Did it really happen? No. England was (maybe, perhaps, a teeny bit) changed, but the Church really wasn't. Nothing was improved, and by definition, a reformative movement requires some attempt to improve.
The biggest change in the church was its name -- English Christians were no longer Catholics, but now Anglicans. Henry VIII's "big" changes were to get rid of monasteries in order to increase the Crown's income, allow divorce in the Church of England, cut all connection with Rome, and put himself in charge of the church (rather than the pope). Basically, Henry VIII was selfish as heck. He wanted to divorce his wife so he could have a son heir, he wanted money (rich government = rich king), and he wanted to get rid of the Pope because of a personal dislike between the two.
Book of Common Prayer -- essentially a guide to the practices of the new Church of England; prayer and worship manual of Anglicanism
Act in Restraint of Repeals -- permanent break from Rome, declares king to tbe the supreme sovereign in England and forbade judicial appeals to the papacy -- No pope
Act of Submission of the Clergy -- churchmen must submit to the king; no publication of ecclesiastical laws without royal permission -- Report to king
Act of Supremacy -- puts King Henry VIII in charge of the Church of England -- "Hehe I'm in charge now"
Thomas More was beheaded under Henry VIII for refusing to recognize Henry VIII as leader of the Church of England or his validity in his divorce of Catherine of Aragon. During his life, he wrote Utopia, which depicted a civilization in which political and economic injustices were limited by equality and common property -- he believed, however, that this level of peace was unattainable in society. A martyr of the Catholic church, Thomas More is essentially (according to Nicole) Heaven's quarterback.
After Henry VIII's "reformation," England was a mess, pretty much. Under Edward VI, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer moved the Church of England towards Protestantism. Then Bloody Mary attempted to restore England to Catholicism (which didn't really work out for her). After this, Queen Elizabeth managed to calm things down, not leaning towards either side while maintaining peace.
A quick summary of the rest of everything:
Scotland -- Presbyterians -- supported the Reformation
Ireland -- Catholics -- not much Protestantism
Sweden, Norway, Denmark -- Lutheranism
Meanwhile, a different sort of thing was happening in Eastern Europe. They still had a greatly agricultural society and practiced feudalism. They didn't support Lutheranism because it's associated with Germany, and they definitely didn't like Germany.
Please enjoy this video of Henry VIII:
Also enjoy these photos of Henry VIII being a scumbag (because I couldn't chose just one):
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment