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Reformation in England, Henry VIII
Henry VIII and the reformation he led
The causes of reformation in England
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“Albeit the king's Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England, and so is recognized by the clergy of this realm,...” this excerpt from the Act of Supremacy passed by the English Parliament in 1534 made King Henry VIII the leader for the Church of England (“Act”). Pope Clement VII and King Henry VIII both played a major role in the withdrawal of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Stubbornly, King Henry VIII rejected Pope Clement VII’s refusal to grant him a divorce, thus, resulting in England's rejection of the Church of Rome. In 1534, King Henry VIII declared that he should have final authority in the church therefore giving himself the ability to divorce his wife. Politics played the most important role in the cause of the England's withdraw from the Roman Catholic Church but culture and economics also played an important role.
Politics played a major role in England’s withdraw from the Roman Catholic Church because King Henry had a need for power. One example of King Henry VIII’s need for power was when he asked Pope Clement VII for an annulment after he and Catherine had been unable to produced a male heir for succession to the throne (“Henry”). At the time male heirs were most wanted so he could step up to the succession of the throne and not have to find a spouse to take control. Henry felt he needed to have his family stay in control of the throne and not gift the throne to another family through a female heir. Considering King Henry VIII thought he needed authority of
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Politics; a thirst for power and war within England, Economics; desires for riches, land and status and Culture; in the conflict people face in a in show of support for either the church or King. These factors were the driving forces behind the historic split between England and the
After many failed attempts to obtain a divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII took momentous steps that led to "The Reformation," a significant occurrence in the history of religion. Prior to the reformation, all of England's inhabitants including King Henry VIII prescribed to Catholicism. In fact, King Henry VIII was such a strong supporter that he was given the title "Defender of the Faith" by the pope for his efforts in protecting Catholicism against the Protestants. However, all these changed upon the pope's denial of Henry's request for a divorce.
Overall, political causes were a constant factor throughout the period, and although socio-economic causes were always present, by the end of the Tudor dynasty they began to decline. Both religion and dynasty both had periods of time when they took precedence in rebellions and were of particular importance. But it is throughout the reigns of both Henry VIII and Elizabeth, when faction became more narrowly focused, that political causes are at their most constant and similar.
However, he would also stress the importance for a centralized religious authority. Henry VIII used the church and the idea of the church being all powerful in combination with the monarchy to solidify his position as a strong ruler. When Henry VIII had to repeatedly ask the church for permission to take action with his marriages and life, he realized that he was limited by the church. Henry VIII wanted to be all powerful, and having to answer to the church meant that he was not. In 1533 he passed the Act in Restraint of Appeals. This act, which stripped the papacy the right of taking judicial action, made Henry VIII the highest judicial authority in England. This was his first move to take some of the power away from the church, while still leaving it as a respected institution involved with the state. Shortly after though, in 1534, Henry VIII passed the Act of Supremacy. This created the Anglican Church of England, and named Henry VIII the head of it. This break with the Catholic church and merge of head of church with the head of state was not an action made to create a more holy and divine nation, it was political. He knew that the path to true power and control was through the church and he used it to his advantage. The relationship that Henry VIII forced between the church and his position as head of state made it essentially impossible for him and his rule to be
These two opposing religions had their differences be known be the other side and would fight for their ideas to be the ones all to follow. Conrad Russel states in his book The Causes of the English Civil War, that England “was a society with several religions, while still remaining a society with a code of values and a political system which were only designed to be workable with one”. Inside the Church of England was essentially two churches, Protestant and Catholic. Both sides were determined that their religion was going to be the one in the church and not the one outside looking in. Both sides wanted to control the authoritative powerhouse of England and would do anything to have the Church of England become the church of their religion. However, religious differences did not just occur between the citizens, it also occurred between King Charles I and Parliament. First off let’s look at King Charles himself. Charles was a very religious monarch who liked his worship to be High Anglican. He also believed the hierarchy of priests and bishops was very important, which alarmed Parliament because they believed that King Charles was leaning towards the idea of Catholicism in England. King Charles’ form of worship was seen by the Puritan faith as a form of popery. This upset them because they wanted a pure worship without icons or bishops. To clarify, popery is the doctrines, practices, and ceremonies associated with the pope or the papal system; Roman Catholicism. Charles also wanted to support William Laud who was the leader of the High Church Anglican Party because they had recently became prominent. Parliament strongly disagreed with the King’s decision because they feared that Laud would promote Roman Catholicism ideas and
One of the consequences of the Act was that the first allegiance of the clergy was changed from the papacy to Henry VIII. As well as this, traditional privileges the Church was entitled such as the benefit of the Clergy and sanctuary were abolished .This implies that the Act of Supremacy 1534 played a greater role in changing the relationship between the Church and State because it undermined the authority of the church within England as the controlling of the church’s finances, administration and development was shifted Henry. All of these changes suggest that the previous close relationship between the Church and state had weakened as they contributed to the paving for the growth of Protestantism. In addition, despite the fact both the Acts of Supremacy reinforced royal control, Henry being confirmed as ‘Supreme Head of Church’ would have had a greater impact on the relationship between the Church and State in the 16th century than Elizabeth becoming ‘Supreme Governor’ because Elizabeth’s title still applied that the pope was supreme head whilst Henry’s highlighted the fact that Henry was the only head of church - further undermining the influence of the
from Rome, Henry had to get rid of them to show that he was now in
King Henry VIII is considerable the most controversial monarch Great Britain has ever had. He is commonly known for his ill-advised decisions, six wives, and splitting Great Britain from the Catholic Church to create the Church of England. King Henry VIII of England’s determination to guarantee his family line’s continuation in the throne caused many problems, such as religious tensions, economic hardships, and political adversaries that continued one long after his death.
The relationship between Henry VIII’s desire for a male heir and the Dissolution Act was that Henry VIII wanted a boy for a son. Katherine of Aragon had not been able to produce a male heir. So he decided he needed to get rid of her so he can marry his next wife. Katherine was to old to have any more children
the aftermath of the Protestant reformation. In England, after the establishment of the separate Anglican church of England there were many protestant groups left in England still in conflict. These groups all tried to push and pull parliament in their favor -- which ultimately made it so that nothing could be done. These conflicts even came to the point of bloody civil wars and suffering on both sides of the fighting. Parliament ultimately decided to stop these wars by creating religious Act of Toleration (1689) for the non-conformist protestants.
...nded Parliament to finalize the break between the Catholic Church and England. The Act of Supremacy of 1534, passed by Parliament, explained that the king was the ruler over the Church of England. Altogether, the Reformation was a period of religious confusion that ultimately led to new and more organized branches of Christianity.
One of the very first things Henry did was dissolve all the Catholic monasteries and take over their land, selling it to people known as the "gentry class" also referred to as the "land owning class". (which continued to dominate the English commons until the mid-19th century). Henry ridding all of these monasteries' really affected the Catholics, as they were an important part in community life and vital to the economy. People travelling and making pilgrimages often looked to monasteries' as a free place to stay for the night, people were now going to have to look and pay for accommodation, if monasteries' weren't going to be open people weren't interested in coming to England, which really damaged its economy (Tom Richey, 2014). (enotes.com, 2015) explains that during his reign, King Henry VIII permitted a translation of the bible from Latin to English, the "Lord's Prayer" was recited in English rather than Latin and priests of the English church, were not allowed to marry. Around this time was when monarchs were starting to gain more power and the church and nobility were losing their
The traces of the split can be seen nearly five hundred years ago during the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. During King Henry VIII’s rule, Henry had wanted a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne Boleyn. When the Pope would refuse to allow a divorce between Catherine and Henry, Henry would decide to start his own church so that he could be in a position of power to proceed with the divorce. This church would become the Church of England. Through this radical break away from the social norm, Henry VIII would be remembered as a man who would go to great lengths to get what he wanted. This break would also signify the beginning of the Protestant Reformation across Europe. This event marks the first time that two groups are seen as a national friend and foe recognition. As Bartlett notes, “By the 1570’s loyal and disloyal ...
After the death of Henry in 1547, a 10 year old Edward came to the throne. The English Church became increasingly Protestant in worship and doctrine under the Protestant Lord Somerset. Mary succeeded the throne after Edward’s death in 1553. Mary was a devout Catholic and saw it her mission to restore Catholicism back to England. She used mainly persecution to do this, by burning Protestants for not renouncing their beliefs, these actions turned many English people against Catholicism.
For people in England , there was always the real problem - do you obey the king or the pope ? In fact, this was rarely a problem as both kings and popes tended to act together as both wanted to remain powerful. On two occasions they fell out - one involved the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, and the other Henry VIII.
Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I may have been the English Reformation’s greatest benefactors, all because of self interest. Henry VIII was not originally Protestant, but after the pope denied him of his divorce, Henry VIII took things into his own hands. Due to the power kings had in the Middle Ages, Henry VIII was able to control Parliament and force it to do whatever he wanted. So in 1534, Henry VIII forced Parliament to pass a law he made known as the Act of Supremacy. The Act of Supremacy stated that the king ought to be the head of the Church of England. This law gave the king complete power over the Church of England, instead of the pope. However, the type of church and state relationship did not change. Rather all the Act of Supremacy did was take power from the pope and give it to the king. Surprisingly, the Catholics did not retaliate against this strong change. The pope had always been the head of the church, but now the king had taken his position. This serves as an example of nationalism. The Catholics did not think about how removing the pope could harm their religion in any way. However, instead the people blindly followed Henry VIII because he was the leader of the nation and they assumed he was right. Also, by imposing other laws that punished Protestants, Henry VIII did not give the people much of a choice. Fortunately, for Henry VII, nationalis...