Exam 1, Question 1
The Protestant Reformation of the Church of England took place over a hundred year period under the Tudor monarchy. Beginning with Henry VIII desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon, the reformation exposed deep rifts within English society. The radical efforts of Edward VI and Mary turned into religious persecution. It was left to Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor dynasty, to institute the final reforms and ensure the success of Protestantism within the Church of England.
Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church for selfish reasons. Henry, frustrated by the delays and excuses he received from Pope Clement VII, declared himself the “proctor and supreme head” of the Church of England. This effectively split the Church of England from the Catholic Church. Henry could now affect an annulment to his marriage to Catharine of Aragon. Although the Church England was no longer in compliance with the Roman Catholic Church, it nevertheless, remained Roman Catholic in looks and feel. The one major change Henry implemented was the dissolution of the monasteries and convents. Since the monastic orders owed allegiance to the Pope, Henry could not tolerate them in England. Henry confiscated their land and wealth and distributed it to his supporters.
In contrast to his father, Henry, Edward VI allowed sweeping changes within the Church of England. Edward assumed the throne as a young child and therefore his advisors, strong Protestants, influenced him greatly. They were incredibly motivated to reform the doctrines and rituals of the Church of England. Priests were officially allowed to marry. Because the Latin services were exchanged for English ones, a new prayer book was published to i...
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...its founder’s military background in its organization. The group’s leader, the black pope, acted as a general and enforced strict discipline within the organization. Because of its missionary and educational role, the society directly encountered and confronted Protestants on a daily basis.
The Counter-Reformation sparked by the Council of Trent and under the momentum of the Jesuits reinvigorated Catholics. This new energy helped spread Catholicism back into areas of Europe which had converted to Protestantism and exported the Catholic faith into colonial establishments in the New World. The education efforts of the Jesuits brought wider spread literacy to Catholic areas. Counter-Reformation leaders also founded a tradition of charity by preaching the benefits of almsgiving and the founding of orphanages. This provided shelter for the vast number of poor.
Cromwell initiated these changes to the faith, but Henry's Catholic faith ensured these changes were not too radical and chantries were still allowed to pray for souls in purgatory. Although Henry remained a Catholic, the end of papal power was signified in his becoming the head of the Church of England. However, with such movements that shook the foundations of England's faith, why was there so little opposition to the Henrician reformation? Perhaps on of the greatest tactics employed by the crown to prevent opposition was provoking fear amongst those who were likely to oppose the reformation. Henry had to start from the top, and therefore started by controlling parliament.
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
The Anglican Church and the English government were closely related to each other; the king not only ruled the country, but was the head of the church as well. Therefore, disobeying the church meant that people also acted against the king[i]. Like governmental organization, the Church of England was based on a hierarchal structure. It favored powerful bishops, ornate services and liturgies, and allowed people to personally observe the religion. During King Charles I’s reign, royal and elite citizens of England largely composed the Church of England[ii]. These close connections between the church and the state allowed for much corruption to take place[iii].
This also said that Rome had no power to rule over matrimonial cases. This allowed Henry to gain his divorce as Cranmer declared Henry’s marriage with. Catherine null and void, and Henry married Anne. This moves England away from the Catholic faith as he has now split with the Romans. A major part of the Catholic Church was that the Pope decided what happened, for example, who gained a divorce, and Henry has now split.
VIII on England grew up as a very strong Catholic, at the insistence of his
The church was an integral part of the British society in the 17th century, and the Reformation which featured the split of the Catholic church under Henry VIII provoked feelings of uncertainty amongst the general population. The weakness of the established church had been revealed, generating disunity among the highly conservative and religious population. Nachman Ben-Yehuda describes the effect of this transformation in relation to the witchcraze: "Where the Catholic Church was weakest {they} experienced a virulent witch craze. Where the Catholic Church was strong hardly any witch craze occurred". This correlates to the figures for Italy, Spain and Portugal, countries where the church was strong, having much lower fi... ...
The Counter-Reformation also known as the Catholic Reformation took place in Italy during the 1500’s. The Counter-Reformation was an event that happen within the Roman Catholic which tried to abolish the mistreatment of regulations within the church. The Counter-Reformation was essentially the attempt to reform the Catholic Church ideals, so they wouldn’t lose anymore citizens to the Protestant religion at the time. The Counter-Reformation arose largely due to the effects of the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation took place in the 16th century where there was a religious, intellectual, political, and culture uproar that divided South Europe. The Protestant Reformation was were the citizens started to question the Catholic religion
The practices of The Catholic Church during the sixteenth century caused a monk named Martin Luther to question The Church’s ways. Luther watched as families suffered physically, emotionally and economically by the hands of The Church. Luther saw no basis for The Church to charge people for their sins or prevent them from learning to read The Bible themselves. He watched as the money built up The Palace, yet tore apart the fundamental and spiritual reasons one goes to church in the first place. In an effort to change the practices of The Church, he wrote the 95 Thesis. In these, he stated his views on the abuses of The Church. This was the beginning of a large movement that would change religious practices over the world.
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 ...
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
This caused a lot of deaths during the Reformation period because the Catholic church decided to prosecute people for following and listening to what Luther had taught them about the real Catholic Teachings. The Council of Trent was a way to stop the teachings of Catholic traditions and state clearly the renewal of the Catholic life. The work of the council was concerned with the organisation of the Church. A seminary was going to be set up for the education of priests in each diocese. During the reformation a Catechism which is a clear summary of Catholic beliefs was set out to help reform the order of Mass throughout the Catholic world which priests then helped educate and teach this understanding to Catholics. Indulgence selling was abolished which means that it was no longer a way for the Church to scavenge money and the infamous Inquisition was
Many bishops and abbots (especially in countries where they were also territorial princes) bore themselves as secular rulers rather than as servants of the Church. Many members of cathedral chapters and other beneficed ecclesiastics were chiefly concerned with their income and how to increase it, especially by uniting several prebends (even episcopal sees) in the hands of one person, who thus enjoyed a larger income and greater power. Luxury prevailed widely among the higher clergy, while the lower clergy were often oppressed. The scientific and ascetic training of the clergy left much to be desired, the moral standard of many being very low, and the practice of celibacy not everywhere observed. Not less serious was the condition of many monasteries of men, and even of women (which were often homes for the unmarried daughte...
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...
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.
The beginning of the split between the Roman at Catholic Church was sparked in the first quarter of the sixteenth century (Burrell, 105). The loss of credibility and split of the Roman Catholic Church is more popularly identified as the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was set in motion by many factors. The most fundamental components of the Protestant Reformation were Martin Luther and the printing press. The result of Martin Luther’s actions and the utilization of the printing press left the Roman Catholic Church with no choice but to respond to the out break of new ideas.