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WHAT FACTORS ENCOURAGED THE ENGLISH REFORMATION? - Coggle Diagram
WHAT FACTORS ENCOURAGED THE ENGLISH REFORMATION?
STATE OF THE CHURCH
Decline of Monasticism - Wolsey secured dissolution of around 20 religious houses in 1520s to fund Cardinal College, Oxford. Lost sense of direction, larger monasteries had become businesses with lots of land and money.
G. R. Elton - "all was not well with the Church in England".
Pluralism - receiving the profits of more than one post. Simony - the purchase of Church office. Non-Residence - receiving he profits of a post but not being present to perform the duties associated with it.
Supplication of the Beggars written by Simon Fish 1529, vicious attack, portrayed the Church as greedy, corrupt and treacherous.
Occasional disputes relatively rare, Christopher Haigh concluded that anticlericalism less a cause and more a consequence of the Reformation.
Anticlericalism - opposition to the social and political importance of the church. Some rejected the legal privileges of the clergy, Richard Hunne. Disastrous in short term for reputation of Church, but less likely to be at forefront of minds by Break with Rome.
A.G. Dickens - "anticlericalism... had reached a new virulence by the early years of the 16th century".
J.J. Scarisbrick - "hostility to churchmen was widespread and often bitter, and the conviction intense that something must be done".
IN CONTRAST
The majority of humanists were Roman Catholic, e.g. Sir Thomas More, John Colet the Dean of St Pauls, and Erasmus.
In several areas, religious guilds were numerous, active, prosperous and locally supported - left money in wills by a large number of people, 57% in Devon and Cornwall between 1520 and 1529.
Clergy generally respected. C. Haigh - "relations between priests and parishioners were usually harmonious, and the laity complained astonishingly infrequently against their priests".
GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA
Reformers keen to draw a distinction between 'Potestas Jurisdictionis' (right to exercise jurisdiction over the Church, which Henry claimed) and 'Potestas Ordinis' (right to exercise spiritual power, still retained by bishops.
Writes, encouraged by Cromwell, wrote from a humanist or Protestant viewpoint. Thomas Starkey's Exhortation to Unity and Obedience (1536) used the Bible as the sole source of authority - clear on the necessity of obeying the temporal ruler.
Actively promoted Reformation, e.g. the way preambles to Acts were phrased, by appealing to the Bible and the early history of the Church.
Preaches such as John Bale, Edward Crome and Robert Barnes spread Protestant teachings in London, Cranmer encouraged in Suffolk, Essex and Kent.
By 1536, individuals who favoured some of Luther's reforms were firmly established in govt, began influencing religious debate at court.
THOMAS CROMWELL
The Act Annexing First Fruits and Tenths to the Crown (Nov 1534) - annates paid by a bishop, which had been 'intolerable' when paid to the Pope, now perfectly acceptable when paid to the king. Increased the financial burden on the clergy, strengthened royal supremacy.
The Treason Act (Nov 1534) was tightened so treason could be committed by the spoken work, treasonable to describe the king as 'heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel or usurper of the crown'.
The Act of Succession (April 1534) declared that Henry's marriage to Catherine was void, the succession should be vested in the children of his marriage to Anne, to deny the validity of Henry's marriage to Anne was treasonable, an oath should be taken to affirm an individual's acceptance of the new marriage.
Passed a series of measures to achieve the Break with Rome and establish royal supremacy, e.g. Act in Restraint of Appeals, April 1533, the Act of Supremacy, Nov 1534.
THE ROLE OF ANNE BOLEYN
In regular contact with a group of Cambridge academics, e.g. Hugh and William Latmer, Matthew Parker and Thomas Cranmer, described by D. MacCulloch as "the most exalted specimen of Anne's religious patronage. Confirmed Henry in his view that he was well within his rights to reject the authority of the Pope in a domestic affair.
Henry was influenced by Anne Boleyn's acquaintance with a group of reformist writers, e.g. William Tyndale, Simon Fish, Christopher St Germain.
Anne protected heretics like Robert Forman in London and encouraged the appointment of reforms to positions of power and influence within the Church. Led to the appointment of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Shaxton to vacant bishops' posts, and to the selection of Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532.
Forced the annulment issue by consenting to have sexual relations with Henry. She was gambling that by becoming pregnant she would force him to take decisive action.