Some readers may consider that this book underplays the theme of rapacity in Cromwell’s public career, which did witness the single greatest land transfers in this country’s history since the Norman Conquest. I have tried to show that while there was selfish greed enough among the King and his leading councillors, eagerly imitated by the wider group of his subjects who had funds to invest in suddenly available church lands, there was a degree of idealism and reforming enthusiasm in Cromwell’s vision of what it all meant. The balance between idealism and rapacity was easily tipped.
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