A Call to Renew the Mind
In early sixteenth-century England, a different kind of reform stirred. While Spain pursued monastic discipline and biblical scholarship under Cardinal Ximénez, figures like John Colet and Thomas More sought to renew the Church through learning. Both men embodied the spirit of Christian humanism: the conviction that true reform would come not from revolt, but from the recovery of wisdom rooted in Scripture and the Fathers.
John Colet, dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, was especially known for his passionate preaching. He called clergy to holiness and urged a return to apostolic simplicity. His sermons warned against corruption and complacency, insisting that the Church must measure itself against the pattern of Christ. At the same time, he invested in education, founding St. Paul’s School in London to train a new generation in grammar, rhetoric, and the classics—all oriented toward Christian truth.
Thomas More, lawyer and statesman, brought the same reforming spirit into the realm of politics and letters. His writings, most famously Utopia, critiqued the moral failings of society while pointing to higher ideals. Though later remembered for his martyrdom under Henry VIII, in his own day he was a champion of learning, piety, and faithful service to both Church and crown.
Learning as Reform
For both Colet and More, reform began not with outward structures but with the mind and heart. They believed ignorance of Scripture and neglect of classical wisdom had left the Church vulnerable to error. Their remedy was not rebellion but renewal: schools, universities, and a humanist curriculum that trained Christians to think clearly, live virtuously, and serve faithfully.
This vision shaped the climate of English religious life before the Reformation proper began. Colet’s students, More’s readers, and their wider circle of friends—including Erasmus—formed a network of Christian humanists who kept alive the hope that renewal could come through education, preaching, and moral seriousness.
An England on the Edge
Neither Colet nor More lived to see the storm that Henry VIII’s break with Rome would unleash. Yet their efforts at reform through learning marked a critical chapter in England’s religious story. They demonstrated that calls for reform were not confined to Protestants, nor were they limited to doctrinal disputes. Long before open schism, humanist reformers were already urging the Church to return to holiness, Scripture, and sound learning.
Their legacy endured in the schools they founded, the books they wrote, and the moral example they set. In the decades that followed, England would be torn between competing visions of reform. Yet the memory of Colet’s preaching and More’s scholarship remained a reminder that renewal was possible without abandoning the ancient faith.
Book Recommendations:
E. E. Reynolds, Thomas More and Erasmus
Richard Marius, Thomas More: A Biography
Alistair Fox, Thomas More: History and Providence
John B. Gleason, John Colet
John Headley, John Colet on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Dionysius
Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More
Dominic Baker-Smith, More’s Utopia
