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podcast transcript
For centuries, England was one of the great Catholic kingdoms of Europe.
Then, within a generation, they broke away from Rome, closed the monasteries, executed the saints and reformers, and founded a church unlike any other in Europe.
What began as a royal marriage crisis became a religious and political revolution that would change England forever.
Learn more about the English Reformation and how it unfolded in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
The most important figure in the English Reformation was Henry VII, so understanding him is the key to understanding events.
Henry VIII was born in 1491 as the second son of Henry VII. As an extra son, he was seen as a political bargaining chip rather than a child.
But things changed after the death of his older brother, Prince Arthur, in 1502. Henry then became heir apparent, and in order to maintain the alliance between England and Spain, he became engaged to Catherine of Aragon, his brother’s widow and the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
His engagement to Catherine of Aragon was quite controversial due to Biblical passages stating that a man could not have an intimate relationship with his brother’s wife. However, to be considered married at this time, the marriage had to be consummated.
Catherine of Aragon denied having ever done anything like that with Prince Arthur, who died aged 15, giving the engaged couple and their families reason to insist they could marry.
After raising the issue with the Catholic Church, then-Pope Julius II approved the union by agreeing that Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon would be exempt from rule.
When Henry VIII became king in April 1509 at the age of 17, he became popular for his athletic prowess and intelligence and soon married Catherine.
For all intents and purposes, Henry VIII’s early reign was quite optimistic. He made popular political changes, including arresting and executing his disliked ministers, Edmund Dudley and Richard Empson, and increasing spending.
Like previous English kings, Henry VIII waged costly and unproductive campaigns against France, contrary to his father’s frugal approach. Because he had plenty of money, he had a luxurious and popular court.
Against the background of Henry VIII’s reign, Martin Luther’s ideas began to spread in England.
The Protestant Reformation challenged the authority of the Catholic Church and the Pope due to outrage over the practice of selling indulgences for salvation. Martin Luther argued that salvation was a gift from God rather than a financial transaction, a belief that sparked the rise of new Christian sects like Lutheranism and Calvinism across Europe.
When these ideas reached England, some people converted to Protestantism, but Henry VIII remained faithful to the Catholic Church. In fact, in 1521, Henry wrote and sponsored an essay defending the Seven Sacraments against Luther, for which Pope Leo X bestowed on him the title “Defender of the Faith.”
But there was a problem. Catherine gave birth to no male heirs.
This was a huge deal, especially since Henry’s family, the Tudors, had only recently come to power after the Wars of the Roses, and his father was the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty.
By 1525, Catherine of Aragon had had six pregnancies, only one of which gave birth to a healthy child, Mary. Catherine was considered infertile by the age of 40, and Henry, at 34, was not getting any younger. He was particularly frustrated because he had fathered an illegitimate child, and he came to blame Catherine entirely for his lack of a male heir.
In order to find a male heir and secure the family line, Henry decided to divorce Catherine.
The problem with divorcing Catherine was that according to Catholic teaching, divorce was not possible. This was especially disappointing because he already had a new wife, Anne Boleyn, in mind.
Henry may have been infatuated with Anne Boleyn because she refused to become his mistress. He went to Pope Clement VII and asked him to annul the marriage, which should never have been allowed because she was his brother’s widow.
But previous popes had tried to approve marriage, and the church had no intention of completely reversing its position.
This brought Henry into conflict with the Catholic Church.
Henry sent Cardinal Thomas Wolsey to defend his case, but the Pope rejected it. Frustrated, Henry had Wolsey arrested.
Henry hired a new royal advisor, Thomas Cromwell, who went to parliament to decide how to handle divorce.
Parliament passed several laws limiting the influence of the Catholic Church in England, leading to the Reformation.
In 1532, two important laws were passed that weakened the power of the Catholic Church in England.
The first was the Bill for the Annates. Anates are also known as “first fruits,” limited payments that newly appointed bishops have traditionally made to the Pope. This was important because the money being taxed would go to the Pope. By doing this, the British government was effectively blocking payments being sent to Rome.
Another act was to usurp the authority of the Pope by appointing Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury. After his approval, Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine’s marriage invalid. Henry and Anne were married the following week.
In response to Henry and Anne’s marriage, the Pope excommunicated Henry. The goal of excommunication is for the person to repent until they are restored and welcomed back into the church.
However, excommunicating Henry did not lead to the results the Pope desired. Instead of sitting back and thinking about his sins, Henry and Parliament decided to completely separate from the Roman Catholic Church.
The 1533 Limitation of Appeals Act declared England an “empire,” meaning a sovereign territory not subject to foreign jurisdiction. This made it impossible to appeal to Rome in all religious matters.
This law was immediately followed in 1534 by two more laws: the Clerical Obedience Act and the Succession Act. They essentially stated that the King was the supreme head of the Church of England.
After separation from the Pope, loyal Catholic clergy and faithful had to choose between the king and their faith. Rejection meant viability.
The monastery’s wealth was transferred to the crown, but most of its lands were quickly sold or granted to the nobility and gentry. This created a powerful class of landowners with vested interests in the Reformation settlements. Once the monastic property passed into private hands, restoring the old church would become much more difficult.
Many of these decisions were likely influenced by Anne Boleyn, who was considered a Protestant even before her marriage. Because of this position, it is often believed that she influenced Henry’s appointment of new bishops and spread Lutheran ideas.
You might think that after all that effort and getting married, the couple would be happy together, but the reality was completely different. Their partnership quickly became tumultuous.
The couple’s relationship further deteriorated due to the country’s break with the Catholic Church, opposition from the peasants, and divisions at the court.
Anne was opinionated and independent. Instead of giving Henry a son, she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth.
At the same time, England was plunged into chaos in 1536 by a peasant revolt against Henry’s religious reforms, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. Between 20,000 and 40,000 people revolted against the king.
When Henry confronted the group, he promised them forgiveness and thanked them for attending to their problem. In fact, Henry quickly reneged on his promise and executed hundreds of rebels, creating more fear in the country.
Religious tensions with the country were strong, but Henry had another problem. He wanted to end his relationship with Anne Boleyn and form a new union with Jane Seymour, one of his mistresses.
But Henry couldn’t divorce her because he literally changed the entire religious foundation of England to divorce Catherine in order to marry Anne. If he had divorced Anne, he would have effectively undermined his religious reforms.
This led Henry to accuse Anne of treason against the king. He also used the technique of saying that since Anne’s sister had previously been one of his mistresses, their marriage should be annulled. This worked. Their marriage ended and Anne was beheaded for treason.
Henry had four more wives. The new legal framework within England allowed Henry to bypass the Catholic Church and marry and leave these women as he saw fit. Technically none of these marriages ended in divorce, but controlling the church made it much easier for him to separate from these women.
Much of the Reformation within England occurred between Henry’s divorce from Catherine and Anne’s beheading.
In many ways, the new religion of England under Henry was superficially similar to Catholicism, but the main difference was that Henry was now head of the Church of England and severed its connection with Rome.
But real change in the Church of England began only after Edward VI, son of Henry’s son Jane Seymour, ascended the throne and began implementing more significant religious reforms in 1547.
Although Edward was only nine years old when he ascended to the throne, he, and more accurately his advisors, began to build his own church based on Protestant ideals.
The first major change occurred with the Eucharistic Order in 1548. This series formed a new theology in England in which the mass and prayers took on a more Protestant orientation. One of the most notable of these ideas was that the sacrament of confession could no longer be performed only by a priest, but with the entire congregation.
Also in 1549, the Book of Common Church was approved, translating the services from Latin into English so that the common people of England could understand their prayers.
However, before Edward could enact further reforms, he fell ill and died at the age of 15.
This resulted in his sister Catherine’s daughter Mary becoming Queen of England.
Mary was a devout Catholic, and during her five-year reign from 1553 to 1558, she attempted to reverse the policies of Edward and Henry and convert the country back to Catholicism.
The mass was changed back to Latin and Mary began punishing anyone who did not accept the Catholic Church. This resulted in many Protestants being executed for heresy during her reign, earning her the nickname “Bloody Mary.”
Despite Protestant opposition, Mary’s restoration of the Catholic Church was quite successful, although short-lived. At that time, there were too many political parties in England with vested interests in Protestantism.
After Mary’s death in 1558, her sister and Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth became queen.
Elizabeth restored the throne after she pledged to embrace the Catholic faith during Mary’s reign. Despite this oath, Elizabeth was a Protestant and ruled accordingly, appointing Protestants to her court.
Moreover, soon after Elizabeth came to power, Parliament passed the Acts of Supremacy, reestablishing England’s independence from Rome. As a result, Elizabeth became Supreme Governor of the Church of England rather than Supreme Head, which was a choice word choice.
In this capacity, Elizabeth revised the Book of Common Prayer to make it more appealing to Lutherans and Catholics. She also went into more detail about the power of the church. Her many changes left both groups relatively satisfied.
In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her illegitimate. This was a turning point. This made Anglo-Catholic loyalty suspect in the eyes of the government. If the Pope were to say that Elizabeth was not the rightful queen, Catholics would be seen not just as religious opponents but as potential traitors.
What distinguished the English Reformation from the Protestant Reformation of continental Europe was how intertwined it was with power. There was certainly a theological underpinning, but the ultimate driver was royal control over the church. If Catherine had had a son, or if Henry had been content with a daughter, history would have unfolded very differently.
