Cardinal Wolsey: Church, state and art (review)

Reviews 129 Thus significant material on Beowulf appears in at leastfivechapters, and on Bede in four, quite apart from the rich and most up-to-date bibliographies (pp 282-291). Patrick Wormald's opening chapter describes excellently the social and cultural context of Old EngUsh literature. This essay is foUowed by surveys of: the language; the nature of Old English verse (D. Scragg); and of Old English prose (Janet Bately). Subsequent essays treat of relevant Germanic legends, heroic ideals, Christian ethics and of persisting pagan and popular beliefs, hagiography and (continuing) biblical influences. Fred C. Robinson contributes a wise chapter on Beowulf. A most helpful aspect of the whole is that: 'the smaU group of poems which have come to be recognized as the heart of the literary canon are discussed fairly extensively ... : The Dream ofthe Rood; The Battle ofMaldon; The Wanderer and 77* Seafarer' (p. x). The editorial purpose is that the contributors emphasize established interpretations, but this has not precluded intelligent comment on areas of uncertainty or on plausible inferences from meticuloustextualreading. Further, the separate selective research appendices to the several chapters range from the standard works and articles to those at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship. The other major scholars participating in the symposium include H. Gneuss, Roberta Frank, Katherine O'Keefe, Christine Fell, Barbara Raw, and Joseph B. Trahern, jr. As is well said by Professor Lapidge on the last page of thefinalessay, 'if we would understand the spiritual universe of the Anglo-Saxons, ... we must team to understand [its] apparatus' (p. 261). There is no better modem tool to assist the thoughtful beginning scholar of that literature than the present stimulating volume by scholars from England, Europe and North America. A further claim for the whole, although it is not quite advanced by the editors on p. ix, is that such a compendium explains much about the quality English language poetry of the last hundred years as well as assisting more profoundly 'an understanding of the cultural-roots of the English-speaking world' (ibid.). J. S. Ryan Department of EngUsh University of N e w England Gunn, S. J. and P. G. Lindley, eds, Cardinal Wolsey: Church, state and art, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xvi, 329; 74 plates, 14figures;R.R.P. AUS$120.00. The last decade has seen a revival of serious scholarly work on Wolsey. Dr Gwyn's massive biography and various studies of the pre-Reformation church haverevivedcontroversy over the historical role and significance of a profoundly enigmatic statesman. The essays in this volume cover the range of his interests, 130 Reviews from various aspects of his artistic and musical patronage, including the building works and expenditure which contributed to bis magnificence and the foundations and tomb through which he hoped to perpetuate his memory, to the political and religious policies which may have helped in his downfall. In the introduction the editors attempt a comparison of Wolsey with fifteen of the other cardinal-ministers who were powers behind the throne in Europe. Even in this context, they find him exceptional both in the speed of hisrise,the length of his rule, the breadth of his power and the extent of his patronage of education, literature, music, architecture and the visual arts. His position, unique in English history, was also remarkable in Europe. His aspirations to reform, strongly centralist were based, they believe, on a desire to impose equal justice on all ranks of society. It was the active resentment this aroused which led to the contemporary criticism on which his reputation has long been based. John Guy argues that recent analysis of primary sources gives rise to a more nuanced view of a man whose initiatives were only partially successful. Guy argues that the Council throughout Wolsey's period was an essential instrument of government. He sought to deprive it of initiative not effectiveness. Alongside this, Henry and Wolsey used the long-established method of a royal affinity in the counties to maintain stability in domestic affairs. Stephen Gunn's reassessment of 1527-8 seeks to dlustrate the seamlessness of Wolsey's work, in which foreign policy and domestic policy interacted in such a way as...