Similarities Between Luther And King Henry Viii

Martin Luther and King Henry VIII are similar in the sense that they both formed new churches, but their ways of going about it and goals were not even close. Luther’s ideas became the basis Protestant Church and Henry’s became the Church of England. Although, the end result of Luther and King Henry VIII’s actions was similar, their intents and actions differed from each other.
Martin Luther is known to be a key initiator to the Protestant Reformation, although he had no intention of doing so. He was going to become a monk, so he read deeply into scriptures, but this only led him to discover inconsistencies between traditions and the Bible. These inconsistencies lead him to demand changes in the Catholic Church; however that did not include

a whole new church. Martin Luther did not believe in the selling of indulgences in order to get time out of purgatory. He believed that in order to be saved by God, all man had to do was believe that Jesus died for their sins. Luther had written a letter to the Church titled 95 Theses, inside it listed reasons why traditions and doctrines were not reliable. This letter was stapled on to the Castle Church and was viewed by many. The reactions to this varied; however, one of the biggest things to come out of it was the basis for the Protestant Reformation. Even though Luther had sparked the reformation he had absolutely no intention of doing so. In fact, once the Peasants’ Rebellion started, Luther did not support them. All in all, Luther did not believe in starting a new church, all he wanted to do was start a discussion, yet he formed the basis of the Protestant Church and sparked an uprising.
As for King Henry VIII, he wanted to create a new church entirely, which he did, the Church of England. However, Henry’s intentions for it did not involve solving dissimilarities in the Bible. King Henry created the Church of England because the pope refused to divorce Henry and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The pope’s reasoning for not divorcing them is for two reasons. One, at the time Charles V was indirectly holding the pope prisoner. This is significant because Charles V is the nephew of Catherine of Aragon and did not want her to be humiliated. If the pope had granted King Henry his wish, all ties between the Holy Roman Empire and the Church would be lost. Second, the pope had already gone out of his way to marry King Henry and his wife. If he were to divorce him, it’d seem as though he’d gone back on his word and would then lose legitimacy. King Henry wanted a divorce so he could find a new wife who could give him a son, unlike Catherine who had failed him. He desired a son so he could have an heir to the throne. This way the hierarchy remained within the Tudor family, and no wars or battles broke out. Henry did not make any actions like preach or write letters in order to gain support, he just wrote the Act of Supremacy, which made him the head of the church, and got rid of every monastery. Essentially, King Henry VIII was in such a dire need of a son that he broke off ties with the Catholic Church and formed his own.
Overall, Martin Luther and King Henry VIII played an important role in religious reformations during the 1500’s. Despite having both created their own religious structures, their intents and actions could not have differed more. Martin Luther wanted to fix small things within the church while still remaining part of the Catholic Church. Henry created a whole new church so he could divorce and have an heir to the throne.