Product Description

This was the first full-length biography in ninety years of Reginald Pole (1500–1558), one of the most important international figures of the sixteenth century, and the first ever to give equal attention to all phases of his career. It was based on painstaking and extensive archival research, above all in Italy and among the archives of the Inquisition. Pole spent much of his life writing, especially about himself. This book attempted to expose the tension between the ‘life as lived’ and the ‘life as written’ in order to see Pole whole rather than as a plaster saint - or devil. Pole’s career is followed as protégé and then harshest critic of Henry VIII, as cardinal and papal diplomat, legate of Viterbo, a nearly successful candidate for pope, and finally as legate to England, archbishop of Canterbury, architect of the English Counter-Reformation, and victim of both pope Paul IV and of himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #629620 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 488 pages

Review
‘A very handsomely produced volume … Reginald Pole: Prince and Prophet will appeal to the historian of the mid-sixteenth century with a particular interest in Pole’s exact involvement in the life of middle-European and English politics.’ Boekbeoordelingen

‘… Pole's English career has found a definitive exposition.’ The Downside Review

Customer Reviews

The last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury - a complex man
Since the last biography in 1910 this is the first full study of the Cardinal who was one of the last members of the Plantagenet dynasty as son of the Contess of Salisbury and nearly elected pope. Reginald Pole was an extraordinay man.

But somehow he never fitted in: A hero to Roman Catholics, he was a villain to Protestants, and in the words of his successor Matthew Parker, was "the Devil incarnate"; but his reputation was more complex. Pole was considered "a Lutheran in Rome, in Germany a papist, in the imperial court French, and in that of France, imperial. A Roman Catholic reformer he was zealous defender of a reformed and charismatic papacy as essential to the unity of the Church. His role as Archbishop of Canterbury is more complex than reputation has it. The reign of Queen Mary can not be understood without him.

This is not a conventional chronological biography but something that is denser and more difficult to read. It helps to understand Cardinal Pole better, but I am not sure that the author has finally really graps the man and Cardinal. Mayer does not believe his book is the final word on the Cardinal and this does him credit.

For me however, it was another proof that historic reputation is not all and one needs to look deeper. Mayer does not shine from controversy like the possibility of the Cardinal being homosexual. It was a difficult read on many issues, but one starts to see this complex man not any longer in black and white.

Heavyweight Pole Dancing
This book requires determined perseverance to complete. The author assumes that the reader is well acquainted with so many aspects and characters of European Catholicism, especially the progress of the Council of Trent and the seceding popes during the 1550's, that no further guidance is necessary. Reams of historic documents (perhaps previously unvisited) have been meticulously measured but at the expense of a loss of clarity in the narrative. Characters and personalities appear with little or no introduction in complex political and ecclesiastical situations where the reader needs more background information. It would be good if there was an accessible timeline to locate where and when and who are the principle figures at each moment of the unfolding drama. Sometimes the text is excruciatingly detailed in matters that might be peripheral, while in other aspects frustratingly brief, glossing over major developments without sufficient reflection(eg the execution of his mother and brother or "the well known flight from Trent"). Hence the reader may struggle to make sense of the biographical progress. A glimpse through the penultimate chapter ("A Catalogue of Portrait Images", regrettably only black and white) will serve to demonstrate the author's painstaking care with his vast accumulated material. The author's task is not assisted by the verbosity that Pole demonstrated in his own writings. These were delicate times where "progressive" theological themes needed to be developed and introduced with pages of polite academic rhetoric. Nevertheless, Pole surfaces as a man more sinned against than sinning who opens the council of Trent with a great Ecumenical heart for the reconciliation of the Germanic church. It is difficult to understand how at one moment, following the death of Paul lll, Pole stood poised to become Pope yet a short time later his Catholic loyalty is considered suspect. Being short of only one vote in the conclave of 1549, he later attracted the attention of the Inquisition. As someone now identified as part of the "Spirituali" party, he dared to suggest that "not everything taught by heretics is necessarily heresy". Notwithstanding the traumatic developments of English Church life in the period of Mary Tudor (which are only now being revisited) as Cardinal Archbishop of England, Pole successfully brought the English Church back into full Communion with Rome. Meanwhile in Rome, rather than receiving support and gratitude for such an extraordinary achievement, by the time of his death he faced the possibility of an interdict. This combined, with exhaustion must have hastened his premature death. Being in a weakened state of body and mind like the queen herself he fell victim to the "sweating sickness" on the very same day 17th November 1558. All of this is told with dry and detailed academic detachment that does not endear the reader to the text. There is an ambiguity in the identity of Pole that has remained unresolved through the ages. Mayer is right to avoid the divisive issue of Saint or Sinner? He leaves us with a man born out of time, perhaps 400 years too soon. As a cousin to King Henry 8th and at one time a possible contender for the throne by the hand of the Princess Mary, we are left with someone no less than a "Prince and Prophet" - but not much opportunity for dancing!