Henry VIII,the Reign - Holinshed's Articles
Collectanea satis copiosa
By Mark Holinshed
One of the foundation stones of the English Reformation was the publication of the Bible in English.
The Bible had for centuries been the preserve of the clerics, written in Hebrew, Greek or more often Latin to be interpreted by the officers of the church to the people.
The people, those uneducated in the ancient languages, the ‘common people’, were unable to corroborate what they were told by the churchmen.
The Bible had for centuries been the preserve of the clerics, written in Hebrew, Greek or more often Latin to be interpreted by the officers of the church to the people.
The people, those uneducated in the ancient languages, the ‘common people’, were unable to corroborate what they were told by the churchmen.
There is no Translation into Modern English of the Documents which Founded the Break from Rome.
One of the foundation stones of the English Reformation was the publication of the Bible in English.
The Bible had for centuries been the preserve of the clerics, written in Hebrew, Greek or more often Latin to be interpreted by the officers of the church to the people.
The people, those uneducated in the ancient languages, the ‘common people’, were unable to corroborate what they were told by the churchmen.
The English Reformation changed all that (except for the reign of Mary I) when England broke with Rome. The legal case for the break, the Engxit, was founded on the 'Collectanea satis copiosa’.
If you are not familiar with it, the British Library succinctly describes what it is.
The Bible had for centuries been the preserve of the clerics, written in Hebrew, Greek or more often Latin to be interpreted by the officers of the church to the people.
The people, those uneducated in the ancient languages, the ‘common people’, were unable to corroborate what they were told by the churchmen.
The English Reformation changed all that (except for the reign of Mary I) when England broke with Rome. The legal case for the break, the Engxit, was founded on the 'Collectanea satis copiosa’.
If you are not familiar with it, the British Library succinctly describes what it is.
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“For about two years, a team of scholars and royal agents gathered together and studied manuscripts that would provide evidence to buttress King Henry VIII’s claims that his annulment of marriage to Catherine of Aragon was justified and that his matrimonial case ought to be determined in England rather than Rome.
The manuscripts, which included English and Latin chronicles, Anglo-Saxon laws, Roman law and conciliar decrees, were taken from monasteries and deposited in the Royal Library. They fed into a manuscript compilation called the 'Collectanea satis copiosa' (The Sufficiently Abundant Collections) that was presented to Henry in the summer of 1530. The Collectanea argued that the Church of England was an autonomous province of the Catholic Church and that Henry had both secular imperium and spiritual supremacy in England. In other words, it was the King, not the Pope, who exercised supreme jurisdiction within his realm. It is not surprising that Henry was delighted with the work and wrote approving comments all over the manuscript. Now confident that he had right on his side, he began the campaign to persuade or force his clerics to accept and recognise his imperial pretensions.” |
There is no Modern English translation of the Collectanea satis copiosa.
For all the efforts, including martyrdom, to have the Bible translated into English, set as a foundation of the Reformation in England, a pillar of Anglicanism, the Collectanea satis copiosa remains unreadable to those uneducated in languages from a bygone age.
For all the efforts, including martyrdom, to have the Bible translated into English, set as a foundation of the Reformation in England, a pillar of Anglicanism, the Collectanea satis copiosa remains unreadable to those uneducated in languages from a bygone age.
