England's Catholic Reformation

England's Catholic Reformation is the reformation that sixteenth-century England nearly had: a reformed and renewed English Catholic Church, its new schools and revived parishes matched with a firm smack of discipline. It almost happened; its leading prophets - Cardinals Thomas Wolsey and Reginald Pole - both came close to being elected pope. Instead, as these possibilities evaporated, they left behind them a toxic residue which has poisoned England's relations with its neighbours down to...