Henry VIII

Henry VIII and the English Reformation

One of the interests of the English Reformation was to translate the Bible into a vernacular Bible. It was that they wanted the obedience of the people through a religious side, not just through the authority side. “Primary motivation in translation was the hope that the word of God ‘would inculcate the supremacy and foster obedience.’ Yet, while obedience to secular authorities was no doubt part of the Reformers’ broad vision of society.” [1] To inculcate supremacy and foster obedience is something that they would be taking from the Church and the pope. Henry already had the authority from the side of the government which had to be enforced, but wanted to convince the people that he had the same authority given to him by God, in which case he would be the leader of both the Church and the government. The kind of power that he would have is not just that they had to obey him by force, but by faith as well. Now it one thing to be obedient to Scripture, and it is another to be obedient to the monarch. So whatever the monarch said it had to be backed by Scripture, but ultimately the obedience was for God. “Indeed, to subsume the interest in vernacular scripture and the evangelical rhetoric of God’s word beneath an interest in royal supremacy does not do justice to the Protestant vision.” [2] So there was feel that the movement had more of Henry’s flavor, because of his personal interest than other reasons for the Reformation.

Another interest of Henry to be the head of the Church was to be able to obtain the divorce that the Church did not consent for him. Queen Catherine could not give him a son who would be the next king, so he tried many different ways to see who to annul their marriage. But the Church never saw a good reason for a divorce or an annulment. “In 1529 the first in a series of statutes was passed by Parliament denouncing papal authority as a usurpation of the traditional jurisdiction of the English ecclesiastical courts.” [3] After the denouncement of the authority usurpation of the Pope, Henry was able to divorce his queen and marry Anne Boleyn, which was something that he could not have done with the new statutes that the Parliament passed. Because the marriage of  Catherine was pronounced invalid and married Anne Boleyn, Henry was excommunicated by Clement VII. And the excommunication gave way for Henry to form his new movement. “'Act in Restraint of Appeals' passed by Parliament in 1533 declares England to be an 'empire,' Henry's crown 'imperial,' and dissolves all juridical ties to the see of Rome on the ground that the English Church is 'sufficient and meet of itself.” [4] Being sufficient for itself meant the detachment of the Roman Catholic Church, leaving Henry as the head of the English Church and state.

There were difficulties with the cannon law because the one who takes care of the human affairs could not be the same one who are in charge of the divine affairs. “The very foundation of the canon law declared unambiguously that the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome was supreme, and that 'those who preside over human affairs cannot judge those who are in charge of the divine. [5] So now it was not just the side of scripture that was needed for the obedience of the faithful, but it was that it was not in the canon law that the temporal ruler could be the leader of the church as well. And to make less of a problem they were prohibited from studying canon law. “By 1535 study of canon law in the universities had been prohibited, all canon law prejudicial to the law of England had been abrogated, and the clergy had completely surrendered any right to legislate independently of the crown. [6] There was no other reason to prohibit the study of canon law if there was nothing to hide, or if they did not agree with it because according to the canon law the Pope is the one who oversees the spiritual side of the people.

Footnotes.

[1] Richard Rex. Henry VIII and the English Reformation, 2nd ed. (2006). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 9781403992734. Pulled from Holy Apostles library.

[2] Ibid

[3] Torratice Kirby. Lay Supremacy: Reform of the canon law of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I. (2008) McGill University torrance.kirbyigmcgill.ca. Equinox Publishing Ltd. Pulled from Holy Apostles library.

[4] Ibid]

[5 Ibid]

[6] Ibid