Like their earlier predecessors, the late medieval clergy remained prevalent figures in the state and its function. Bishops were appointed by the Crown and thousands more of the lesser clerics were sustained in part by the proceeds of the royal bounty. Churchmen served secular power by taking part in the government of the realm as councillors and administrators. Their role pulled them away from their spiritual concerns and into the business of the material world. On the surface, such engagement was not immediately scandalous except to the few lingering adherents to the notion of a purely spiritual Church. Yet their activities on behalf of the state did invite criticism and outright hostility from their contemporaries when their influence was viewed as having a malign influence on royal policy and the good of the commonweal. Richard II’s chancellor, the archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury, was condemned as a principal author behind the levying of a third poll tax. His unpopularity led to a hasty execution at Tower Hill during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Adam Moleyns, bishop of Chichester and William Ayscough, bishop of Salisbury were later denounced for their role in Henry VI’s disastrous policies and their associations with William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, the figurehead of the government following the end of the king’s minority in 1437. All three men met their ends in 1450, victims of the justice dispensed by angry mobs. Their grisly fates did not prevent further Church involvement in government. Clerics continued to operate and exercise great influence at the top echelons of the royal administration well into the sixteenth century, eventually capturing Shakespeare’s attention as to the influence prelates had in shaping royal policy. In The Life of Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, disparagingly dubbed the ‘king-cardinal’ by his secular rivals, commands a royal secretary to ‘Let there be letters writ to every shire, of the king’s grace and pardon … let it be noi[se]d’d that though our intercession this revokement and pardon comes.’

As the first beneficiaries of the establishment of universities, the clergy were literate and well educated. They possessed theoretical knowledge and experience gained through practical application in the governance of the Church. Every European monarch would naturally value such traits in their ministers.