Two Catholic bishops have criticised the BBC’s popular dramatisation of Wolf Hall as “perverse” and “anti-Catholic”.
They take issue with author Hilary Mantel’s portrayal of St Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell in the drama, which charts Cromwell’s rapid rise to power during the reign of Henry VIII.
Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury said: “It is an extraordinary and perverse achievement of Hilary Mantel and BBC Drama to make of Thomas Cromwell a flawed hero and of St Thomas More, one of the greatest Englishmen, a scheming villain.”
More, the Lord Chancellor of England who went to the scaffold for refusing to accept the supremacy of the king as head of the Church, he said, “remains an example of integrity for all times”, whereas Cromwell “is surely one of the most unscrupulous figures in England’s history”.
Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth said a “strong anti-Catholic thread” ran through the series. “No doubt about it. Wolf Hall is not neutral.”
In Wolf Hall, Cromwell who is seen educating his daughters, but the bishop pointed out that according to scholar Erasmus, it was More who educated his daughters, the Catholic Herald reported.
Bishop O’Toole went on: “It is not historically accurate and it is not accurate in what the Catholic faith has to contribute to society and to the common good as a whole.”
He said the drama suggested a link between St Thomas More’s Catholic faith and to contemporary religious fundamentalism. “Those modern parallels need to be cautiously drawn,” he said.
He accused Mantel of believing that “being a Catholic is destructive to your humanity”.
He added: “It is inaccurate to say that he (St Thomas) condemned people to death.”
He added: “Did More make mistakes? Yes. Does it mean he is not a saint? No. Mainstream histories seem to recognise that. Wolf Hall is not presenting Thomas Cromwell through a neutral perspective. There is an anti-Catholic element.”
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