The Henrician Reformation

Henry VIII's Reformation



1. The debate
Was the Henrician Reformation popular or unpopular?
Was Protestantism forced unwillingly on a devout Catholic people (Scarisbrick, Duffy), or was it welcomed with open arms by an anticlerical laity (Dickens, cf Kümin)?
Is the whole notion of an “English Reformation” a conceptual sham (Haigh)? Was Tudor church policy so piecemeal, politically expedient, and theologically half-baked that it ought not to be called a Reformation at all (Haigh)?


2. Forces for Reformation: before 1531
Lollardy (John Wyclif c.1329-84); lay piety (15th century humanism); printing press (especially translations from abroad)
Humanists: John Colet (sermon calls for reform of the Church 1512); Thomas More (Utopia); Erasmus (Praise of Folly, Greek New Testament): emphasis on Bible, literary, on going back to a “simple philosophy of Christ”.
Native English evangelists: Robert Barnes; Thomas Arthur; Thomas Bilney - preached in East Anglia, Kent and London. Were they Protestants? William Tyndale’s New Testament (1525-35) is Lutheran in slant.
Influence of continental reformers: Luther, Melanchthon. Main evangelical issues: (1) sola scriptura (“Scripture alone”; (2) Was Scripture antecedent to the Church and should the Church be judged by Scripture alone, and not by Catholic tradition as approved by popes and Church Councils? (3) Theology of grace in contention. Was salvation God’s free gift to believers, or was it conveyed by the Church through the sacraments?

3. The process of Reformation: Henry VIII’s divorce is the trigger
Stage 1531: Pardon of the Clergy (Henry is “supremum caput” as far as the law of Christ allows); Act of Appeals (1533); Act of Supremacy (1534); Act of Treasons (1534); trials of More and Fisher (1535); Act Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome (1536).
Stage 2: Dissolution of the monasteries and Cromwell’s vicegerency
Cromwell investigated the condition of the monasteries and dissolved them. Responsible for ensuring that all the ex-religious assets came to the king and were accounted for. (NB 3 stages: 1536 [smaller], 1537-40 [larger], 1540 [Ireland].
Henry VIII and Cromwell have different “slants”. Henry VIII not opposed to monasteries as such, but policy anti-papal and “imperial”. He sees monasteries as foci of papal jurisdiction and resistance to break with Rome. And wants money and power. But Henry NOT anti-monastic. He founds monasteries in 1530s and is largely Catholic in theology. Whereas Cromwell IS anti-monastic, and wants abolition on grounds of superstition (monasteries, shrines, veneration of saints and images, pilgrimages, purgatory).
Stage 3: Henry and Cromwell issue religious formularies and injunctions in 1530s
Religious (i.e. doctrinal) “Reformation” starts with Cromwell and Cranmer. Wider anti-papal policy was Henry VIII’s in 1530s, but Cromwell and Cranmer give it an evangelical edge.
Henry VIII has largely orthodox views on sacraments, apart perhaps from baptism and auricular confession. Focus is on Bible as the Word of God, i.e. “efficacious Word” which is itself a sacrament and doesn’t need the clergy to mediate or do a miracle. Henry thinks the godly prince should trigger obedience to Scripture and issue a vernacular Bible. He is accountable to God for it.
1535 Coverdale bible - recension 1, dedicated to Henry VIII1539 Great Bible = Coverdale recension 2, made the official Bible of Henry VIII’s Church by Cromwell and Cranmer
Overall Henry wants Catholic doctrine BUT without a mediating clergy, and therefore although Catholic he is against cults of saints, intercessions to saints and therefore images and pilgrimages for the people at large.
Cromwell also wants Bible, supported by Cranmer. But they want it as the supreme authority by which the church and clergy should be judged. Want abolition of superstition. Against oral Catholic tradition. Cromwell summons a vicegerential synod (1537) in run up to Bishops’ Book: the church should be judged by scripture, he says, not vice-versa. Emphasis on faith, the Bible, and preaching put them in the “reformed” camp. Best term is “EVANGELICAL”.
Cromwell’s injunctions (1536, 1538) attacked images idolatrously abused and the vicegerent attacked shrines, cults of saints, pilgrimages, doctrine of purgatory etc. There can be no holiness in stones, wells, shrines, relics. But Henry attacked them because they were foci of pro-papal opposition to the royal supremacy.
English Bible, 1539, repr. 1540 with Cranmer’s Preface. In every church by the death of Henry VIII. Henry wants supreme head to be the direct intermediary between God and the people, but Cromwell is ideologically committed. Puts up £400 of his own cash for printing Bible.
Cromwell and Cranmer shared Luther’s social gospel: “kingdom of God in this world”, not secular model. Anne Boleyn is a supporter of this, but not Henry VIII.
Unofficial actions: Cromwell sets to work the evangelical printers and translators (Richard Taverner, William Marshall).
Cromwell’s household is a centre of evangelical ideas and reform.
Stage 4: Henry VIII’s Later Reformation - strong conservative tinge
Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-7): a major rebellion gives Henry pause (and cause) for thought;
Paul III pronounced the long-delayed sentence of excommunication against Henry. Threat of crusade and invasion after Franco-imperial peace of Nice (June 1538);
Case of John Lambert (November 1538) makes Henry believe that there really are dangerous Protestants in England;
Act of Six Articles (1539). Henry VIII personally behind the Act (strategy of balance, or just a conservative reaction?) – either way, the Act marks a Catholic turn in theology;
1540: fall of Cromwell (no replacement vicegerent - Henry now runs his own Church with Cranmer’s help);
King’s Book of 1543 (teams of conservative and evangelical theologians set to work to tease out the truth of doctrine, e.g. Gardiner, Tunstall versus Cranmer, Latimer, who each prepared drafts of particular texts or articles, e.g. the sections on purgatory, confession, marriage, ordination, confirmation, extreme unction etc.) – Henry opts for the conservative, Catholic positions (but without the pope);
Act for Advancement of True Religion (1543) – all this a setback for the evangelicals
The king acted as the final redactor and umpire in forcing a compromise in line with his own personal theology and his opinion of himself as the keeper of the “conscience” of the church and realm of England. NB Henry theologically dyslexic: he abolishes Catholic works theology, purgatory and mediation of saints, but refuses to accept the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith. Council of Trent rewrites the rule book.

4. What were the effects of Henry’s Reformation?
The pope abrogated, the monasteries dissolved, pilgrimages, shrines (e.g. Becket’s) abolished, the English Bible introduced, Church resources pillaged for the state and the laity, and the monarch becomes Head of the Church. As to the progress of Protestantism, that is much less strong than historians used to think. By 1547, the geographical extent of Protestantism is 30%-40% in London, 15% in the south-east region and in the provincial towns; around 10% in the Midlands outside the towns, and in the north and south-west region almost nil.
The “failure”, “flaw” or “defect” of Henry VIII’s Reformation is, of course, that after the Council of Trent (1545-63) set to work to modernize Catholicism in response to Luther, the idea of “Catholicism without the pope” becomes an oxymoron - not possible. The Counter-Reformation Catholic Church will move on and leave all remnants of the notion that you can still be a Catholic, but reject the pope or tradition, high and dry.
Was Henry VIII’s Reformation unpopular or popular? Protestantism was deeply unpopular, royal supremacy divided opinion. The Dissolution of the Monasteries was accepted largely because the laity themselves soon profited from the sales of the land.
Was Protestantism forced on an unwilling Catholic people - yes, but in Edward VI’s reign, not Henry VIII’s.
Is notion of “English Reformation” a conceptual sham (Haigh)? No, I don’t think so - Cranmer and Cromwell had genuine ideas of religious, evangelical reform- but these marked a short burst of energy in the 1530s, and when king pulled back in the 1540s, Cranmer was forced to reign in the Reformation.
http://www.tudors.org/

The Dissolution of the Monasteries

At the beginning of the 16th century monasteries owned well over a quarter of all the cultivated land in England. Farmers who rented land from the monks often criticized them for being greedy and uncaring landlords. It was also claimed that the monks had been corrupted by the wealth obtained from renting their land.
In August 1535, Thomas Cromwell sent a team of officials to find out what was going on in the monasteries. After reading their reports Henry VIII decided to close down 376 monasteries. Monastery land was seized and sold off cheaply to nobles and merchants. They in turn sold some of the lands to smaller farmers. This process meant that a large number of people had good reason to support the monasteries being closed.
However, many people disagreed with the way Henry had stolen the property of the monks and nuns. This was especially true of people who lived in the north of England. A large army was formed in Yorkshire, and their attempt to win back monastic property was called the Pilgrimage of Grace.
After a meeting with the Duke of Norfolk, the leader of Henry's army, the rebels agreed to go back home in exchange for a meeting of Parliament to discuss their complaints. Henry had no intention of keeping his side of the bargain. He gave orders that "a good number" from every village and town that had taken part in the pilgrimage should be publicly hung drawn and quartered.
In 1538 Thomas Cromwell turned his attention to religious shrines in England. For hundreds of years pilgrims had visited shrines that contained important religious relics. Wealthy pilgrims often gave expensive jewels and ornaments to the monks that looked after these shrines. Henry VIII decided that the shrines should be closed down and the wealth that they had created given to the crown.
The Pope and the Catholic church in Rome were horrified when they heard the news that Henry had destroyed St. Thomas Becket's Shrine. On 17 December 1538, the Pope announced to the Christian world that Henry VIII had been excommunicated from the Catholic church.
Henry now had nothing to lose and he closed down the rest of the monasteries and nunneries in England, Wales and Ireland. All told. Henry closed down over 850 monastic houses between 1536 and 1540. Those monks and nuns who did not oppose Henry's policies were granted pensions. However, these pensions did not allow for the rapid inflation that was taking place in England at that time and within a few years most monks and nuns were in a state of extreme poverty. (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/)

Henry VIII- Pilgrimage of Grace

The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536

The Pilgrimage of Grace is the name given to a number of northern risings which happened in 1536. There is no doubt that the Pilgrimage of Grace had a religious undercurrent. The revolt began in Yorkshire where people were alarmed by the arrival of two ecclesiastical commissioners who were investigating the quality of parish clergy and closing small monasteries. They were concerned that there parish churches would be closed and thier pride and joy- the 295 foot spire at Louth would be dismantled. Similar fears emerged in Yorkshire where over 100 monsteries were being threatened with closure. The rebels argued that a range of social and economic services would have be affected, the poor and children's education would decline, and spiritual teaching provided by monks. Monks joined the rebels often encouraging further to support the uprisings. Rebels were also concerned by the reduction of holy days and the recent asult on pilgrimage and saints. As a result the carrying of the banner of the 5 wounds of christ is demonstrative of this pilgrimage these rebels felt they had began. Many of the changes that rebels resented had been introduced some time prior to the rebellion however, the appearance of the commissioners brought the reality of these new reforms to the door of clergy and pesant alike.
Some historians have identifed economic causes for the Pilgrimage of Grace not least the rumour of additional taxation. In reality the subsidy was relatively small and affected few people however many rebels argued that they could not afford it.
In addition the Pontefract articles produced by the rebels identifed the concern over illegal enclosures. There had been rioting in 1535. Over 300 people in Giggleswick in Yorshire pulled down hedges and dykes.
There were also a number of social concerns that are expressed in the rebels articles including rack-renting, excessive rents, restriction of rights. Several of these changes impacted on the wealthy and they found in 1536 they were fighting on the same side as the lower orders to highlight their concerns to the King.
Nobles were also concerned by the premeniance of Cranmer and felt that they were being marginalised at court.