Henry VIII's Reformation Essay

King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, launching the English Protestant Reformation.

The Catholic Church during the early 16th Century was rooted throughout Europe. The Church influenced every country and its respective monarchs through the Church’s wealth and power. The Catholic Church placed a tight hold on the general populace with individuals who went against the Church being branded as heretics and excommunicated. The wealth and power of the Church eventually caused the quality of the clergy to deteriorate. Priests became corrupt and subjected to their physical desires. They frequented taverns, gambled and kept mistresses. The reputation of the clergy were horrid as the general populace was relieved that “their priest [kept] a mistress” because it “[secured] their wives from seduction” The knowledge of the clergy degenerated as well as they were no longer required to learn and teach the Holy Scriptures because the Church dictated their actions. The pinnacle of the Church’s corruption was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence was the “extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment” sold by priests as a temporary relief from sins. The indulgences were then sold to the general populace for money as the monetization of a priest’s services. Johannes Tetzel was a prominent preacher of indulgences who relied on the money from the sales to subsidize the rebuilding of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. The corrupt sales did not go unnoticed as Martin Luther, in an effort to stop the corruption of the Church, posted the 95 Theses on the door of a Castle

His critiques of the Catholic Church is said to be one of the first things to happen to lead up to the Reformation 2. Lollards- followers of John Wycliffe a. Preached and distributed Bibles in English. Attracted popularity from the people of the working class. Opposed luxurious lives of the Church. Reform put down in the 15c.

Among the many religious changes that occurred throughout Europe in the sixteenth century, few were as widely influential as the Reformation. There were three streams of the Reformation: the common class, the educated middle class, and the monarchs and princes. All three streams wanted the church to be fixed and hoped it could combine old ideas and new ones. The Reformation was influenced by many different people, yet the most important was John Wyclif, who stated that the church did not need possession in order to be powerful. Different ideologies came from the influences of Wyclif, and many others. Lutheranism began in the mid 1500’s by Martin Luther, and he developed a doctrine of Justification by Faith where he wrote of how people stay in the church and get to heaven from faith

The English Reformation was a detailed process, in 16th-century England, where the Church of England broke ties with the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. It all began with King Henry VIII marriage with Catherine of Aragon. After years of marriage Catherine had not produced a male heir who survived into adulthood angering the King. With this in mind King Henry will set his eyes own Anne Boleyn who was a maid of honor to Queen Catherine. By the late 1520s, Henry wanted his marriage to Catherine annulled, claiming it to be invalid due to the fact that Catherine was his late brothers wife making it wrong for Henry VIII to be allowed to marry her. In 1527 Henry asked the Pope, Pope Clement VII, to annul his marriage. The pope refused in fear of the Queen’s nephew, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. this

Although the church is not a huge aspect within Wolsey’s acts of chief minister, he still had to make sure Henry took care of people religiously also. Wolsey allowed Henry to gain some control of the church long before the break with Rome, this pleased Henry and was a success as his chief minister. However, the church was in need of reform and although Wolsey talked about doing it he never did, Wolsey was a failure in the aspect of Church and Religion as he did nothing, which to the people made it look like Henry did nothing also. Although it may look like Henry did nothing, most of the blame was on Wolsey. Wolsey allowed Henry to gain some control and helped with his title of ‘defender of the faith’ therefore I think that religion was a

Corruption was visible within the church and people were not pleased about it. Europeans became more secular and they started to question the church, and its authority. Therefore, all its teachings were also being questioned. Since people were no longer listening to the church they began to look at life and the world around them differently. For example, in the Netherlands the poor was looked down upon. Poor men would steal, poor women would turn to prostitution for a way to make money, and older women were accused of being witches. (Doc 1) It is no surprise that the poor started to be seen in a negative light after the church lost its influence over most of the people. All of these occupations were looked down upon especially, witches. During the witch craze hysteria in Europe thousands of women were killed because of accusations of them being witches. The main target however, were old poor women. Furthermore, the poor were not only criticized by other common people, rulers had their own views on the poor in their kingdoms. Emperor Charles V of the Netherlands felt that people would begin to abuse the aid given to the poor. According to Emperor Charles V, “Experience shows that if begging for alms is permitted to everyone indiscriminately, many errors and abuses will result, for they will fall into idleness, which is the beginning of all evils.” (Doc 2) The

In High schools and freshman history classes, The Reformation is covered quickly and credit is given to Martin Luther and the printing press. Children are told about the rift between the church and Lutherans, then quickly are moved over to the English Reformation and the Catholic Church’s response to these deeds. It is not until one starts to really look deeper in to the history to see that there was much more to the story than the Ninety-five thesis being the flame that started the fire of revolution. It cannot be denied that much of the motivation of the reform was theological but there are many other causes as well. The rise of nationalism, western schism, corruption of curia and the Renaissance all had a part in the movements of the

His increasingly ostentatious displays of wealth did, however, damage both his personal reputation and the church. Wolsey’s rise was a cause was a cause to his own fall; he gave Henry very high ambitions and expectations, which Wolsey couldn’t always fulfil. His show of his wealth led to his fall; he cause resentment between the upper nobility. As Randell explains Wolsey was the son of a butcher and “from these lowly origins he defied all the rules of social mobility by becoming the richest and most powerful man in England besides the King.” His rise from being a butcher’s son and becoming the King’s personal advisor, which made the

Significant reforms took place during the reign of King Henry VIII in the 16th Century, which influenced Christianity and the way it is practiced today. Prior to this, the institution of the church was very powerful with the Pope and bishops held in high esteem as they presented themselves as the gateway to God. The Pope, head of the Catholic church, would not grant an annulment in the marriage of Henry VIII to enable him to marry Anne Boleyn and this seems to be the catalyst for the changes to the church’s power pursued by Henry. The Catholic Church’s authority was systematically attacked through a series of events brought about by the actions of Henry, through economic, personal and political means.

13. ‘01 Discuss the political and social consequences of the Protestant Reformation in the first half of the sixteenth century.

How did events during Henry VIII’s reign cause for a permanent shift in the religious system of England?

Born the second son of a royal family, Henry Tudor lived a very interesting life. His future was intended to be the head of the Roman Catholic Church and that fate ended with the death of his brother, Prince Arthur. Henry’s majestic life was full of sports, women, and faith. The young King acceded his father to the throne, married six women, and began the English Reformation when he broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and created his own religion.

Cardinal Wolsey is spoken of there as ³a man such as history had never yet laid

Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I may have been the English Reformation’s greatest benefactors, all because of self interest. Henry VIII was not originally Protestant, but after the pope denied him of his divorce, Henry VIII took things into his own hands. Due to the power kings had in the Middle Ages, Henry VIII was able to control Parliament and force it to do whatever