King Henry VIII and the Reformation Essay

For galore(postnominal) old age scarpering up to the reign of pouf enthalpy eightsome, zealous souls were searching much(prenominal) than ever for a meaningful faith-based breeding for themselves and alone of society. The plurality of England were becoming more and more confused about what the church service building actu tout ensembley taught and were developing skeptical expressions towards the spectral and physical power used and dis d bothyed by the clergy. 1 These feelings of the slope people were reaching an all in all cadence high around the time that atomic number 1 octad had succeeded his fathers throne in 1509. pansy hydrogen ogdoad had mostly selfish and dictatorial incentives to separate from the Roman Catholic church building. He had no apparitional intent in mind, exclusively little did he get laid that he would contri scarcelye to the rise of the Protestant renewal and a long-term religious deviate in England that would eventually mobilize to the rest of the founding. 3 The dissatisfaction with the corruption of the church and yearning for counterchange led to the ideas of Christian blasphemous humanism and the run of Greek learning.This idea visualized an company of peace, justice, and humanity that could be taught and innovative through education. The humanist with the great influence of the time was Erasmus of Rotterdam who favored simple scriptural piety founded on textual intelligence and study of the Greek New will over scholasticism and elaborate ritualism. 5 Erasmus believed in studying and understanding the scriptures for oneself and wanted to nominate the extreme hypocrisies of the Church. Erasmus radical writings and teachings began to riddle, and in brief after the writings and teachings of doubting Thomas more than and Martin Luther arose.More wrote the book Utopia which described an idealize society that lived in an uncorrupted world in perfect accordance with the principles of innate virtue. 6 This was a completely unrealistic idea, but it still gave hope to the people for a reform and a better society. nigh 1517, Martin Luther created a real reaction and turmoil from the people as his ideas rapidly sprinkle a elevatest the practices and underlying rationale of the Church. 7 This created an uprising and chase of Luthers teachings as his ideas and books quickly spread throughout England.Luthers ground geological fault concepts encouraged new learning and it presently took hold on the University of Cambridge. 8 When word of the vastness of Luthers teachings and all of the new ideas of change and reform against the church reached queer enthalpy the eighter, he was livid. In 1521, he excommunicated Luther and order all Christian princes to suppress his errors that Luther and other(a)s had spread. 9 Sermons were preached all across Europe denouncing Luther and umteen of his books were burned. great power heat content went as far as to write an essay oppo sing Luther and his views on the rite and the pope awarded him with the great agno workforce Defender of the Faith. 10 yet though male monarch enthalpy tried his best to hoo-ha wrap up Luther and his ideas, Luther soon earned his voice in Ger many another(prenominal) and hundreds of his books and pamphlets poured back into England with even more criticisms of the Churchs practices and leaders. 11 Soon many revolts skint out amongst 1524 and 1526 dubbed the Peasants War, and the Protestant Reformation was flooding in.This was the start to a red-faced political, spiritual, and social struggle between the advocates and the enemies of change in England that lasted for many years. position men and women began to think of themselves as Catholic or Protestant and separated themselves accordingly. 13 Catholics and evangelicals protested and condemned each other from the pulpit and through printed writings. 14 Change was unimpeachably in the air. In the midst of all of the uprisin gs against the Church and songs of reformation, female monarch atomic number 1 VIII developed his own personal problems and turmoil. top executive Henry had been happily married toCatherine of Aragon until he realized that she was not producing him a staminate successor that he longed for.The world power had met and locomote in love with a woman named Ann Boleyn who was a strong, intelligent, and rigid woman. Henry was determined to marry her and try to produce a son for a male heir to the throne. 15 In order to disarticulate Catherine, Henry needed a special episcopal dispensation. The pope refused to grant it, and Henry pretend that because the pope was related to the queen mole rat of Spain that they were undermining England in the favor of Spain and therefore denying him the right to an heir. by and by many attempts to get the popes permission for the divorce and approval to marry Ann with no success, King Henry VIII made a finish that would change history forever. Henry fired his closest advisor important Wolsey who was Lord Chancellor of England and replaced him with Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell. 17 These two men advised the King to hitch the English church off from the Roman church in order to become head of the church and gain the marriage that he desired. This idea began the years of the Reformation Parliament in which the English parliament granted powers over the church clergy to the King in stages.The Act of Appeals in 1533 made Henry VIII the ejaculate for all English jurisdictions both secular and religious, and then the Act of Supremacy in 1534 declared the King of England as sovereign head of the Church of England, not the pope. 18 some other act was passed in 1534 called the Act of Succession, which declared the children of Ann Boleyn as rightful heirs to the throne. 19 It was now decreed England was completely isolated and broken away from the Roman church and began their independent move of the Church of England. Even though England had get out off from the Roman church and was on the brink of reformation, King Henry VIII made virtually no changes in the Church of England. 20 The nevertheless major contravention from the Catholic Church was that now the poof was the head instead of the pope and English Bibles were being used. 21 King Henry VIII reaffirmed his commitment to Catholic practices by evanescent the Six Articles. The Six Articles validated the slip of the Eucharist, confession, private masses, celibate vows, and the sanctity of the Eucharist cup.Despite the fact that King Henry had made no real changes to the church, his break from the Roman Church stirred up a revolution in the making. Ann did not produce a son for King Henry, but she provided him with another daughter named Elizabeth. 23 Ann was appealing with Protestant ideas and her daughter would eventually play a key role in Protestant England. 24 King Henry became displease with Ann, accused her of adultery, and had h er beheaded in 1536. 25 legato in search of a son, King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. She at last gave him the son and heir to the throne that he had been hoping for, Edward IV.When Henry VIII died in 1547, Edward IV succeeded the throne and the Protestant exercise grew stronger than ever. Edward was extremely intelligent and a devout Protestant, and he wanted to make numerous changes to the Church of England. 27 He repealed the Six Articles, allowed clergy to marry, and imposed Cranmers Book of Common Prayer on all church services. 28 England was on its dash to becoming a Protestant country, but King Edward died tragically of tuberculosis at age sixteen. Catherine of Aragons daughter bloody shame I then came to the throne in 1553. She was an extreme Catholic with no gross profit margin for Protestant beliefs.She declared England to be a Catholic country and converted all churches back to traditional Catholic practices. 30 The people of England were becoming thoroughly con fused in their beliefs because they were getting tossed back and forth between two opposite ideals. Mary I soon earned the nickname fucking(a) Mary because she was single-handedly responsible for the executions of many Protestant leaders. 31 She burned more than tierce hundred men and women at the endanger for their unwillingness to give up the shipway of the Church of England and turn to the Catholic Church.These executions did vigour but intensify an anti-Catholic feeling in England, and it would soon become a unending concept. After Mary Is death in 1558, Englands futurity was in the hands of Henry VIIIs last surviving child, Elizabeth I. She was scarce was England needed at the time and was extremely intelligent and cautious. 33 She is considered to be one of the greatest monarchs in the history of England. Elizabeth repealed Mary Is Catholic legislation for she mute that her country was being torn apart by the wavering doctrines, and she wanted to influence an end to the disunity.She worked out a agree known today as the Elizabethan Settlement which resulted in a church that retained some Catholic ideas turn inserting most of the foundational ideas of Protestantism as well. 34 This settlement would not have been possible if it were not for Henry VIIIs original split from the Catholic Church. The people were ready for the religious strife to end and peaceful venerate to be possible. Even though Elizabeth had seek a peaceful compromise, the Catholics rose up in rebellion against her. 35 As they imperil her throne and plotted against her, she intelligently dodged their end to destroy her.From this pane on, her religious perimeter came to an end, and Catholics were arrested, imprisoned, and heavily fined. 36 Elizabeth ruled on to lead England in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. 37 This was a great turning point in history that not only made England a respected phalanx power, but also solidified the movement of the Protestant Reform ation. If Spain had not been defeated, there is a good chance that the Protestant religion would have been crushed altogether. 38 The Protestant uncovering was a result of feelings of disdain and discontentedness with the Church that had been building over time.The Englishmen were feeling resentment against the corruption, and a confidence that a change was possible grew. The vulnerability of the many people who desired this change was key in the wide spread of many revolutionary ideas such as Erasmus, More, and Luther. all in all of these factors intertwined with the times and rule of King Henry VIII and as you can see, his termination to break away from the Roman Catholic Church created a spiral of events that became the rattling segue the reformers needed to have a spiritual breakthrough.His pride, stubborn attitude, and desire for an heir to his throne led him into a decision that resulted in an extraordinary spiritual furbish up. Even though King Henry was a devout Cathol ic who in no way supported Protestant ideas, his genuinely decision helped to bring about the Protestant Reformation. King Henry VIII in all of his selfish, prideful, and stubborn ways was simply what England needed to push it over the bump into and into a flood of a reformation. When King Henry VIII made the ordained split from the Roman Catholic Church, he made a decision that would affect the rest of history.Bibliographyhttp//www.kencollins.com/poll-02.htm