Success for Wolsey mean that; the people were happy, Henry was happy, the realm was enriched, his reforms had worked and that law and order was retained. Therefore when measuring the success of Wolsey's ecclesiastical reforms against his other domestic policy's one must weigh up every factor that meant success for Wolsey.

Wolsey's other domestic responsibilities were evidently more successful than his attempted reform of the church. In essence all that Wolsey did with the church was to milk it for more money, which he channelled towards himself, towards the colleges he set up, and to have good ideas and intentions towards reform, yet little application of these plans. Indeed John Guy said that: "It is hard to rate his (Wolsey's) ecclesiastical policy at anything much beyond good intentions."

Wolsey did not reject some of the ideas put forward by Erasmus and Colet, but neither did he support...