THE CHANGING SCENE

The advent of the first Tudor sovereign marked no epoch in the history of the religious orders in England. Neither the policy of the king nor the external events of his reign affected in any direct way the fortunes of the monasteries. Nevertheless, here, as in so many departments of the national life, the return of calm weather after a season of storms, and the steady hand of a single master at the ship's helm, allowed all the natural forces of the age full play, and tendencies hitherto latent or only seen by glimpses now became clear to every beholder.

Henry VII, as has often been remarked, was conservative and observant in religious matters. In this respect, indeed, he was a representative, almost a survival, of the last generation of simple medieval orthodoxy. Nothing in his outlook or behaviour differed in any significant respect from the ways of thinking and acting of Henry IV or still earlier monarchs. Neither humanism, nor Neoplatonism, nor neo-paganism, nor even the unethical political realism of Italy, had any direct influence on his attitude in religious matters. He was not personally interested in religion in its theological or devotional aspects, still less in its spiritual depth, but neither was he a critic or a libertine. His actions and policies, as we see them, were earthbound.