REFORMATION
‘Had I but served God with half the
zeal...’
The Service Records of the Men Who Became Henry VIII's
Bishops
Andrew A. Chibi
Manchester Metropolitan University
Abstract
Henry VIII's bishops have never been given a particularly good press.
They have been dismissed as ‘time servers’ and ‘royal servants’ and
have often, consequently, been accused of having failed the Church at
a critical moment in its history. This article takes the last criticism and
tests it against the evidence of the bishops' ecclesiastical and royal services.
This has been done for three reasons:
First, in order to show that the Henrican
bishops had been conscientious of their duties to the Church.
Secondly, to show that, contrary to historical orthodoxy, their
collective ecclesiastical service record is quite impressive.
Thirdly, to provide an expanded contextual setting for future researches
into the Tudor episcopal establishment.
The more contextual details historians have available to them, the better our
understanding of the events and the persons involved will be and, consequently,
our grip on the period as a whole will be that much firmer.