The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume III. Renascence and Reformation.
§ 11. The Complaynt of Roderyck Mors
The triumph of the reformation under Henry VIII and the suppression of the monasteries had raised great hopes in those churchmen who looked on Rome as the root of all evil. But the disorganisation of society always brings abuses to the surface and the venality of judges, the chicanery and delays of law-suits, the tyranny of the powerful and the oppression of the poor and defenceless, now became doubly apparent. The prevailing clear-sightedness as to the evils of both past and present found vigorous expression in Brinkelow’s Complaynt of Roderyck Mors. Brinkelow’s sectarian hatred of popery precludes the slightest regret for the abolition of the old religion; in fact, he laments that the “body and tayle of the pope is not banisshed with his name.” At the same time, his sense of justice and righteousness keeps his eyes open to the fact that ecclesiastical and state administration are no better under the new order and that the social conditions are a great deal worse. A marked feature of the tract is the constant appeal to the king’s divine authority to rectify social and legal abuses. Henry’s practice differed greatly from the ideas of his conscientious supporters. The riches he appropriated from the monasteries were not devoted to the relief of the economic situation, as Brinkelow urged him to use them (chap.