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Henry Viii And The Reformation In England

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Henry VIII and the Reformation in England Politics and Dynastic Concerns

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List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation - Wikipedia

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The Roman Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation are men and women executed under treason legislation in the English Reformation, between 1534 and 1680, and recognised as martyrs by the Roman Catholic Church. Though consequences of the English Reformation were felt in Ireland and Scotland as well, this article only covers those who died in the Kingdom of England.

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Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 - 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I.

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Catherine of Aragon was the youngest surviving child of Ferdinand and Isabella, the joint rulers of Spain, and as was common for princesses of the day, her parents almost immediately began looking for a political match for her. When she was three year old, she was betrothed to Arthur, the son of Henry VII of England.

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Catherine (also Katherine) of Aragon was a Spanish princess, the first wife of Henry VIII and mother of Mary I. Henry's desire to annul his marriage to...

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Citation: C N Trueman "Henry VIII - Timeline"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 16 Mar 2015. 2 Jun 2018.

Any timeline of Henry VIII will show a great number of major events that changed the course of England's history. A timeline for Henry VIII will show how a divorce from Catherine of Aragon led to the English Reformation - this led to the break from the Catholic Church in Rome and eventually in the reign of Edward VI was to lead to the establishment of the Church of England.

1491: Henry VIII born at Greenwich Palace (June 28 th)

1501: Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon married

1502: Prince Arthur died

1505: Papal dispensation for Henry's marriage to Catherine granted (March)

1509: Henry VII died (April 21 st)

1509: marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (June 11 th)

1516: Mary, only surviving child of Henry and Catherine, was born

1527: probable year that Henry VIII decided to annul his marriage to Catherine.

1528: Henry VIII joined an alliance with Francis I and Clement VII against Charles V.

1529: There was a failure to reach an agreement over the annulment of the marriage between Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio. The case was moved to Rome. The year in which Wolsey lost power. The year in which the Reformation Parliament first sat - one of seven sittings. Anti-clericalism was rife in this Parliament.

1530: an attempt was made to win the support of European universities for Henry's case for an annulment. Thomas Cromwell joined Henry's Royal Council. 'Collectanea satis copiosa' - evidence against the Pope's powers - was compiled.

1531: Henry VIII became 'head of the Church in England and Wales as far as the word of God allows.'

1532: 'Supplication against the Ordinances' drawn up by the House of Commons. This led to the Submission of the Clergy by Convocation'. Cranmer appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. The Act in Restraint of Annates was introduced which stopped all but 5% of payments by newly appointed senior clergy to the Pope. It came into effect in 1533.

1533: Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn (January 25 th). Marriage between Henry and Catherine of Aragon was annulled in April by Cranmer. Act in Restraint of Appeals introduced. Anne was crowned queen on May 31 st. Elizabeth was born on September 7 th.

1534: Pope Clement VII ruled that Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was valid. The Act of Supremacy was introduced. Thomas Cromwell was appointed day-to-day controller of the Church.

1535: John Fisher and Thomas More executed

1536: start of the dissolution of the smaller monasteries.

'Ten Articles' was published.

Cromwell issued his first set of 'Injunctions'.

Catherine of Aragon died (January 7 th)

Anne Boleyn executed (May 19 th) and marriage to Jane Seymour quickly followed.

Pilgrimage of Grace started in October.

1537: The 'Bishops' Book' was published. Edward born; Jane Seymour died (October)

1538: the first publication of the English translation of the Bible.

Second set of Injunctions issued by Cromwell. These 'discouraged' specific Roman Catholic 'superstitions'.

1539: The Act of Six Articles was issued, which reaffirmed most Catholic beliefs.

1540: Marriage to Anne of Cleves (January). It was annulled in July.

Thomas Cromwell was arrested (June 10 th) and executed (July 28 th). Marriage to Catherine Howard (July)

1541: Henry made King of Ireland (June)

1542: Catherine Howard executed (February)

1543: the 'King's Book' was published, which has been used to provide evidence that Henry still supported Catholicism.

Marriage to Catherine Parr (July)

1547: Henry VIII died (January 28 th) aged 57. His reign had lasted 37 years and 8 months.

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Henry VIII - Timeline - History Learning Site

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Any timeline of Henry VIII will show a great number of major events that changed the course of England's history. A timeline for Henry VIII will show how a divorce from Catherine of Aragon led to the English Reformation - this led to the break from the Catholic Church in Rome and eventually in the reign ...

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The Church of England

The protestant movement arrived in England after the Pope would not grant King Henry VIII the right to divorce his wife Catherine. Henry VIII wanted to produce a male heir. He feared that without an heir his nation would again be thrown into civil war. His marriage to Catherine had only produced daughters, and she was too old to bear any additional children.

After being denied the right to divorce, King Henry VIII convinced Parliament to declare the Church in England separate from that of the Catholic Church and to place himself at the head of the Church.

After becoming the head of the newly formed church, King Henry VIII granted his divorce. He then married Anne Boleyn. After she failed to produce a male heir, King Henry VIII had her executed on charges of treason. He would marry four more times and would have only one son who would rule as King Edward VI.

Edward ruled only for a short time and died in 1553 A.D. Following his death, King Henry's Catholic daughter came to the throne. Her name was Mary. Queen Mary attempted to use fear and death to bring the Catholic Church back into England. After putting many people to death, she became known as Bloody Mary.

Queen Mary was overthrown by her half-sister Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth was Protestant, and helped to strengthen the Church of England. She brought all the people together by making the Church of England more like the Catholic Church while still maintaining it as a separate church.

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The Church of England The protestant movement arrived in England after the Pope would not grant King Henry VIII the right to divorce his wife Catherine. Henry VIII wanted to produce a male heir. He feared that without an heir his nation would again be thrown into civil war.

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King Henry VIII, the creation of the Church of England and the six wives of the King

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King Henry VIII, the creation of the Church of England and the six wives of the King

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Ok so, King Henry influenced the Church because of his many wives. The fact that the Catholic Church wouldn't let him divorce Catherine of Aragon, made him bitter towards the Pope and Catholics. He split England from the Roman Church and created the Church of England and made himself the head of this new Church. Henry then divorced Catherine and sent her away (as well as their daughter Mary) and married Anne Boleyn. Anne was a Protestant and Henry converted to Protestant. Henry later beheaded Anne on the charge of being a witch and then sent away their daughter Elizabeth. Henry then married Jane Seymour. She died of natural causes as she was the only wife that gave Henry a son. Following Jane's death, he married Anne of Cleves. Then Katherine Howard and finally Katherine Parr.

Basically, King Henry was a stubborn pain of a king and because he couldn't get his way, he changed the Church and the laws of the Church.

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Roots of the Reformation

It's one of those things everybody's heard of but nobody really quite understands. The culmination of centuries of Catholic corruption, or a bit of a fluke? The consequence of a European power vacuum, or grand theological debate? A reasonable quest for a son and heir, or simply a result of Henry VIII's lustful nature?

Well, it is down to all of those, really. If it were as simple as any one of these options, there would be little mystery. They were all necessary for the English Reformation, but not one by itself was sufficient to bring about the chain of events that would eventually alter England and Englishness forever. So much in history is a bastard child of both long-standing, simmering emotion and the opportunistic seizing of a moment. By its nature unexpected, it is also unpredictable, and shaped as much by environment and chance as by its progenitors. The Reformation was no different.

The story really begins over a hundred years earlier, when the Papacy began to reap the effects of centuries of compromise. The Great Schism saw two, even three individuals claiming to be the Pope, and the Council of Constance in the early fifteenth century saw a power struggle between Bishops and Pope. Combined, they hindered Papal government and harmed the reputation of the Church in the eyes of the laity. They led early sixteenth century popes to resist reform and bolster their own position by using their spiritual power, along with war and diplomacy, to become territorial princes in Italy, building their bank accounts on the way.

In England, the same period saw John Wyclif, an Oxford academic, anticipate the arguments of Martin Luther over a century later, and also produce the first English Bible. Piers Plowman, a popular poetic satire, attacked abuses in the entire church, from Pope to priest. But nothing happened. Wyclif's supporters, the Lollards, were driven underground after their failed rebellion of 1414, and remained a persecuted minority for another hundred years. The church carried on unabashed and proud, selling offices and indulgences, a political plaything for princes and a useful source of income for second sons and men on the make. And forget celibacy.

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It's one of those things everybody's heard of but nobody really quite understands. The culmination of centuries of Catholic corruption, or a bit of a fluke? The consequence of a European power vacuum, or grand theological debate? A reasonable quest for a son and heir, or simply a result of Henry VIII's lustful nature?

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A secure Protestant identity

Despairing at the Queen's obstinacy and at the apparent indifference of broad sections of the population to the call to a godlier lifestyle, evangelicals took refuge in brotherhoods and congregations that became increasingly detached from the mainstream church. The frustration of reform measures in the Parliaments of 1571 and 1572 led some into formal separation. In the latter years of Elizabeth's reign Puritanism gave way to sectarian non-conformity, and eventually into outright confrontation with the established church.

But the numbers involved in such open dissidence were small, the vast majority of the godly preferring to remain in communion and to seek consolation in voluntary associations which provided an appropriate context for the puritan lifestyle. And in the main, their choice was justified, for whatever their disappointment at Elizabeth's lack of godly zeal, England's general allegiance to the Protestant cause was not in doubt. Even from the beginning of the reign there were evident proofs of this in an ambitious foreign policy which led swiftly to confrontation with the leading Catholic powers. By the last quarter of the century England was destined to play a pivotal role in the survival of Calvinist powers on the Continent, as they faced the most profound threat to their survival from a resurgent Catholicism.

By the time Elizabeth's long reign came to an end in 1603, English people had come to esteem their Church. The trials of the last three decades had in a very real sense secured England's Protestant identity. Through a generation of conflict in which the enemy had been foreign, Catholic and dangerous, English people had come to identify their Church and Protestantism, as a cornerstone of their identity.

This was not manifested, necessarily, in any very profound grasp of the theological tenets of faith. While English readers seem to have been avid consumers of catechisms and other cheap volumes of religious instruction, their clergy, as elsewhere in Europe, continued to lament how shallow was their grasp of doctrine. Yet the identification could be more subtle and oblique, but still very real. The Catholic festival year, for instance, had been gradually superseded by a calendar of new, largely unofficial and profoundly Protestant patriotic festivals: the defeat of the Armada, Crownation day, the date of Elizabeth's accession. In 1605 they would be joined by 5 November, the date of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, proof, if proof were needed that Catholicism was still considered perfidious, deadly and deeply un-English. The celebration of Guy Fawkes' day with bonfires and fireworks is a reminder of how fresh these Reformation controversies remained in the consciousness of the people for many centuries.

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Despairing at the Queen's obstinacy and at the apparent indifference of broad sections of the population to the call to a godlier lifestyle, evangelicals took refuge in brotherhoods and congregations that became increasingly detached from the mainstream church. The frustration of reform measures in the Parliaments of 1571 and 1572 led some into formal separation.

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Citation: C N Trueman "The Reformation"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 17 Mar 2015. 2 Jun 2018.

The English Reformation started in the reign of Henry VIII. The English Reformation was to have far reaching consequences in Tudor England. Henry VIII decided to rid himself of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after she had failed to produce a male heir to the throne. He had already decided who his next wife would be - Anne Boleyn. By 1527, Catherine was considered too old to have anymore children.

However, a divorce was not a simple issue. In fact, it was a very complicated one. Henry VIII was a Roman Catholic and the head of this church was the pope based in Rome.

The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not recognise, let alone support, divorce. Those who were widowed were free to re-marry; this was an entirely different issue. But husbands could not simply decide that their marriage was not working, divorce their wife and re-marry. The Roman Catholic Church simply did not allow it.

This put Henry VIII in a difficult position. If he went ahead and announced that as king of England he was allowing himself a divorce, the pope could excommunicate him. This meant that under Catholic Church law, your soul could never get to Heaven. To someone living at the time of Henry, this was a very real fear, and a threat which the Catholic Church used to keep people under its control.

Another approach Henry used was to make a special appeal to the pope so that he might get a special "Papal Dispensation". This meant that the pope would agree to Henry's request for a divorce purely because Henry was king of England but that it would not affect the way the Catholic Church banned divorce for others. The pope refused to grant Henry this and by 1533 his anger was such that he ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant him a divorce so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

The Archbishop granted Henry his divorce - against the wishes of the pope. But what else could the archbishop do if he wanted to remain on good terms with Henry?

This event effectively lead to England breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church based in Rome. Henry placed himself as head of the church and in that sense, in his eyes, his divorce was perfectly legal. In 1533, few were brave enough to tell him otherwise!

How did the people of England react to this? In fact, the vast bulk of the population were very angry at the way the Roman Catholic Church had used them as a source of money. To get married you had to pay; to get a child baptised (which you needed to be if you were to go to Heaven - so the Catholic Church preached) you had to pay; you even had to pay the Church to bury someone on their land (which you had to do as your soul could only go to Heaven if you were buried on Holy Ground). Therefore, the Catholic Church was very wealthy while many poor remained just that....poor. Their money was going to the Catholic Church. Therefore, there were no great protests throughout the land as many felt that Henry would ease up on taking money from them. Henry knew of the Catholic Church's unpopularity and, therefore, used this to his advantage.

Henry was made Supreme Head of the Church by an Act of Parliament in 1534. The country was still Catholic but the pope's power had been ended.

The most wealthy Catholics in England were the monasteries where monks lived. They were also the most loyal supporters of the pope. This made them a threat to Henry.

By the time of Henry, many monks had grown fat and were lazy. They did not help the community as they were meant to do. All they seemed to do was take money from the poor. Also some monasteries were huge and owned vast areas of land. So here were monks not loyal to Henry who were also very wealthy. Henry decided to shut down the monasteries of England. The monasteries were to disappear like sugar dissolves in hot liquid. This is why Henry's attack on the monasteries is called the 'Dissolution' - they were to be dissolved!

Henry wanted to make the Dissolution appear to be backed by law. He sent round government officials to check up on what the monks were doing. This was organised by his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. The officials knew what the king wanted in their reports - information that the monks were not working, were not saying their prayers etc. Anything to discredit the monks was considered useful. Sometimes, the monks were asked trick questions. "Do you keep all of your vows?" If the monks answered "yes", but had taken a vow of silence, they had not kept all of their vows. If they refused to answer because of their vow of silence, they would be accused of failing to help the king. Or worse, were they trying to hide something?

One report sent to Cromwell commented that the head of the monastery visited, the prior, was a "virtuous man". However, his monks were "corrupt" and "full of vice". The report claimed that the monks had eight to ten girl friends each. This was all that Cromwell needed to shut down the monastery.

The allegations against some monks and nuns 'spoke' for themselves. At Bradley monastic house, the prior was accused of fathering six children; at Lampley Convent, Mariana Wryte had given birth to three children and Johanna Standen to six; at Lichfield Convent, two nuns were found to be pregnant and at Pershore Monastic House, monks were found to be drunk at Mass.

The smaller monasteries were shut down by 1536 while the larger and more valuable ones were shut by 1540. Few people in England were sorry to see them go. Few monks protested as they were given pensions or jobs where their monastery was. The abbot of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, Marmaduke Bradley, was given a £100 pension a year for life - a considerable sum of money then. Some chief monks - abbots - were hanged but this was a rarity.

Some monastery buildings were reduced to ruin as the local population was allowed to take what they wanted as long as the silver and gold in the monastery went to the Crown. This meant that expensive building bricks etc. could be acquired for free. This alone made the Dissolution popular with the majority of the people who tended to dislike lazy monks anyhow.

The ruined abbey at Battle - a victim of the Reformation

However, the vast bulk of the wealth of the monasteries went to Henry. Some was spent building defences against France on the south coast around Portsmouth; a small amount went on paying pensions to monks and abbots.

The only real protest in England to what Henry was doing came in 1536 with the Pilgrimage of Grace. This was lead by Robert Aske, a lawyer. He wanted the monasteries left alone. Aske, along with several thousands of others, marched to London. Henry promised to look into their complaints and many of the protesters went home satisfied with this. Their complaints were never looked into.

Aske was arrested and hung from a church tower in chains until he died of starvation.

When Henry became king in 1509, the church in England was as follows:

Head of the Church: the pope based in Rome Church services: all were held in Latin Prayers: all said in Latin Bible: written in Latin Priests: not allowed to marry

By the death of Henry in 1547, the church in England was as follows :

Head of the Church : the king Church services : held in Latin Prayers: most said in Latin. The "Lord's Prayer" was said in English Bible: written in English Priests: not allowed to marry.

To reform means to change. This is why this event is called the English Reformation as it did change the way the church was run throughout England. However, the death of Henry in 1547 did not see an end of the religious problems of England.

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The English Reformation started in the reign of Henry VIII. The English Reformation was to have far reaching consequences in Tudor England. Henry VIII decided to rid himself of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after she had failed to produce a male heir to the throne.