THE OUT LOOK OF THE AGE

Before embarking upon a narrative of the events leading to the dissolution of the monasteries, it may be permissible to note some characteristics of Tudor society which in the past have often been overlooked by those unacquainted with the age.

One such characteristic is that the modern tradition of public service, and even the outlook of a mechanical impersonal bureaucracy, had not yet come into existence. The agents of government great and small, from an Audley or a Cromwell downwards, were the servants of their immediate superior who might be the king himself or a minister directly appointed by him. They had their living and their career to make, and this could only be done by executing his commands and meeting his wishes; to suppose that they had any of the modern civil servant's or police officer's sense of duty to the public is to transfer the outlook of the present day to an age which had another way of regarding life. The same consideration applies, mutatis mutandis, to the holders of all other positions or offices that are to-day considered of trust or ‘public’, such as those of members of parliament, lawyers or even the judiciary. Among men of these classes there was a complete absence of the ethical conventions or the professional etiquette of their modern counterparts, save perhaps among men of the law when the issue was between private parties. All were the servants, mediate or immediate, of the king.