4.) Church of England: King Henry VII convinced Parliament to make him head of the Church of England in 1533-1534. King Henry VII wanted to become the leader of the Church of England because the pope did not allow him to divorce his then current wife, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine did not give birth to a living male heir, which caused King Henry to become angry. When King Henry became head of the Church of England, he took over money-making Catholic Church properties.
He petitioned to the Pope for an annulment, and when he was refused, decided that he needed not permission from the Pope on church matters in England. He then divorced Catherine of Aragon after his mistress, Anne Boleyn, was found with child. The king’s close friend, Thomas More, was very much against this. Thomas and Henry had both been very devout Catholics, having written “Declaration of the seven Sacraments Against Martin Luther” together, and so Thomas was shocked and disappointed to see his loved friend go against the faith in such a way. Thomas confronted Henry about this, causing great conflict between the two.
Meanwhile, Henry VIII had broken from the Roman Catholic Church establishing himself as Head of the Church of England. He closed monasteries, sold church lands thereby increasing royal revenues. These outlandish actions of Henry and Luther led to years of controversy and ill will among the churches. Nevertheless, Luther’s protests prevailed in the end, ultimately bringing protestant reform to
In anger, King Henry broke from the church and made himself head of the church of England. King Henry could do whatever he wanted, because the people of England had lost their freedom. Laws were created which forced people to stop practicing the Catholic religion and turn to Protestantism, which resulted in a great loss of souls. While all of this was
King Henry’s marriage to Katherine was finally annulled and he remarried to one of the queen’s servants Anne Boleyn but she did not bear a son either. When he died England became mainly Calvinistic with hints of Protestantism. The Catholic Church had a fairly slow response to the accusations of the corruption but they did form the Council of Trent which had the main job of defeating heresy in the Church. This council also introduced the Counter-Reformation which made many changes to the way the Church was being run and added more intellect elements in with the teachings.
Battling two different religions in the mix of chaos, Queen Elizabeth attempts to satisfy the wishes of both Roman Catholics and Protestant beliefs. The rules of Henry VIII and Queen Mary I exacerbated the divide between the two secular religions. King Henry established the monarch’s role in the church’s doctrine and practices, allowing the crown to have authority over religion. Although a traditional Catholic, Henry favored the sentiment of breaking allegiance with Rome, which garnered support for the rise of Protestant beliefs. Under the rule of Edward VI, Protestantism continued.
King Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII held polar opposite views on the authority of the papacy and imperial power of the state. King Henry held the view that the secular government had legal control over the church, which gave him the ability to appoint layman to provide investitures to the clergy. Pope Gregory held the view that the Pope held sole power over the church. The reason why Pope Gregory held this view was, according to church teaching, God had given St. Peter the keys to heaven, and this authority was passed down from Pope to Pope. Pope Gregory made himself clear of his claim to power in The Dictates of the Pope.
With a new King on the throne of England, the kingdom and royal court was transformed into a fresh, flamboyant playground for the nobility of England, not to mention the new King Henry VIII. Gone were the days of Henry VII’s strict political reign. Unlike his father, Henry VIII believed his people desired to see him acting as a king and not be so concerned with matters of state. Cardinal Wolsey undoubtedly had an impressionable influence over the King himself and over the royal court. When analysing Henry VIII’s reign, it would be impossible to exclude Cardinal Wolsey from this.
Henry VIII broke away from the Church so that he was able to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon when she would not give him a son as a heir. The church would not grant him his annulment, so he excommunicated himself from the Church. By doing so he became Protestant, and England broke away from the Catholic Church. After Henry died, his son ruled, before he died as well. After the reign of her half brother, Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary, became queen of England.
The rise new monarchs who were powerful and established their absolute rule, contributed to the Reformation. A number of monarchs including Henry VIII considered the presence of a powerful church as a check on their authority since in many ways outside the King's authority and the property of the church was excused from royal taxation. Bishops still directed justice in church in agreement with the Canon Law. The flow of enormous amounts of money from the revenues of the country to the Papal treasury was also opposed by them. There was a weakened ability of rulers to influence events or resist the Papal demands for money.
As this happened and the reformation was starting to begin Henry had proclaimed himself the supreme head of the Church of England. The first source that I chose was 3.4 which is Henry VIII’s letter to Anne Boleyn I chose this because it a good depiction of how the reformation started because of his love for Ann and how this was a big problem for Henry because in order to marry here he had to divorce his current wife which would make the commoners lose more respect for him. The nobility has the highest rank among the great chain if being therefore they have the most respect among the commoners. Another source that caught my attention retaining to religion and how the appeal of of protestantism is
They believed that if a person was a widow they could re-marry but you couldn’t get a divorce if you just thought that your marriage wasn’t working. Henry tried to get the Pope to grant him an annulment but the Pope refused and in 1533 Henry was so angry with the church he ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to give him a divorce so that he could marry anne boleyn. “The Pope didn’t want this to happen but for the Archbishop to stay on good terms with Henry he had to give him a divorce”(The Reformation). With the divorce he also broke all ties with the Roman Catholic church. It took the king seven years to get an annulment from Catherine.
When King Henry decided that he would be a better fit for the head of the church, More did not want to acknowledge his idea as head of the church. From all the dilemmas that he had gone through, his life during his career was also greatly satisfying to what he had accomplished in his years of life. During his life, alive, he was a brilliant mind to the people around him. His work helped us find the confidence and has set
In the 16th century, Europe was having quite a lot of problems with their churches due to the R.C.C. One of the the problems was a greedy king that could not get a divorce. King Henry The VIII was that greedy king, and he caused loads of problems because the pope would not let him get a simple divorce. One way he approached this problem was build another church so he could get the blessing, so that’s what he did. Once he established The Church of England, he got the divorce and killed his former wife.
Along with the religious reformers, Henry VIII played an important role in the rise of Protestants due to the unwanted marriage with his wife, Catherine of Aragon that created a new religion. During the 16th century, the Pope would not grant the king a divorce to his wife that couldn’t produce more generations of royalty, so the Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church to have a new religion called Anglican. In 1534, the Act of Supremacy was granted to the king and it gave the supreme head title to King Henry VIII, it gave him authority and profits that he wouldn 't have been granted if the Protestant Reformation would not have sparked breaking away from the Catholic Church. Therefore, the Catholic Church slowly started to lose their authority of the Europe population because of the increase of Protestants and wanting freedom from the controlling church.
