"It is certainly true that Elton overestimated the administrative genius of Thomas Cromwell, Henry's principal policymaker. But his arguments cannot be dismissed wholesale. He was right to emphasise the peculiarity of the royal supremacy in the Church, the growing importance of Parliament, and the success of Tudor bureaucratic reforms... Elton's work will survive as a useful example of patriotic writing based on meticulous scholarship. Britain has lost one of the greatest champions of its past genius."