The Henrician Reformation in England: Henry VIII and His Battle with the Catholic Church

During the 1530's and the 1540's England witnessed many drastic changes in the spheres of religious thought and theology, changes that swept the entire country in a very swift and powerful way. Strangely enough however, this change came not from a fervent desire to correct or cleanse the church, as in the case of the Luther Reformation, but rather was brought on almost entirely simply because Henry VIII wanted a divorce. His political need for a male heir combined with what he saw as Catherine's continued inability to provide him with just that, caused Henry VIII to seek for a way in which he might divorce Catherine and then marry Ann Boelyn, whom he thought would surely provided him with the male heir that he so desperately wanted.

Henry VIII originally appealed to the pope with the hope that his marriage to Catherine might be annulled on the grounds that she was first his brother's wife, however, when his appeal was denied (largely in part due to the fact that Rome and subsequently the pope was under the control of Charles V, nephew of Catherine of Aragon) Henry VIII wasted no time in launching a theological war against the papacy, in which he relied heavily on the writings of many theologians but in particular William Tyndale.

Then in1534, due largely to the influence of Thomas Cromwell, parliament ratified the Act of Supremacy which with the line, "The King and his heirs and successors from henceforth shall be taken for the only supreme head of the church of England,"[1] gave Henry VIII exactly what he was seeking-Royal Supremacy. This was important because as the supreme head of the church in England Henry VIII was now able to sanction the actions of Thomas Cranmer the Archbishop of Canterbury who had the year before in 1533, speaking directly of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine, declared, "it was indispensable for the Pope to license any such marriage."[2]

While Henry wasn't a true protestant like Thomas Cromwell, as is evident by his adoption of the Bishop's Book and the Act of Six Articles (both which had almost no deviation from traditional Catholicism) as the theological basis for the Church of England, he still introduced some radical moves that provoked the public. One of which was the wide dissolution of monasteries and chantries; confiscating land, artifacts, tapestries, and artwork in an effort to boost the Royal treasury and fund his lavish lifestyle. The Statute of Uses of 1536 was another unpopular move; designed to boost yields to the royal treasury by regulating the selling and inheritance of land, something that had previously been largely under the Church's direction, seeing as it owned at least 1/3 of the land in the country. These two actions prompted the Pilgrimage of Grace, the worst uprising of Henry VIII's reign.

In the end Henry VIII was successful in his move to consolidate power because he moved quickly and without mercy cutting down all that opposed him. Even his close friend Sir Thomas More who, "his Grace loved and trusted, dearly"[3] was unable to escape the executioner when for reasons of piety, refused to take an oath recognizing Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church in England. However, with time most of England's subjects came to accept the change. John Porte for example shows forth his changed outlook in his re-worked will and testament recognizing the King as the "supreme head of the church of England immediately under God."[4] Porte also eliminates form his will many of the Superstitious Uses that he had previously held in abundance. From this we can clearly see that the rollover from traditional Catholicism to the Church of England, although far from complete, was defiantly now well underway and permeating, just as the old Catholicism had done, into the daily lives of its followers.

[1] Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547): Act of Supremacy, 1534 at http://campus.northpark.edu/history/Classes/Sources/ActSupremacy.html

[2] Letter of Thomas Cranmer on Henry VIII's divorce, 1533 at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cranmer-hen8.html

[3]William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas More, chapter IV at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/16Croper-more.html

[4] John Porte (I) last will and testament, 6 March, 1540. PCC, 4 Alener: PROB 11/28, fo. 29v, transcribed by Norman Jones.