English Reformation c.1520-c.1535

1510s – William Melton

• In 1510, the chancellor of York, William Melton, wrote his ‘Exhortation’
  • In the early 1500s the Church was not particularly popular and there was widespread criticism of it
  • Melton was deeply religious and wanted to strengthen the Catholic Church in England
  • He was outraged by the priests’ behaviour and wanted the clergy to undertake more reading and learning
    • They were examples of the seven sins, as they were oafish, boorish and engaged on ignoble and servile tasks,
• He represented a small group of pious gentries who called for change to ensure the Catholic Church was central to society

1520s – Role and Importance of the Church

• At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Catholic Church was structured
  • The pope, the Bishop of Rome, was God’s representative on Earth
  • There was the secular clergy
    • Cardinals were very senior churchmen who elected the pope
    • Archbishops were the senior churchmen in each country
    • Bishops were regional leaders of the Church
    • Parish priests ministered to local congregations
  • There was the regular clergy
    • Enclosed monastic orders devoted their lives to worship and had hardly any contact with the community
    • Open monastic orders worked within society, providing medical aid, charity and teaching
• In 1520, the Roman Catholic Church was a very powerful force in England
  • Its annual earnings were an estimated £400 000, compared with £40 000 for the income from the royal lands
  • The vast majority of the population went to weekly or more regular services
  • There were 45 000 clergy the majority of which were parish priests
  • The Church had its own system of law courts and privileges
  • It was part of a massive international Church under the authority of the pope in Rome
• The Christendom had to accept the pope as head of the Church, with supreme authority over all religious matters
  • The pope had his own court, through which he ruled the most important people in Christendom and made sure they did what he wanted them to do
• The Church played a political role so had a close link with the monarch
  • Churchmen were often highly educated so were government ministers
  • Bishops and abbots sat in the House of Lords
  • Some of Henry VIII’s closest advisors were churchmen
  • The Church boosted the monarch’s prestige through concepts such as the ‘great chain of being’
    • God would punish those who committed treason or heresy
• Wealthy people donated money to the Church to decorate and rebuild chapels
  • Wealthy cloth merchants donated to many chapels, particularly in East Anglia in the fifteenth century
  • These people hoped that their contribution would ensure their souls did not linger too long in purgatory
  • People were encouraged to leave money to the Church in their wills, and special prayers might be said for those who had done so
  • Some wealthier people left money to found a chantry, where a priest would celebrate masses for the soul of its founder
  • The Church offered indulgences, where members of the congregation could pay for extra prayers to be said to help speed the soul of a loved one to Heaven
    • Indulgences began to be used as a way of repenting for sins done
  • Many ordinary people donated personal items and their names would be read put in the ‘requiem for the dead’ annually
• Parishioners also has to pay a tithe, which was ten per cent of their earnings to the Church
  • They could be paid in money, goods, or agricultural produce
  • Churchmen collected this tax and it went to the local parish church

1520s – Church and People

• Local parish priests or monks represented the Church for the majority of the people
  • The Bible and prayer book were written in Latin, so only educated people could read them
  • The vestments worn by clergy for church services highlighted their status
  • They vowed celibacy to show their status as well
  • They came from a range of social backgrounds and were no wealthier, but more educated, than their parishioners
  • The process of ordination elevated the priests
• Mass was a solemn performance
  • Barriers called rood screens separated priests from the congregation when he performed significant parts of the ceremony at the altar
    • During the Mass, the priest ‘revealed’ the host and chalice (bread and wine) by raising it so people could see it
    • When the bell rang, the bread and wine would be miraculously changed into the body and blood of Jesus; transubstantiation
  • The congregation joined in some parts of the service by reciting prayers in Latin, kneeling to pray and standing when the Gospel was read
  • The whole experience of mass was theatrical and sensual
    • The priests wore colourful vestments, the bell rang, incense burnt, and holy water was sprinkled
• The Church provided people with certainty as life was short
  • Most were farmers whose lives were dominated by the seasons
  • People were worried by disease and death, so religious beliefs brought comfort
  • God’s control of nature was emphasised, so pleasing God was a way to ensure a good harvest
  • The Church taught and vividly depicted purgatory, Heaven and Hell
• People’s desire to get to heaven led to submission to the Church and to God
  • They had to believe in sacraments which were special ceremonies revealing God’s goodness
  • People had to confess their sins to God
• Churches were a centre of culture
  • The buildings were iconic and beautiful
  • Much of the finest architecture, art and music was produced for the Church
• Villagers gathered at church to celebrate holy days and seasonal festivities with dancing and drinking
  • These included Candlemas, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Easter Sunday and May Day
  • The Church incorporated local traditions and folklore
    • This included the cult of Saint Walstan, who was said to have performed miracles to help the poor
    • Walstan’s shrine was a focus for an annual pilgrimage up until the Reformation
  • Parishioners felt loyal to the saint whose church they belonged to
  • Celebration and comfort made the Church an important part on life
• People had an intense fear of God and faith in God
  • They saw God’s work in all aspects of life
  • Most would not consider committing heresy as it would lead to torture and execution, and their families would be shunned
    • 24 heretics were burned in Henry VII’s reign
    • 81 heretics were burned in Henry VIII’s reign
• People did not fear their priests and appreciated a good priest
  • People complained about individual priests if they were sub-par as people had high expectations

1300s-1500s – Early Reformers

• The Lollards were a group led by John Wycliffe in the 1300s suggesting that priesthood and the sacraments were not important aspects of faith
  • He questioned transubstantiation which was the belief that the communion bread and wine really became the body and blood of Christ during the celebration of the eucharist
  • He wanted ordinary people to read the Bible
  • Under Henry VII the movement was supressed as 73 people were tried for heresy and 11 were burnt for following these beliefs
• In the late 1400s, the Renaissance was affecting European intellectual life; one aspect was a movement called humanism which centred on studying ancient texts
  • Erasmus, the most celebrated humanist scholar, visited England in 1499
  • He met with John Colet the founder of St Paul’s School; Colet believed that individuals could choose a virtuous life
  • They took a scientific approach to Bible study and analysed the original versions
  • Erasmus then published the New Testament in Greek so people could read the original
    • Most people couldn’t read Greek, so he argued for a translation
  • He pointed out differences between the practices of the Catholic Church and those in the Bible
• In the 1520s, a new group of reformers in Europe fiercely attacked Church practices
  • Martin Luther from Saxony and Huldrych Zwingli from Zurich were the most influential
• They became known as Protestants because their beliefs were so radically different from those of the Catholic Church
• Their beliefs were similar to those of earlier protesters against the Church
  • Only faith, through Bible study, could make people closer to God
  • Everyone should be able to read the Bible in their own language
  • Services should be in the people’s language and focus on the Bible
  • Praying to Virgin Mary and saints should stop
  • Purgatory did not exist
  • Priests did not need to be celibate
  • Religious authority should be of the ruler, not the Pope
• Luther wrote the 95 Theses of points about Christianity that he disagreed with
• Luther also criticised the Church for its practices
  • The selling of relics
    • Relics were items sold to people as things that had been nearest to Jesus on Earth
    • They were objects of veneration and were believed to have healing powers
    • Sellers were often frauds
  • The selling of indulgences
  • Pilgrimages
  • Idolatry
• Luther translated the Bible into colloquial German over the period of 11 weeks

1520s – Critics of the English Church

• Cloth traders passed European Church reformation ideas across to England
  • In port cities Protestant-like preaching took place in the 1520s
  • Oxford and Cambridge universities took up reforming ideas
  • The ideas began to spread from clerics to laymen
• There were criticisms from the laymen
  • The ideas became particularly important among lawyers at the Inns of Court
    • These were like universities
    • They spread ideas via publications
  • Simon Fish was particularly enthusiastic; he studied at Oxford before entering Grays Inn in 1525 to train as a lawyer
    • In 1526, he participated in a Christmas play that mocked Church authorities; he was then exiled and contacted other reformers
    • In 1528, he published ‘A Supplication for Beggars’ which was a pamphlet condemning English priesthood that was widely circulated
• At the same time, criticisms from clerics was increasing
  • Cambridge University was the centre for earlier Protestants
    • They believed in a radical Church reformation
    • They met at White Horse Inn, led by Robert Barnes, where they shared ideas and texts
    • They were gripped by an evangelical belief in justification by faith alone
    • Spies began watching, listening and reporting on this group, so many fled to mainland Europe
  • William Tyndale was particularly fierce; he studied at Oxford before being ordained as a priest in 1521
    • He was influenced by Erasmus and Luther; holding similar and stronger beliefs
    • Wealthy London drapers supported him financially to publish an English translation of the Bible
    • He was eventually executed in 1536 for his writings yet Henry VIII published Tyndale’s Bible two years later
• Many criticisms were about doctrine, however some captured public attention and gained popularity
• Wolsey’s power and wealth was an example of the Church’s excesses
  • He had been a humble cleric, who became the Archbishop of York, cardinal and papal legate
  • He was Henry VIII’s lord chancellor
  • He used his positions for wealth and built himself Hampton Court Palace
• Pluralism was an accepted part of Church life however reformers believed it failed parishes
  • In Canterbury in 1521, more than half the clergy held more than one post
  • Many parish duties were being left to poorly trained curates
• Reformers questioned the moral standards of their priests
  • Many broke the vow of celibacy
  • In St John Zachary, London, a brothel for clergy was set up
  • Alexander Thornton, a Lancashire priest lived openly with his partner, and had a son with her
• The ‘benefit of the clergy’ was a special privilege meaning they could only be tried in a Church court, so they escaped punishment
  • In 1514, Richard Hunne was a reason for the outrage caused over this privilege
    • He was an English merchant tailor who disputed with his priest over paying for his son’s funeral
    • He went to the English common law courts to challenge the Church’s authority; he was then arrested for heresy
    • Whilst awaiting trial, he was found dead in his cell
    • People suspected a murder by Church officials

1520s – Popular Attitudes towards Reform of the Church

• Most protesters were devout Christians and reformist ideas were limited mainly to eastern England
• Many acted as defenders of the Church
  • In 1521, Wolsey commissioned theologians to write books attacking Luther’s ideas
  • Luther’s works were publicly burned in London in 1521 and 1526
  • William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Wolsey decided to privately persuade reforming clergymen to returning to traditional beliefs
  • Thomas More was a Christian humanist who believed that Protestant ideas were heresy
    • He wrote a point-by-point rebuttal of Fish’s ‘A Supplication to Beggars’
    • Wolsey placed him as chancellor in 1529 as he was willing to take drastic measures to limit the influence of Protestantism
• As Wolsey and More began to fall from power in the 1530s, a new group of Protestant reformers rose to high-ranking positions in government
  • Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell were helped into court by the Boleyn family who supported Luther’s teachings
    • They were hostile to the clergy, critical of traditional ideas of purgatory and indulgences and regarded the pope as a scheming foreign ruler
  • The reformers were able to convince Henry VIII that Church reform was the best thing for England
• The common people of England may have wanted some change, but most did not speak out due to fear of the consequences of heresy

1520s-30 – The ‘King’s Great Matter’

• In 1521, Henry VIII wrote a book ‘Assertion of the Seven Sacraments’ which was a response to Luther’s attack on the Catholic Church
  • Pope Leo X rewarded the king with the title ‘Defender of the Faith’
• Kings were concerned by having a healthy, legitimate son as an heir to the throne
• Henry had been happily married to Catherine of Aragon for twenty years
  • She had six pregnancies but only Mary, born in 1516 survived
  • Once Catherine was 40, Henry was sure he could not have another child from her so brought the issue to court as the ‘King’s Great Manner’
• Henry decided he needed a new wife for an heir and had fallen for Anne Boleyn, one of Catherine’s ladies-in-waiting
  • The marriage had to be annulled by the Pope
  • Before marrying Henry, Catherine was married to his brother Arthur until 1502 when he died and Henry was granted special dispensation by the pope to marry her
  • Henry argued that the dispensation should never have been granted by using two bible verses for evidence that a man taking his brother’s wife was unclean and resulted in childlessness
• By 1526, Henry VIII had ordered Wolsey to launch a campaign to persuade Pope Clement VII to pronounce the King’s marriage invalid
  • Henry proposed to Anne as he was so confident they would succeed
  • Catherine was devastated and opposed the annulment
• Pope Clement probably would’ve granted an annulment but he couldn’t
  • He was at war with France and needed the support of Catherine’s nephew Charles V who was the Habsburg emperor
• In 1529, the pope allowed Wolsey and another cardinal, Campeggio, to set up a commission in England to investigate whether there were grounds for annulment
  • He ordered Cardinal Campeggio to waste time and delay making a decision
  • The commission announced they could not decide, so the pope took control
    • Henry refused to accept this so the ‘King’s Great Matter’ became a struggle for control of the Church in England rather than for annulment
• Wolsey was papal legate, so was blamed by Henry for the failure
  • In 1528, Henry removed Wolsey as chancellor and replaced him with a layman, Thomas More
• Henry was influenced by anticlericalism, possibly by Anne Boleyn who supported religious reform
  • All new advisers were Protestant
• Most MPs shared Henry’s views as anticlerical but uncommitted to Protestantism
  • Under Thomas Cromwell, the king accused Wolsey and the entire clergy of praemunire which was an old medieval law that said people could not support a foreign power over the king in civil matters
  • The accusation showed Henry’s desperation and allowed him to ‘pardon’ the clergy for £100 000
  • The priests had to accept the king as ‘singular protector, supreme lord and even, so far as the law of Christ allows, supreme head of the English Church and clergy’
  • Other reformers at court, led by Thomas Cramer, Edward Foxe and the Archbishop of Tork, Edward Lee, were Writing up a document called ‘Collectanea’
    • ‘Collectanea’ demonstrated that since Anglo-Saxon times, kings had spiritual supremacy in their kingdom
    • They argues that Henry could call on any English bishop to proclaim his annulment
• By September 1530, Henry was certain that a break with Rome was justified

1529-34 – The Legislation of the Reformation in Parliament

• Thomas More pleaded with Henry not to go ahead, but his influence had decreased and Cromwell was in charge
• Cromwell and his assistant Thomas Audley proposed cutting off annates, which were large payments made to the pope by newly appointed bishops
  • Parliament did not immediately agree to the Act of Annates and Henry has to appear thrice before parliament before the bill was passed
• Cromwell drafted the Supplication of the Ordinaries, a bill criticising the abuses of Church courts
  • The Supplication argues that the Church courts interfered with royal laws, which gave Henry a line of attack against the pope
• The day after the Supplication was passed by parliament, More was dismissed as chancellor
  • Henry was led by the Boleyn and Cromwell, who pushed him towards reform of the Church
• Henry published an explanation of the religious reasons why he should be granted annulment
  • Publicity and propaganda followed
  • In August 1532, Archbishop Warham died, removing another significant obstacle of reform
    • He was replaced by Thomas Cranmer who has spent the past three years on the container learning more about Protestantism and campaigning for Henry’s divorce

• Henry VIII didn’t show signs of breaking with Rome despite the progress
  • Anne Boleyn fell pregnant and Henry needed to ensure its legitimacy
• In January 1533, Henry and Anne married secretly
• Cromwell and Audley drafted laws to legalise his marriage and stop the pope’s involvement
  • Henry forced the bill through the House of Commons
    • Sir George Throckmorton suggested the Commons pay Henry £200 000 to drop the bill
    • Henry and Cromwell personally interviewed any protestors of the bill
• In May 1533, Cranmer announced the annulment of Henry and Catherine’s marriage and then declared the king’s new marriage lawful
• The pope threatened to excommunicate Henry if he did not return to Catherine
  • This forced the king to break with Rome because his marriage had to be legitimate
• In 1534, the Act of Supremacy made Henry the Supreme Head of the Church in England

• The Act of Supremacy gave Henry specific powers over the Church
  • He could survey it, discipline the clergy, correct preachers, supervise teachings and try heretics
  • In prayers he was mentioned as head of the Church
• All the Acts of Parliament passed in 1529-34 were driven by the teachings of the Church
  • Church reform was a political process driven by Cromwell and King Henry VIII
  • Henry was introduced to some new ideas by his advisors but was in complete control
• Edward Foxe set about publishing tracts that explained the difference between royal and ecclesiastical power for those at court
  • The tracts argued that national churches has been subject to the law of the king
  • He published a pamphlet ‘Little Treatise against the Mutterings of some Papists in Corners’ for the less educated
    • It justified the supremacy based in Bible teachings
    • It emphasised that Henry was caring so deserved loyalty

1530s – Critics of the English Church

• Little changed for ordinary parishioners so there was little widespread discontent
• Catherine of Aragon herself was Henry’s biggest opposition
  • Some nobles sympathised with her but no one fought for her
• Thomas More and John Fisher were the most senior court members who spoke out against annulment
  • Fisher was arrested after Cromwell discovered he was in contact with Emperor Charles V, urging him to take up arms against Henry
    • He refused to swear to the Oath of Succession and was executed in June 1535
  • More was executed in July 1535, after also refusing to swear the oath
    • He was loved by the people and his execution was surprising
• Reginald Pole was a devout Catholic horrified by the break with Rome
  • He fled to Padua, Italy and launched a campaign against the king’s divorce
  • Pole criticised Henry for listening to men like Cromwell
  • Henry sent representatives to Italy to meet with Pole and convince him to return, but Pole refused
• Elizabeth Barton was an outspoken critic of annulment
  • She developed a cult-like following in Kent as a a prophet after she had fallen ill, experienced trances and then was miraculously cured
  • She became a nun and continued to have visions
    • An angel told her to go to the king, command him to amend his life and tell him that God would seek vengeance if he married Anne
  • She claimed she had seen the spot in Hell reserved for Henry unless he restored the pope’s rights
  • She told many monks and nuns about her visions
  • She was arrested and tried for treason
    • She eventually admitted to making up her visions
  • She, and five supporters were executed in 1534
  • She was the only woman in history to have her severed head on display on London Bridge
• The most devout and respected monks challenged Henry
  • There were six small Franciscan monasteries that refused to swear the oath so they were shut down
    • The friars were sent to the Tower
  • Three Charterhouse priors who refused to acknowledge the royal supremacy were trues and and executed for treason in May 1535
    • Three Charterhouse monks were also executed in June
• Archbishop Cranmer reaches a compromise agreement with Stephen Gardiner about preaching after More’s execution
  • Preachers were to set forth the supremacy and denounce the power of the pope, bu they could avoid taking sides in any of the other teachings

Explain why the Church was being criticised in the 1520s. [10]

Explain why some people wanted religious reform in the 1520s. [10]

Explain why the Church was so wealthy in the early 1530s. [10]

Explain why the Church played such an important role in communities in c.1520. [10]

Explain why the Church was so powerful in England. [10]

Explain why Henry VIII reformed the Church in the 1530s. [10]

Explain the role of Cromwell in reforming the Church in the 1530s. [10]

Study Sources 5,6 and 8. How far do they convince you that supporters of Church reform were motivated by political aims rather than religious convictions? [20]

 ‘The Church was popular in England in c.1520.’ Using sources in this topic as evidence, how far do you agree with this view? [20]

Study the sources in this topic. How far do they convince you that Henry VIII was manipulated into reforming the Church of England? [20]