The Decline Of The Roman Catholic Church

I do not believe the only reason that Henry VIII wanted to dissolve the monasteries in England between 1536 and 1539 was because they were corrupt. I think Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries because of his financial and religious motives, he needed more money so he used the wealth of the monasteries and he wanted everyone in the

or the Anglican Church, which was headed by the king of England. Henry’s actions stimulated

Parts of the European political systems that remained untouched included the feudal political forms that remained strong, even with introduction of monarchies. Since European states thirsted for expansion of their states, military remained a top priority in funding; therefore, the strong feudal forms remained, although with shifted balance. Furthermore, ordinary people were not highly affected by the political changes, because politics did not concern them; all they had to worry about was paying their taxes as usual, and the general economic life was not altered.

Henry the VIII was the second English Tudor king, after his father, Henry VII. He reigned over England from, 21st April 1509 until, 28th January 1547. During his childhood and his first marriage, Henry was a firm believer of the Catholic Church and of the Pope. However things changed and later in Henrys reign the English reformation came to England; the monasteries were closed and Henry separated himself from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry was definitely starting to look more and more like a protestant. There are many points that we can use to decipher whether or not Henry VIII was really Catholic or Protestant and in this essay these points will be discussed to draw a conclusion.

The needs and wants of the masses were not taken into consideration. In this essay I am going to look at England pre-reformation and reach my own opinion of whether or not England was actually in need of a reformation in 1529.

In the Medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church played a great role in the development of England and had much more power than the Church of today does. In Medieval England, the Roman Catholic Church dominated everyday life and controlled everyone whether it is knights, peasants or kings. The Church was one of the most influential institutions in all of Medieval England and played a large role in education and religion. The Church's power was so great that they could order and control knights and sends them to battle whenever they wished to. The Church also had the power to influence the decision of Kings and could stop or pass laws which benefited them in the long run, adding to this, the Church had most of the wealth in Europe as the

Another reason why the Catholic Reformation was successful is because the Council of Trent made major reforms to the church. The Council of Trent were the council meet three sessions between 1545 and 1563 to discuss about doctrines and issues in the church. The Council of Trent was established by Pope Paul III who was widely known as the first pope of the Catholic reformation. The goal was not only to reform the catholic church, but also to secure reconciliation with the Protestants, as well as clarify some of the catholic doctrine. Some of the reformed doctrines includes forbidding the sells of indulgence and pluralism. Indulgence was a major problem because many people believed you can't pay indulgences for salvation but through faith you can. Pluralism was a major problem because it started absenteeism. People starting to question the church from indulgences and pluralism and forbidding was a big step to the church. Although the church solve some of the crucial problems, they did not change all

Source 9 and 7 disagrees with the statement and tells us that Henrys wish to divorce Catherine of Aragon was the driving force in the break from Rome. Source 9 is a letter written by Eustace Chapuys it tells us of his suspicions to why Cranmer was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury, “to the great astonishment of everybody”. He tells us that it is suspected that Cranmer has been made Archbishop as he “may authorise the new marriage in this parliament and can grant the necessary divorce”. Promoting Cranmer to Archbishop so hastily without consulting the Pope shows a clear break and the cause is shown to be the Henrys haste to gain the “necessary divorce”. Source 7 says about the Act in Restraint of Appeals that “in earlier drafts of the act, specific reference was made to the King’s divorce and the problems of succession”, this shows that one of the main pieces of legislation surrounding the break from Rome contained the personal matter of the King’s divorce, showing it was an important factor. However the validity of Source 9 is questionable as it is written by the ambassador to Charles V. Charles V was Catherine of Aragon’s nephew so Chapuys would probably place Catherine’s importance, in the break with rome, first.

During the 1500s, the citizens of England were overcome with multiple transitions of religion due to their monarch. The first notable instance of religious alteration was when Henry the VIII took the throne. During his reign, he ruled the Act of Supremacy, which separated England from the Catholic Church, and so Henry VIII established the Church of England, of which he was the leader of. This individual action indirectly prompted many other spiritual changes that would take place in England during the years to come, led by his successors. Even if his ruling may have ultimately been positive, it is utterly clear that at the time, Henry VIII's reformation was motivated purely by his selfish desires for a male heir. This was very dissimilar to Martin Luther's reformation, which was led by Luther's faith and loyalty to god. Though the two men both transformed the perception of religion in Europe drastically, the advancements were made for vastly different reasons. (#8)

Cramner appealed to Parliament to confirm that Henry’s marriage to Catherine was invalid. Henry secretly marries a lady in his court, Anne Boleyn, in 1533. He decides to officially break with the Catholic church the following year and makes himself the head of the Church of England. He appoints Cramner as his new Archbishop and Cramner publicly declares the marriage between King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon as invalid.

1. '77: To what extent and in what ways may the Renaissance be regarded as a turning point in the Western intellectual and cultural tradition?

belief, the church and religion in general provided an immense amount of influence on the

The period immediately following the Protestant reformation and the Catholic counter reformation, was full of conflict and war. The entire continent of Europe and all of it's classes of society were affected by the destruction and flaring tempers of the period. In the Netherlands, the Protestants and the Catholics were at eachother’s throats. In France it was the Guise family versus the Bourbons. In Bohemia, the religious and political structures caused total havoc for over thirty years; and in England, the Presbyterians thought that the English Anglican Church too closely resembled the Roman Catholic Church. Religion was the major cause of the widespread

Before the Reformation, England was a Roman Catholic society that was led by the Pope in Rome. Religious life followed a very traditional and structured way of life and was very much ‘deeply embedded in the

The writer’s emphasis is on the ‘intentionality’ of this reformation. The Tudor Reformation was carried out with extremely personal motive. As explained above, Henry VIII’s religious reformation was an event caused by his personal desire to marry Anne Boleyn. It was revealed by an attempt that Hnery tried to appeal to Pope Clement Ⅶ that his marriage was illegal according to the