Introduction to the English Reformation

English Reformation (1520-1603) Henry the eight is the one who does it

Henry VIII

• 18 years old

• began as popular and powerful king

• Characteristics - athletic, artistic, “handsome“, good ruler

• Devout catholic

View of Martin Luther and the reformation

• after 10 years he learns about the reformation, reads what Luther is writing about and isn’t pleased

• 1519, he begins writing his thoughts

• defense of the Seven Sacraments 1521

• “Defender of the Faith“

• Suspicious of Protestant ideas

• A monarchal reformation - top, down reformation

Marriages arranged by Henry VII

• Henry VII wanted a closer relationship with Spain

  • Aurthur and Catherine (1501) and Catherine and Henry (1509)

• Henry VIII attempts to create stronger Anglo-imperial alliance

  • Charles V and Mary Tudor

Political problems w/ the Holy Roman Empire

• Marriage did not take place between → Charles V and Mary

• Charles married a Portuguese princess instead (1526)

• Soured relationship between Henry and Charles

• Henry VIII and Charles V’s relationship sours

Situation complicated by “the King’s Great Matter“

• Wanted to annul the marriage

• Didn’t want a repeat of the Rose Wars

• His reasoning…basically says that it should have never because of incest-cognitive dissonance

• problems in getting Papal approval

• Pope doesn’t want to annul the marriage

• Charles V and Catherine are both against the annulment

• Charles V against it, defensive for cousin Mary and Catherine

Habsburg-Valois Wars, 1521-1559

• Charles V → 1529 controlled Rome

• Pope Clement VII virtual perisoner

• Charles V → nephew of Catherine of Aragon

“The King’s Great Matter“ - Getting a son

• Religious motives of king’s advisors

  • Royal Chancellor

  • Staunch Catholic

• Thomas Moore

• Attempted to destroy Protestants

• Unable to give king what he wanted

• Resigned 1532, later on killed

Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell

• Supported Lutheran ideas

• King’s desire for divorce → effective wedge

• Gave the king a solution to “the King’s Great Matter“

Steps to “Solution“

• 1532-1535

• Annulment of king’s marriage (May 1533)

• Married Anne Boleyn (m. January 1533)

• She births a girl, no boy

• Reform being…

  • Attack absentee clergy

  • Restricted church courts

  • Prohibit payment of papal taxes

  • Seized church lands (dissolution of monasteries)

Parliament gives King control of the English Church

• Act of Supremacy 1534

• Monarch declared “the Protector and only Supreme head of the Church and the Clergy of England“

• Seen as a political issue (not a religious one) by most

1534-1547 → no substantive changes to the church in England

Changes came w/ Henry’s children

• 1547 King Edward VI

• Protestant in power

  • Reforms included

    • Book of Common Prayer → 1549

• Showed how to combine English religious tradition with reform theology

Mary I and Cardinal Reginald Pole

• Mary - R. 1553-1558

• Cardinal - 1500-1558

• Catholic

• Reversal half-brother’s reforms

• Restored Catholicism

• Rooting out Protestants

• Killed them (Bloody Mary)

Elizabeth 1 (r. 1558-1603)

• reversed half-sister’s actions

• restores father’s and half-brother’s reforms

• 1558 Act of supremacy

• and 1559 Act of Uniformity

  • Bringing back The Book of Common Prayer

• Protestant are hoping but…

Elizabethan Settlement

• Differences w/ Roman made clear

• but included concessions tot he Anglo-Catholics

• great variety of customs permitted

• Political, religious

• English reformation → Middle way theologically

Protestant Reformation and Capitalism

• Max Weber (1864-1920)

• German sociologist, economic, and politicitan

• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Protestant Reformation (Calvinism) and Capitalism

• Economic sociology

• Argued…no control to know if your saved

• resulted of changes in the assurance of salvation

Newfound wealth was invested…particularly in trading companies (English East India Company (EIC) 1600 and Dutch East India Company (VOC) 1602)

Review: Schmalkaldic War 1546-1547

League of Protestant Princes in the Holy Roman Empire vs. Holy Roman Empire and his supporters