In the 16th century, King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, making the English church independent for the first time since 700. What were his reasons for doing so?
- Henry wanted a divorce, so that he could remarry and produce a male heir.
- The pope wouldn’t grant him a divorce, even though that was standard practice at the time.
- Henry needed to raise money to defend England against the Spanish Armada, but the pope was related to the King of Spain.
- Henry authorized the church to conduct worship in English rather than Latin, so the people could join in a corporate prayer of national repentance to fend of the invasion.
- Henry was a vigorous opponent of Protestantism. It wasn’t until later that Elizabeth I wanted to include Protestantism within the church, to avoid the religious squabbles that were plaguing the continent and to guarantee national unity.
- Henry was an ardent Roman Catholic. He did not disagree with Roman Catholic teachings. In fact, he supported Roman Catholic teachings very strongly, especially the one about the bread and wine of the Eucharist being the literal Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
- Henry was very definitely not an admirer of Martin Luther. He had even written an important theological treatise against Martin Luther, for which the pope awarded him the hereditary title of
defender of the faith.
Poor Henry! How frustrating it must be to do all that stuff and then the main thing people remember about you is, of all things, your sex life!
First of all, about the three statements that are true:
King Henry the VIII wanted a divorce because he was unable to produce a male heir. In those days, the pope routinely granted divorces to monarchs in that predicament. Since the pope was related to King Philip of Spain, who was planning to conquer England, Henry VIII figured that by denying him a divorce, the pope was denying him an heir and undermining England in favor of Spain. The pope also neglected to appoint bishops to fill vacancies in England. This drained England of cash, because if a diocese had no bishop, the church income went to Rome instead of staying in the country. So Henry VIII suspected that the pope was weakening England to prepare it for Spanish takeover. In addition, the English government, not Rome, was obligated to pay the salaries of clergy, who were in oversupply. This situation depressed the English economy and made it financially impossible for Henry VIII to build ships to defend his country against the Spanish invasion.
The break from Rome made the Archbishop of Canterbury the spiritual head of the Church of England and the king became its secular head. Henry VIII authorized the archbishop to fire the surplus clergy and to start the process of consecrating bishops to fill any vacancies. He also stopped the flow of church money to Rome. These actions revived the economy and gave him the wherewithal to build a fleet of ships to fight the Spanish Armada. As the crisis approached, Henry VIII wanted all England on its knees, praying for the safety of the nation. Therefore, he gave the Archbishop of Canterbury the task of translating the liturgy from Latin into English. The first part to be done was the Great Litany, a national prayer of repentance and deliverance. The entire nation breathlessly feared the retribution of God, until the Spanish Armada was defeated.
Second, about the statements that were not true.
Henry VIII was an staunch Roman Catholic, it’s just that he had a little problem with the pope’s politics. He tolerated no theological changes after the split from Rome. He strongly disapproved of Protestantism in general and of Martin Luther in particular. He supported transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic view of the nature of the bread and wine in the Eucharist. In happier years, before he and the pope developed political differences, he had written an essay opposing Luther’s views on the Eucharist. The pope was so delighted with the essay that he awarded Henry VIII the title Defender of the Faith. Henry VIII never changed his mind about that essay and kept the title, even after the split with Rome. The title is hereditary, and Queen Elizabeth II holds it today.
Because Henry VIII’s divorce was recognized by the Church of England, but not by the Church of Rome, it meant that any children born to him after that divorce would be illegitimate and thus ineligible to ascend to the throne under Roman Catholicism, but they would be legitimate and able to ascend to the throne if the Church of England was independent. Switching the church back and forth changed the line of succession and the entire English government! Under those circumstances, religious dissidence and political subversion were pretty much the same thing, so a lot of untoward things happened. After his death, his daughter Mary came to the throne, switched the country back to Roman Catholicism, and avenged her mother’s death in a way that earned her the epithet ‘Bloody Mary.’ After Mary’s demise, the only clear heir to the throne was Elizabeth I, who was in the line of succession that was only valid if the Church of England was independent. Fortunately for Elizabeth I, people were not thrilled with Bloody Mary’s version of Roman Catholicism, but unfortunately for her, Mary also made them skittish of female monarchs. Elizabeth I had spent a lot of time in prison during Bloody Mary’s reign. She emerged from prison in Nelson Mandela fashion, without a desire for revenge but with an insecure throne and a skeptical nation. She wanted to stabilize the country and end the sectarian strife that was tearing the country apart. So she was the one (not Henry VIII) who had the idea that the church should limit itself to essentials and should give people the freedom of their religious opinions within those boundaries. The idea was to include as many Roman Catholic sympathizers as possible and to contain the Protestant Reformation within the Church of England. At great personal risk, she largely managed to pull it off. She strengthened the unity of the nation, preserved her throne, and saved her own life. In hindsight, if Mary had been a little less vindictive, Elizabeth might not have come to the throne and England might be Roman Catholic today.
In the early 17th century, an overseas British settlement was named after Elizabeth I in recognition of her greatness and her leadership. Obviously, the name Elizabethia would have been too cumbersome. Since she never married, they named the virgin land after the virgin queen, and though today our state is neither virgin nor British, we still call it Virginia. There are also talks going on right now that might reconcile the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.