by Rev. JAMES MacCAFFREYLic. Theol. (Maynooth), Ph.D. (Freiburg i. B.)Professor of Ecclesiastical History, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth
Nihil Obstat:
Thomas O'Donnell, C.M.
Censor Theol. Deput.
Imprimi Potest:
Guilielmus,
Archiep. Dublinen.,
Hiberniæ Primas.
Dublini, 16 Decembris, 1914.
From the Renaissance to the
French Revolution
Wilkins, /Concilia Magnae Britanniae/, iii., 1737. /Historia Regis
Henrici Septimi a Bernardo Andrea Thosolate/ (André of Toulouse),
edited by J. Gairdner, 1858. Capella-Sneyd, /A Relation or True
Account of the Isle of England … under Henry VII./ (written by
Capella, the Venetian Ambassador, 1496-1502, and edited by C. A.
Sneyd, 1847). /A London Chronicle during the reigns of Henry VII.
and Henry VIII./ (Camden Miscellany, vol. iv., 1859). Sir Thomas
More's /Utopia/ (written 1516, edited by E. Arber, 1869). More's
English works, edited by William Rastell, 1557. Bridgett, /Life
and Writings of Sir Thomas More/, 1891. Busch-Todd, /England under
the Tudors/, 1892-95. Gasquet, /The Eve of the Reformation/, 1900;
/Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries/, 1888; /The Old English
Bible/, etc., 1897; /The Great Pestilence/, 1893; /Parish Life in
Mediaeval England/, 1906; /English Monastic Life/, 1904. Capes, /A
History of the English Church in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries/, 1909. Seebohm, /Oxford Reformers/ (3rd edition), 1877.
Stone, /Reformation and Renaissance Studies/, 1904. Gairdner,
/Lollardy and the Reformation/, vol. i., 1908. Lilly, /Renaissance
Types/, 1901. Bridgett, /History of the Holy Eucharist in Great
Britain/ (new edition, 1908). Rivington, /Rome and England/, 1897.
Lingard, /History of England/, 10 vols., 1849. Hunt-Poole,
/Political History of England/, v., 1910. /Cambridge Modern
History/, vol. i., 1902.
With the advent of Henry VII. to the throne (1485) a new era opened inthe history of England. The English nation, weakened by the Wars ofthe Roses and tired of a contest that possessed little interest forthe masses, was not unwilling to submit itself without reserve to theguidance of a strong ruler provided he could guarantee peace both athome and abroad. Practically speaking, hitherto absolutism had beenunknown. The rights that had been won by the barons on the plains ofRunnymede were guarded jealously by their descendants, and as a resultthe power of the king, more especially in regard to taxation, washedged round by several restrictions. But during the long strugglebetween the houses of Lancaster and York many of the great feudalbarons had fallen on the field of battle or by the hands of theexecutioner, and the power of the nobles as a body had beenundermined. While the Lords could muster their own retainers undertheir standard and put into the field a strong army almost at amoment's notice, it was impossible for the sovereign to rule as anabsolute monarch. It was because he recognised this fact that HenryVII. took steps to enforce the Statute of Liveries passed by one ofhis predecessors, and to provide that armies could be levied only inthe king's name.
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