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: #331206 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.