HST 111 LECTURE 11 10 3 12 CLASS NOTES Reformation in England was different from neighbors We should not call it a religious reformation but an act of state Henry VIII was a Renaissance Monarch not just a leader engaged in scholarly activities Henry was self confident huge ego Henry s first marriage was to Catherine of Aragon daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain Catherine had been married to Henry s oldest brother Arthur this marriage ended after 6 months when Arthur died Why did Henry marry Catherine Spain was the wealthiest nation in Europe Catherine came with an enormous dowry Over the marriage Catherine and Henry had one surviving child Mary In the 15th century England was involved in a civil war the Wars of the Roses These wars were about how had a legitimate claim to the throne in England In 1485 Henry Tudor Henry VII Henry s father was the one left alive Tudor dynasty took over after emerging from war As a result Henry VIII needs a male heir Why Daughters were problematic they weren t male they weren t born leaders they got married and then fell under the influence of their husband who might be a foreigner so the potential exists that a foreigner would rule England In the 1520s Henry falls in love with Anne Boleyn one of Catherine s ladies in waiting Henry already had an affair with Boleyn s sister but Boleyn herself held out for marriage to Henry Henry began the process of getting divorced from Catherine divorce is a religious matter not a civil matter For Henry to get divorced he needed support and an annulment from the Pope Normally this wouldn t be a problem Problem Rome is effectively occupation by Charles V emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles happened to be the nephew of Catherine of Aragon Pope had no choice he could not grant the divorce so Henry had to find another way A passage in the Bible effectively says it is ok to marry your older brother s widow if he dies but another passage says doing so will result in a childless marriage Leviticus 20 Childless no male offspring The English Reformation is led by the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell Henry Cranmer and Cromwell turned to the Parliament and convinced Parliament to pass an act that prevented any court appeals from foreign nations The last court of appeal for religious issues was the Papacy What this act did was deny any appeal to Rome effectively Henry broke with the Papacy Cranmer then declared the marriage to Catherine null and void and Henry married Anne Boleyn who was already pregnant this child was a girl named Elizabeth In 1534 Henry VIII was named the Supreme Head of the Church of England through an act by Parliament In 1534 Parliament also passed the Treason Act which stated that it was treason to deny that Henry was the Supreme Head of the Church of England Most went along with this act but Thomas More author of Utopia did not accept Henry s position More was executed as a result ENGLAND REMAINED A CATHOLIC COUNTRY UNDER HENRY VIII BUT ENGLAND WAS NO LONGER A ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRY Henry believed in transubstantiation and purgatory so ENGLAND WAS STILL CATHOLIC Very little opposition to Henry s new title of Supreme Head why What justifies such a dramatic change was what Henry did next Henry recognized those most likely to give him trouble were monks So all the major monasteries in the land were dissolved empty of monks and all their wealth came to Henry this came at a time where monks controlled 25 of English land What Henry then did was bought off any opposition by selling or giving away this land to nobles important members of government anyone who was liable to give him problems This created a new loyalty to Henry VIII and support for his polices that is why we call it an act of state rather than religious Henry broke from Rome because he wanted to marry someone else to gain a male heir to rule England Henry had been named by the Pope the defender of the faith because he attacked Martin Luther When Henry died in 1547 England remained a Catholic nation That changed when Henry s sickly son Edward VI came to the throne Edward was 9 when he took the throne His advisors had largely converted to protestantism Between 1547 and 1553 when Edward died England became a protestant country This reformation consisted of destroying images of the churches of England replacing Latin services with English ones the Bible was widely printed and distributed in English the first Book of Common Prayer was issued clergy were allowed to marry Edward s death in 1553 meant the throne reverted to the eldest daughter Mary I daughter of Henry and Catherine Mary was a Catholic specifically Roman Catholic Mary set about restoring England to Roman Catholicism and getting rid of Protestants so she is often referred to as Bloody Mary This was a period of religious intolerance persecution and martyrdom Foxe s Book of Martyrs tells the story of Martyrs For Mary these acts were a way to get her people closer to Heaven Mary was not in good health she married King Phillip II of Spain who then abandoned her for his mistress Mary died in 1558 childless Elizabeth I was Henry s youngest child who took the throne Elizabeth set about restoring England to Protestantism Elizabeth was a politician One of the things that she observed during Mary s reign was that force and brutality was ineffective What Elizabeth wanted to do was convert England back to Protestantism but make it a place that Catholics could live in Between 1559 and 1563 this is called the Elizabethan Religious Settlement In this time a new book of Common Prayer was published Initially Elizabeth did not crackdown on Catholics She thought that future generations would become more and more Protestant The problem for Elizabeth came from outside the country in the Counter Reformation launched by the Papacy and from Phillip II of Spain In 1569 and 1570 the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth and a papal bull was issued that said it was the duty of all loyal Catholics to kill Elizabeth I prize straight to Heaven The bull also called for all foreign rulers to invade and conquer England Elizabeth was forced to abandon the policy of toleration and banned all Catholic priests and tortured and executed Catholics Elizabeth s greatest legacy was her spirit of compromise she pleased most Catholics by retaining important parts of their ideas She also pleased most moderate Protestants and managed to keep the Puritans quiet KEY POINTS England Reformation was an