Any view of the early Tudor age that fails to pay serious attention to the Church is both incomplete and distorted, yet the subject has been neglected by general historians. Beyond the conventional territory of the medievalist, though still in many ways a late-medieval institution, it is usually considered when at all-from the later perspectives of the Reformation itself. Yet the pre-Reformation Church was, for almost half a century, the central institution of early Tudor society. Its social, economic, political and cultural functions were as powerful and pervasive as its spiritual role, if not more so; and to its contemporaries it was far from obvious that a Reformation was inevitable, let alone imminent.

It deserves study on its own terms, away from the distortions of hindsight history'.

That is what John A.F. Thomson offers in this ambitious survey. He looks at the Church as an institution (including the religious orders as well as the secular clergy, though the main emphasis is on the latter); at the activities of its hierarchy, and at its relations with lay society. In these final chapters Dr Thomson explores the impact of canon law on everyday life; the role of the parish in the community; the realities of worship and preaching in the early Tudor age; and its beliefs and values.

The church hierarchy revealed in his pages was essentially a meritocracy of men with practical administrative experience in both Church and secular government, rather than one of spiritual eminence. But they kept the ecclesiastical bureaucracy running smoothly: courts met, the physical fabric and moral values of the ecclesiastical world were closely supervised, and, if some parishes were impoverished by the diversion of revenues, most had a priest in constant residence to administer the sacraments to the parishioners.

As to the laity, they were answerable in the ecclesiastical courts for moral offences and for failures to conform to canon law, and they were obliged to contribute financially to the Church. Numerous lay and ecclesiastical records provide a detailed picture of the Church's social role, as well as reflecting its internal administration; and one of the incidental pleasures of this book is the rich, and sometimes earthy, vignettes of daily life in early Tudor England that emerge from the sources.

All in all, Dr Thomson argues that the Church was fundamentally stable, complacent rather than decadent; that traditional observances were strongly supported; and that relations between the secular and spiritual powers were generally co-operative. Though the records attest to some dissent, both old Lollard and new Lutheran, he concludes that it posed no serious threat to the established order until after the start

Henry VIII's proceedings to annul his first marriage.

JOHN A.F. THOMSON is Reader in the department of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow.