Was The Tudor's Effect On The English Church?

On Friday, May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn, former Queen of England, was executed for high treason and adultery, her head severed from her body by an expert swordsman, the only concession given her by her ex-husband King Henry VIII. How, in so short a time, had the woman that Henry had defied the religious tradition of England for, divorcing his wife and changing the history of religion in his country, whom he pursued relentlessly for years, fallen so far, so quickly? To understand one must examine Henry’s desperate need for a male heir, understand the politics of the time, and the personality of Anne Boleyn herself. Anne’s involvement with religion, politics, foreign affairs and fashion are still being seen centuries after her death. Filled

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.

Henry VIII's Reformation In 1529 Henry VIII started to reform the Catholic Church in England, however there are different opinions as to why he began these controversial changes. The orthodox view concurs that there was a vast anti-clerical feeling in 16th century England; the corrupt church was unpopular with the masses. However the revisionist view claims that the reformation was actually due to politics. Henry needed a male heir and therefore needed a divorce.

He closed down many Catholic monasteries to seize their wealth. When he was not permitted to divorce his first wife by the Pope at the time, he split from the Catholic church entirely. Louis may have thrown several parties with the money he had collected through very high taxes, but Henry’s actions negatively helped kick-start the strenuous relationship between the Catholics and Protestants of England. This led to a very disastrous war that nearly tore Europe apart.

The concept of a ‘mid-Tudor crisis’ arrived under the scrutiny of modern scholarship largely through a priori reasoning and was first broadly promulgated by W.R.D. Jones in his 1973 book “The Mid Tudor Crisis1539-1563”. Jones attested a series of problems that “seem to have been ever-present in mid-Tudor England” (Jones, 1973, p. 6), exhibiting a “close relationship” (Jones, 1973, p. 6) with one another as a ‘crisis’. This compounded succession of agricultural volatility, deficiencies in administrative decree, specifically “the troubled shadowed reigns of Edward VI and Mary I,” (Jones, 1973, p.19) and divisive religious reformation, as Jones was to surmise, directly resulted in fluctuations

Desiring marriage to his mistress Anne Boleyn, and a subsequent male heir to the throne, King Henry VIII of England stood before the pope with a plea. He wanted to divorce his then wife Catherine of Aragon, who he had come to despise for failing to produce a male heir, and instead marry Anne. However, this request was met with adamant refusal by the pope, who deemed the divorce unholy as it was against the Catholic faith. Upon hearing that his request was denied, Henry became livid and, in with the Act of Supremacy, ordained himself the head of the Anglican Church. He then proceeded to divorce Catherine and take Anne as his new bride. But Henry’s actions against the Catholic Church did not stop there.

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)

During the Tudor Dynasty it is easily thought that the years between 1547 and 1558 were ones of crisis. With the succession of a child and the first woman within England, people have assumed that the years between Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were an unproductive interlude. The mid Tudor period is seen as negative years within the Tudor Dynasty. It is regarded that Henry VIII and Elizabeth I’s reputations were a factor in why historians such as A.F Pollard and S T Bindoff supported the ‘Mid Tudor Crisis’ . The ‘two little Tudors’, referring to Edward and Mary, seemed colourless in comparison to their surrounding

The Extent to Which England was a Protestant Country by 1547 In this essay, I shall be exploring the extent of how Protestant a country England was by 1547. The differences between Protestantism and Catholicism form a solid base in order to understand the situation in 1547 and decide which religion became more popular. Traditional Catholic beliefs rested on seven Sacraments: Baptism, Penance and Reconciliation, Last rites, Holy Orders, Marriage and the Eucharist. They believed in ‘Justification by Good works’.

The split from Rome had made England vulnerable and Thomas Cromwell had suggested his next wife to be of a political match, much like the first. Anne of Clebes was the chosen match. The marriage took place on January 6, 1540, and by then Henry was already looking for ways to get out of the marriage. The King did not find his new bride attractive and had found an attraction to a young Kathryn Howard. Anne gave the King no problems with his annulment proceedings.

Meanwhile in England, the Anglican tradition had begun under the banner of the Church of England after having separated itself from the Roman Catholic tradition during the 1530’s; a response by Henry VIII to Pope Clement VII’s refusal to annul the kings marriage with Catherine of Aragon. It is from the last of these, during the Elizabethan period, that the rise of English Puritanism can be seen culminating in disillusionment with the reign of James I and finally revolution under Charles I.

The Pope is outraged by Henry’s move to break with the Catholic church and he is excommunicated for breaking with Papal authority. King Henry and Queen Anne produce a daughter shortly after their secret marriage. Their daughter Elizabeth would be their only surviving child. Once again, there was an issue with the failure to produce a male heir. He soon grew tired of Anne. In 1536, she was accused of adultery and executed. In 1537, Henry took a third wife, Jane Seymour. With Jane, Henry finally produces a male heir, Arthur. Unfortunately, Jane dies shortly after the baby’s birth due to complications with the birth.

The protestant reformation happened at the moment that it did because the Catholic Church was very a powerful force in Europe. It controlled people lives both spiritually and temporally. The church had so much power that it maintained political control over a large portion of Italy. The fact that the church held so much control over countries and governments became a point of contention among European countries such as the Holy Roman Empire, Italian city-states outside of Rome, England, France and Spain. The power of the rulers of these areas had greatly increased in the 14th century and they were eager to take the chances offered by a Reformation to weaken the grip of the Catholic Church in Europe and also to develop their own powers across the European continent. For quite some time the Catholic Church had been an institution rampant with internal struggles. Such as the Avignon Papacy from 1309 to 1377 when seven popes opted to live in Avignon, France and not reside in Rome which was and is the traditional home of the Papacy. The Pope and other high ranking church officials often lived opulent lifestyles rather than a more austere lifestyle that should befit a spiritual leader. Many church leaders and Popes maintained political powers. They led armies, waged wars and made many political decisions. Church offices were sold, and many Popes and bishops practiced nepotism to fill church offices. With all of these worldly issues for the Pope

As king of England, Henry has the power and the unquestionable authority to act based off his own desires even if they are not legally or morally acceptable. Because his current wife, Catherine, who was also his brother’s widow, has failed to birth a son, he wishes to divorce her and take Queen Anne as his new wife. Without a male heir to the throne, Henry’s lineage will come to an end and England will be left without a successor. He admits this to More during their meeting in Act 1, saying,

Though there was no driving force like Luther, Zwingli or Calvin during the English Reformation, it succeeded because certain people strived for political power and not exactly for religious freedom. People like Queen Elizabeth I and Henry VIII brought the Reformation in England much success, however their reasons were based on self-gain and desire for political power.