Badertscher, Eric. "Chapter Three: The English Reformation." Protestant Reformation (2009): 3. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.
The English Reformation was a related movement, though it did not spring directly from the Lutheran protest. Its immediate cause was King Henry VIII’s break with Rome, over the Pope’s refusal to grant a royal divorce. This alone, however, does not explain the long history of religious dissent in England. And even without Henry’s break with Rome, Lutheran thought had already become strong parts of England, especially within the middle class and among humanist scholars.
The King wanted a divorce because his wife, Catherine of Aragon, had been unable to produce a male heir. She was originally betrothed to the King’s older brother, Arthur, but after Arthur’s premature death she was given to Henry in marriage. Catherine produced a daughter, Mary, but the lack of a male heir led Henry to believe that he had sinned in marrying his brother’s wife. To divorce Catherine, he needed papal consent. The Pope, however, refused to grant this in order to avoid offending Catherine’s nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (also King Charles I of Spain).
The King then established himself as head of an independent Church of England, though one that still followed Catholic doctrine in all other respects. He divorced Catherine of Aragon, and married her lady-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. In spite of this, Henry remained a Catholic in all other respects and fervently opposed Protestantism. Under Anne’s influence, however, and for political reasons, he eventually became more committed to Protestant-style reforms and permitted the publication of the Bible in English. His son, Edward VI, was also raised as a Protestant.
The English Reformation thrived under the brief reign of Edward VI, and the reformed Church of England became increasingly Protestant. Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, led the development of the "Book of Common Prayer," the service book of the Church of England. The Reformation suffered a setback during the reign of Edward’s sister Mary, a devout Catholic, whose burning of a number of Protestants earned her the nickname “Bloody Mary.” After Mary’s death in 1559, her sister Elizabeth I worked to establish a via media or “middle way” between Catholicism and the continental Reformers. This Elizabethan solution became known as Anglicanism.
By Eric Badertscher
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