Hello!
I'm reading Wolf Hall and trying to wrap my head around what church powers looked like prior to the various protestant reformations, specifically as they relate to national jurisdiction.
A passage in Wolf Hall states:
On May 15th [1538], the bishops sign a document of submission to the king. They will not make new church legislation without the king's license, and will submit all existing laws to a review by a commission which will include laymen-member's of Parliament and the king's appointees. They will not meet in Convocation without the king's permission.
My understanding is that any church laws are made by the greater Catholic church under the Pope and its various bodies irregardless to national and civil boarders. What powers did English bishops have that are being curbed here? In the time of Henry VIII, what variations in Catholic practice occurred on a country by country basis?
In this case, it is referring to the convocation the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Within the two Archbishoprics in England (York & Canterbury), whenever a Parliament met, so did a corresponding Convocation. You can see a list of people summoned to attend here at entry 6047 for the 1529 Convocation.
The Convocations were designed to pass legislation that would affect the ecclesiastical courts and the enforcement of canon law. For example, the ecclesiastical courts handled all probate law, affecting the flow of property to heirs. Ecclesiastical courts also handled bastardy cases, slander, liable, and until the later reformation, sacrilege. In the section you quote, the bishops are submitting the Archiepiscopal see to Henry. The reason they talk about it in terms of a Church is to try and lend creedence to Henry's claim that the Church in England (not Church of England) was always independent of the Bishop of Rome (Papacy), and therefore subject to the King's will. The Convocation legislation was akin to Parliamentary legislation in that it had been passes by a Council for the King's approval - this was the element of formal submission.