Henry
VIII
Henry VIII was one of the most fervent Catholic rulers of his day,
honoured by the pope as ‘Defender of
Faith’ for denouncing Lutheranism (he even wrote a book on that).
However, the friendly relations between
monarch and papacy did not last. Henry’s primary concern was to safeguard the succession by producing a
legitimate male heir but his marriage to Catherine of Aragon had failed to yield the desired son. A deeply
religious man, the king concluded that God was withholding his blessing because
his wife was his brother’s widow, a
union forbidden in the book of Leviticus.
He appealed to the pope to annul a
marriage which God so clearly disapproved, implying that Julius II, an
earlier pope, had been wrong to authorise it. Clement VII refused, because it would weaken papal authority, and antagonise Queen Catherine’s nephew, Charles V, the most powerful ruler in
Europe.
Henry’s case was heard in London by a
sympathetic archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas
Cranmer, who freed him to marry Anne
Boleyn, and the first Act of
Supremacy (1534) was passed, which was a piece of legislation that granted
King Henry VIII of England Royal Supremacy, which means that he was declared
the supreme head of the Church of
England. Henry abandoned Rome
completely. He thereby asserted the independence of the Ecclesia Anglicana. He
appointed himself and his successors
as the supreme rulers of the English church. The 1534 Act is often taken to
mark the beginning of the English
Reformation. The Ten Articles
were first published in 1536 by Thomas
Cranmer. They were the first guidelines
of the Church of England as it became independent of Rome and contains
three sacraments. In 1537, ‘Institution of a Christian Man’ was
published, which contains the other four ‘lesser sacraments’.
Although Henry had rejected the authority
of the pope, this did not mean he had rejected traditional Catholic teaching.
On the contrary he was a doctrinal
Catholic and remained deeply antagonistic to Luther. He was more
sympathetic to the ideas of humanist scholars and when he took charge of the
English church, he concern was not to
make it ‘Protestant’, but to implement humanist-inspired reforms. The
influence of Thomas Cromwell, a leading
politician, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was critical to the reshaping of the English
church.
The break with Rome unleashed a torrent of speculation and debate. Young apprentices
roamed the streets smashing up images and gave
vent to anti-authoritarian feelings by jeering at priests, who, they
claimed, had kept people in ignorance of the true faith revealed in the
scriptures. In 1538 three German
theologians were sent to London and held conferences with the Anglican bishops and clergy. The king,
unwilling to break with Catholic practices, dissolved the conference. Henry drew back from reform, fearful that he had unleashed forces that
were getting out of control. The Six
Articles of 1539 reaffirmed traditional Catholic doctrine on six key issues,
including condemning clerical marriage. It was a return to Catholic orthodoxy, except
for papal supremacy. He executed Thomas Cromwell
in 1540.
So in conclusion, Henry VIII had been a
very fervent Catholic who denounced Lutheranism but rejected papal authority out
of political motivations, for the sake of producing a legitimate heir, which
made the picture a lot more complicated than a simple struggle between Roman
Catholics and Lutheran influenced Protestants.
Edward
VI
Edward was a sickly young man who lived
only six years after his father’s
death. When Edward ascended to the throne at nine years of age, Cranmer and like-minded officials who
were reformist in thinking held the reins of power, and the scene was set for more radical change. The cup in
communion was restored to the laity, members of the clergy were allowed to
marry, and images were withdrawn from the churches. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), whose main author was Cranmer, gave the English people a liturgy in their own language for the
first time. The revised version appeared three years later which has an even
more apparent Zwinglian tendency. So
there is definitely a swing towards Protestantism, though with a Zwinglian
tendency. Cranmer also wrote the Forty-Two
Articles in 1553, which intended to summarise Anglican doctrine. However,
Edward did not live long enough for the reforms introduced in his name to be
fully implemented, so these articles were never enforced, but later became the
basis of the Thirty-Nine Articles in Elizabeth I’s reign. When it became clear
that he was in a terminal condition, he and his Council drew up a “Devise for
the Succession,” attempting to prevent
the country's return to Catholicism. Edward named his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as his heir and
excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. However, this decision was
disputed following Edward's death, and Jane was deposed by Mary within 13 days.
Mary
Tudor
Mary had always been a Catholic, and furthermore, if Henry had been correct in proclaiming
himself head of the church and his marriage to Catherine null and void, Mary
was an illegitimate child and her succession would be cast into doubt.
Therefore, for reasons both of conviction
and political necessity, Mary was committed to the goal of restoring Roman
Catholicism in England. Just as political pluralism is regarded as socially
destructive in some eastern and third-world countries today, so sixteenth-century people of all beliefs
accepted that states were endangered by
religious pluralism. In this respect, Mary was no different from other
rulers of her day. As soon as she felt herself secure on the throne, she began
a series of increasingly repressive
measures against Protestants. About three
hundred Protestant leaders were burned,
therefore she was known as Bloody Mary. Five years after Mary’s death, the suffering
of Protestants under her reign was highlighted in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. The most illustrious of the martyrs
during her reign was Cranmer in 1556. Protestants considered Cranmer the great hero of their cause
and insists on spreading Protestant teachings instead.
Elizabeth
I
Elizabeth was a Protestant out of conviction
and out of political necessity. If the head of the church in England was
the pope, then she would’ve been an illegitimate child.
Within a few days of Elizabeth I’s
accession, Protestants pinned their hopes on her and were heralding her as ‘Deborah’. So the Act of Supremacy, which was repealed by Mary, was reinstated again
in 1559, with a slight change in
wordings, to “Supreme Governor”. This
changed wording avoided the charge that the monarchy was claiming divinity or
usurping Christ, whom the Bible explicitly identifies as Head of the Church.
Elizabeth's reign saw the emergence of Puritanism, which encompassed those
Protestants who, whilst they agreed that there should be one national church,
felt that the church had been but partially reformed. Puritanism ranged from hostility to the content of
the Prayer Book and "popish" ceremony, to a desire for church
governance to be radically reformed.
Elizabeth was a protestant, but not radical. It was her political instinct which caused her to
respond. She wanted to unite the nation.
The basis of the Church of England is a middle
way between the extremes of Catholicism and radical Protestantism. She
wanted to include as many people as
possible in the Church of England, as ideally everyone in England should be
a part of Church of England to enable better unity in the nation.
The strength of conservative religious
feeling, the tense international situation, and the rival claim of Mary Queen
of Scots might well have made Elizabeth refrain
from provoking papal hostility.Elizabeth was endeavouring to build bridges to the religious
conservatives, and to woo them away from papal allegiance into conformity.
The policy was largely successful because, although the appeal of Protestantism
was limited, strong attachment to Rome was even more so.
In 1559
the Book of Common Prayer used a double formula to accommodate the
divergent opinions on communion (of
that communion was simply an act of remembrance versus those who insisted that
in it one really partook of the body of Christ) so to increase inclusiveness.
The same policy was seen in the Thirty-nine
Articles, promulgated in 1562 in
order to serve as doctrinal foundation for the Church of England. In them,
several Catholic doctrines and practices are explicitly rejected, but there is
no attempt to choose among the various Protestant views. The articles seek to
achieve a via media in which all but Roman Catholics and the most radical
Protestants could participate.
In 1570,
the pope sent out the Bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicated the queen and absolved her subjects from their
allegiance. Thereafter, any refusal to
accept the royal supremacy was potentially treasonable, as it had been in the reign of Henry VIII.
Adherence
to the Articles was made a legal requirement by the English Parliament in 1571, and the law established was
fully, and indeed aggressively protestant. The patriotic union between Church
and state had become full and explicit. Those outside that union were regarded
as public enemies.
It was Elizabeth’s longevity that ensured England eventually became a Protestant
country as old beliefs and practices were not easily wiped out. Towards the end
of Elizabeth’s life, Catholics were
indicating that they were ready to distinguish
between their religious obedience to the pope and their political and civil
loyalty to the queen. On the basis of this distinction, they would
eventually be allowed to practice their religion openly.
By the time of Elizabeth's death a third
party had emerged, "perfectly hostile" to Puritans but not adherent
to Rome. It preferred the revised Book of Common Prayer of 1559, which was
without some of the matters offensive to Catholics. The new dispute was now
between the Puritans (who wished to see an end of the prayer book and
episcopacy), and this third party (the considerable body of people who looked
kindly on the Elizabethan Settlement, who rejected prophesyings, whose
spirituality had been nourished by the Prayer Book and who preferred the
governance of bishops).It was between these two groups that, after Elizabeth's
death in 1603, a new, more savage episode of the Reformation was in the process
of gestation, leading ultimately to the English Civil War.
References:
González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity Volume II: TheReformation to the Present Day,
New York: Harper Collins, 2010.
Loades, David. Revolution in religion: the English Reformation, 1530-1570,
Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992.
Rosman,
Doreen. The evolution of the English
churches, 1500-2000, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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