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Religious Changes under Henry VIII (Anne Boleyn (The Divorce (Wolsey…
Religious Changes under Henry VIII
Desire for power
Henry had a powerful ego and wanted to be supreme in all matters, could be argued this was the motivation behind the break and the divorce was simply the occasion
But, amount of time Henry spent trying to persuade the pope to grant the divorce
Legislation such as Act of Annates conditional, gave the pope an opportunity to grant the divorce in return for an abandonment of the break
Henry wanted the wealth of the Church
Church very wealthy instrution, Simon Fish made clear in 'Suppliation for teh Beggars' 1529
Charge of praemunire showed Henry how easily he could obtain money from the Church
Cromwell promised to make Henry 'the richest man in Christendom'
However chronology suggest that the acquisition of wealth was a bonus not the cause - only with the dissolution of the greater monasteries in 1539 that Henry gained substantially
Anne Boleyn
Little doubt Henry had fallen in love with her, revealed in love letters, unlikely he would have sustained the campaign for 5.5 years without this
Anne refused to become Henry's mistress, unlike her sister, until she was certain she would become queen
Did her presence push him to
a divorce that would not otherwise
have happened?
Boleyn faction blamed Wolsey for slowing down proceedings
The Divorce
Wolsey assured Henry that his influence at Rome would make it easy to get the pope to declare the original dispensation invalid
Failed as required present pope to admit that a previous pope had made an eror, Henry regused to abandon this approach, brought the matter to intrnationl attention making it harder for the papcy to give way
Second approach on tehcnical error in dispensation, easier to blame clerical person, Catherine's advisors found differently worded version satisfying objections
Third approach persuading the pope to allow the case to be heard in England, hoping it would be delegated to Wolsey, agreed for Wolsey and Campeggio but old and slow, no intenstion of reaching a verdict
By 1529 Henry desperate for the divorce, getting older, more risk of male heir not old enough to rule directly, Henry accused Wolsey of praemunire (papal law without the king's permission)
The length of time Henry spent trying to persuade the papacy to grant him a divorce suggests that he was reluctant to break from Rome, not against papal authority
In 1533 Anne Boleyn was pregnant, and Henry took the momentous decision to sever ties with Rome and declare the Act in Restraint of Appeals - preventing appeals to any outside England on the issues mentioned in the Act such as the divorce
Church needed a reform
'desperate need of reform'
A. G. Dickens argued Henry's decisions influence by strong anti-clericalism (opposition to the Church) in England
Church 'grandiose but unseaworthy old ship'
Some argue main reason for break with Rome, rather than Henry's desire for a divorce
Traditional accounts portray
Wolsey as personifying everything
wrong with the English Church
Pluralist - Archbishop or York and Bishop of Lincoln
Absentee - never visited York until after his fall from power in November 1529
Despite vow of celibacy he fathered a daughter and son
Appointed non-resident Italians to bishoprics, paid them a stipend and kept the surplus, used the Church to fund his lifestyle
used Church to advance his power, pressurised the pope to make him a cardinal (1515)
South-east and London more critical of the Church than other areas in England, criticisms from within the Church, 1511 John Colet, Dean of St Pauls' preached about abuses within the Church and clergy being ambitious and greedy
Absent bishops but often appointed suffragans to act as their deputies
Church under criticism on continent after publication of Martin Luther's 95 Theses in 1517 challenging Catholic beliefs, some areas with evidence of Lollardy (followers of John Wycliffe), no more than a fringe group, Lutheranism even less support only Cambridge scholars
'in no worse a condition than it had been in the past'
C. Haigh and J.J Scarisbrick
Recent work suggested the English
Church was thriving on the eve of the
Reformation, Catholicism remained popular
in many areas until the 1580s
Most clergy well respected, ordination rates remained high, institution respected, church center of religious life, particularly in rural areas, supported agricultural activities (rogationtide) and social activities (church ales)
Little evidence pope was disliked but people not closely attached
Rural parish priests with little education still able to fulfill their role, on Archbishop Warham's visitation of 260 parishes in Kent (1511-12) only 4 priests ignorant
Most people still attended mass, willingly contributed large amounts of money, large-scale building products often funded by parishioners, prayers for dead in chantries, continued support for religious guilds (masses for souls of dead)
Catherine of Aragon
Legitimacy of the marriage
Believed his marriage was against God's will, in order to marry he had obtained papal dispensation - did the pope have this authority
Henry very religious, given title Defender of the Faith by the pope for his attack on Martin Luther
Lack of son Henry saw as God's punishment
Book of Leviticus - 'If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing...they shall be without children.'
An heir
If the marriage to Catherine not legitimate then Mary illegitimate
Questions of her suitability, also if a female could inherit the throne
Raised the possibility of unrest when Henry died, more likely as descendants of Edward IV (Yorkist family) still alive
Unlikely to produce any children as Catherine over 40, last pregnancy in 1518 and Henry had stopped sleeping with her in 1524
Mary's legitimacy raised in marriage negotiations over her possible marriage to the French heir