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The extent of religious change in the 1530s - Coggle Diagram
The extent of religious change in the 1530s
Spread of protestant ideas
From 1529 onwards H encouraged criticism of pope as it suited his purpose of the divorce. this, and growing influence of sympathetic individuals (e.g. anne boleyn, cromwell) enabled reformers to develop their ideas and increase support and influence.
Cromwell managed parliament, and anne turned henrys attention to protestant works, protected heretics, and encouraged appointment of reformers to positions in church, e.g. thomas cranmer to archbishop of canterbury in 1532.
by 1536, protestants started influencing religious debate at court. henrys anger with anne didnt affect protestantism, as he then married jane seymour, who was from a protestant leaning family.
Government propaganda supporting the reformation
preambles to acts were phrased by appealing to bible and early church history. they drew difference between henry excercising jurisdiction over church and the right to excercise spiritual power, which was left with the church.
some conservatives like gardiner published propaganda to emphasise necessity of obedience to sovereign, e.g De Vera Obedienta.
Doctrinal reform
1536: Ten articles of faith. included lutheran ideas, but retained catholic elements e.g. dead to be prayed to, but no mention of purgatory. Eucharist was catholic but luthers views on salvation through faith still mentioned.
10 articles enforced by 2 injuctions in 1536 and 38 which ordered clergy to follow instructions and explain them to their congregation.
1537:Bishops book published to offer interpretation and advice.
1537: first official translation of bible in english published.
1538: royal proclamation ordered a copy of english bible be placed in every parish church, to be read and examined by congregation.
This time period focussed on shortcomings of church and catholic errors
Swing back towards Catholicism (1538 - 40)
Original chnges had been too fast for H. He needed catholic allies in europe at the end of the 1530s and needed to stress religious changes were moderate. Also reflected cromwells waning influence especially after cleaves marriage.
catholic howard family were gaining influence (leading to henrys marriage to catherine howard in 1540). The head of the family (duke of norfolk) was largely responsible for getting parliament to agree to the six articles in 1539, which were largely catholic in emphasis.
However, reformers gained ear of h8 again when the howard family lost favour due to catherine (executed in feb 1542).
Dissolution of the monasteries
Financial motives
: H8 spent most of his fathers money on ambitious f.p. After Valour Ecclesiasticus (1535), it became understood how much these properties were. Henry also needed to live as his own as a monarch and by the 1530s inflation was beginning to affect the amount of money henry was earning from crown lands (his primary source of income).
Context
: Powerful reputation within church where monks, nuns, etc lived. Places of sanctuary for travellers, sources of medicine and food for the needy and centres of education for the wealthy.
'Corruption of the monasteries'
: originally men and women in monasteries dedicated their life to prayer, but they acquired servants to manage day-to-day running of the monasteries and accumulated some luxuries from renting out some of their lands. Survey carried out in 1535 by cromwell discovered corruption and abuses were common in smaller monasteries. in reality corruption wasn't bad. however, cromwell instrcuted his commisoners to find the most damaging pieces of evidence about each institution, even if it meant listening to rumours.
Political reasons
: key motive was to decisively break from rome. monasteries were an emblem of catholicism: they were loyal to the pope, not henry, so were therefore a threat. However, a very small number of monks opposed break from rome.
Foreign policy reasons
: C5 and Francis were catholic and could easily invade england on behalf of the pope (they were far wealthier than henry). He could use money from dissolution could construct defences on south coast. however, this threat was arguably overestimated: they never initiated a campaign against england, and the two powers were rarely at peace and were right now fighting over italian states.
Process of the dissolution
1534: Act of first fruit and tenths: tax that went to church went to henry.
1535: Commisioners/valour ecclesiasticus
1536: based on commision findings, parliament passed act for the dissolution of the smaller monasteries, which closed all religious houses valued under 200 pounds per year.
1537-38: closures continued; some bribary to keep them open occured.
1539: act for dissolution of the larger monasteries
1540: court of augmentations established: richard rich as chancellor; to handle the property and income from the dissolved monasteries.