At the time when the reformist wave of Luther spread throughout the European continent, the religious situation of England it was quite special.
Canterbury Cathedral, England (1890-1900) / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The roman church it was as corrupt there as elsewhere: in 1535 the Archbishop of York complained that he had not a dozen priests capable of preaching.
At the head of this entire organization was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, with power to intervene in all the orders and parishes of the kingdom. Under his powerful tutelage, the church in England he got used to not having direct relations with the papacy.
Cardinal Wosley (1526 portrait) / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The English people, as in all of Europe, felt increasingly indignant at the riches of the clergy, but at first the discontent spread through the lower classes, which made the leaders disinterested in the religious problem that was gradually growing. among the English.
The king, Henry VIIIwas surrounded at that time by a humanist and Catholic court, headed by Thomas More. Before the Protestant advance, Henry VIIIswollen with humanism and theology, he first set himself up as a defender of the traditional orthodoxy of Rome.
Didn’t he post against Luther a treatise on the seven sacraments that earned him from the pope Leo X The title of Defender of the Faith?
Family of Henry VIII (circa 1545) / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The schism of Henry VIII
Now, this “faithfulness” of the king of England towards the Roman Church was suddenly broken by a trivial problem of divorce.
Henry VIIImarried since 1509 with Catherine of Aragonhad not had any male children and in order to perpetuate the dynasty of the Tudor and enter a new political crisis, it was convenient that the succession of the throne be guaranteed by a male child.
The king was already thinking of annulling the marriage when he met a lady-in-waiting of the queen, Anne Boleyn, with whom he fell in love. In 1527 he petitioned Rome for an annulment of the marriage.
This request was not something too rare within the royal politics of the period, it was not the first time that a royal marriage annulment had been granted.
But the denial of Rome had political causes: the papacy was at that time under the complete control of Carlos Vand the emperor was none other than the nephew of Catherine of Aragon.
King Henry VIII and his six wives, by Mariana Sampaio / Credit: Flickr (bacon dog)
The honor of the family Carlostogether with the fear that England then went over to the side of Franceled the emperor to order the dad to refuse the annulment.
The king held his cardinal responsible for the diplomatic failure Wolsey, who died before he was locked up in the Tower of London. Thus disappeared the only strong link between England Y Romeand Enrique was giving himself the authority of the whole english church (either “anglican”, as it was called from the Middle Ages).
The king was effectively seconded by Thomas Cromwell, who seemed to have certain Lutheran ideas, but real absolutism predominated over all of them. With his great skill, devoid of scruples, he won the support of the parliament and the submission of the bishops.
From 1530, Henry VIII was modifying a series of measures that completely separated it from the roman church: prohibited the benefit of certain ecclesiastical revenues (annates), gave himself the right to invest his own bishops, commissioned the annulment of his marriage to his new archbishop Thomas Cranmerand married Anne Boleyn.
After the ceremony, the pope condemned the royal divorce and excommunicated Henry VIII on July 11, 1533. It was the final break with Rome.
Anne Boleyn (circa 1534) / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Before the self-proclamation of Henry VIII as “supreme head of the Church of England,” few refused, including the Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, Thomas Moreand some religious, all of them convicted of high treason and executed in 1535.
Once obedience to the Anglican church, Thomas Cromwellappointed vicar of the king for matters of a spiritual nature, undertook the task of secularizing the assets of the monasteries.
Despite the break with Rome, the royal power had not renounced Catholic orthodoxy.
Although in 1536 a profession of faith inspired by the Lutheranism (against the cult of images and relics, for example), in 1539 the decree of the Six Articles meant a rigorous affirmation of traditional doctrine, especially with regard to the Eucharist.
Paradoxically, the persecution against the protestants became harsher than ever, because they threatened the fragile spiritual order, and from then until the reign of Elizabeth the kingdom lived surrounded by religious and dogmatic ambiguity.
Sources: Venard, M.: The Beginnings of the Modern World, The World and its History, Editorial Argos, Barcelona, 1970. / Bray, G.: The Tudor Ecclesiastical Reformation, Boydell Press, 2000.