Weaknesses of the Church

• Pluralism


  Receiving the profits of more than one post
• Simony


  The purchase of Church office
• Non-residence


  Receiving the profits of a post but not being present to perform the duties associated with it
• Offences involving corruption associated with the Church

  • Pluralism
  • Simony
  • Non-residence
• Anticlericalism


  Some lawyers objected to the influence of canon law, the law of the Church, and there were objections to the legal privileges of the clergy
• There were certainly some instances of clerical misconduct which did cause considerable criticism
• Decline of monasticism


  It has been argued that the operation of the religious houses was open to criticism
• Precedents for dissolving the monasteries already existed by the 1530s
• Wolsey secured the dissolution of around twenty houses in the 1520s


  To fund the establishment of Cardinal College, Oxford