey's health and well-being even as offices and wealth were being taken away from him. Belloc describes Cromwell weeping after Wolsey's fall, mourning "the loss of goods; he complained that his service to his old master had impoverished him", so he went to see Henry VIII and then "he begins to supplant his master." (p. 240) Belloc ends his examination of Cromwell's character that he ended up "by the ax and whining for life."!

Reading this review of the characters reminded me that Anna Mitchell and I did a long series in 2017/18 on Belloc's Characters of the Reformation! 

Note that neither Thomas More nor Bishop John Fisher play any role in Belloc's telling; Belloc is more interested in Stephen Gardiner replacing Wolsey as Secretary to the King than More becoming Chancellor after his Wolsey's fall from favor (that's not even mentioned).

Belloc's Wolsey is a fascinating interpretation of the career of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, his energy, his ambition and ability, his flaws, and his ultimate tragedy: setting England on the path of separation from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. There is no index and no bibliography, because Belloc didn't provide them,  I presume. There are some notes from A to K on matters like Wolsey's and Anne Boleyn's dates of birth, prices during Wolsey's time, the Duke of Buckingham's claim to the throne and Wolsey's role in his fall and execution, etc.

Whether or not I--or you when you read the book--agree with all of Belloc's interpretation of Wolsey's years of power, we must agree Frederick Wilhelmson's commendation of Belloc's achievements:

Time prohibits my detailing Belloc’s revolution in English historical writing. Suffice it to say — and this is said formally and altogether without rhetorical emphasis — that one man, Hilaire Belloc, turned the whole writing of British history around. Since Belloc, nobody can get away with understanding the Reformation as the work of high‑minded souls bent on liberty and democracy, noble souls who brought England out of the darkness of Catholic superstition and medieval obscurantism. Others footnoted Belloc and traded on his vision. They did well in doing so, but the vision was his — as was the persecution of silence that followed on his work.

The publication of this book--and the study of Cranmer which I'll read and review next--is another step in ending "the persecution of silence". Mysterium Press hopes to publish more of the Belloc's histories. (I'd really like to read his take on James II!) The books are high quality hardcovers, with nice sturdy paper and clear typefaces.