Church of England during pre-reformation decades of the 16th century

The paper evaluates the inner state and role of the Church of England in English society at the point of Reformation during the first decades of the 16th century. Reformation studies in contemporary British historical science still continue to wage polemics between liberal and revisionist trends trying to clarify causes of Reformation in England. The liberal concept of Reformation in England explains it by the fact that protestant ideas were rather attractive for the educated part of English population and able to satisfy the spiritual quest and needs of the educated and economically active part of the English society. When explaining the causes of Reformation liberal historians emphasize the shortcomings of church life during the first decades of the 16th century, e.g., economic, administrative abuses of clerics, insufficient attention to spiritual quest of parishioners most interested in religious life. These deficiencies resulted in anti-clericalism and non-satisfaction of the policy and practices pursued by the Church of England...