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An Overview of the Reformation
By Bruce RobinsonLast updated 2011-02-17
The Reformation was a culmination of
events and circumstances, both here and abroad, which led to a seismic shift in
the religious framework of this country. So what exactly happened, and what
lasting impact did the Reformation have?
Roots of the Reformation
It's one of those things everybody's
heard of but nobody really quite understands. The culmination of centuries of
Catholic corruption, or a bit of a fluke? The consequence of a European power
vacuum, or grand theological debate? A reasonable quest for a son and heir, or
simply a result of Henry VIII's lustful nature?
Well, it is down to all of those,
really. If it were as simple as any one of these options, there would be little
mystery. They were all necessary for the English Reformation, but not one by itself
was sufficient to bring about the chain of events that would eventually alter
England and Englishness forever. So much in history is a bastard child of both
long-standing, simmering emotion and the opportunistic seizing of a moment. By
its nature unexpected, it is also unpredictable, and shaped as much by
environment and chance as by its progenitors. The Reformation was no different.
The story really begins over a hundred
years earlier, when the Papacy began to reap the effects of centuries of
compromise.
The story really begins over a hundred
years earlier, when the Papacy began to reap the effects of centuries of
compromise. The Great Schism saw two, even three individuals claiming to be the
Pope, and the Council of Constance in the early fifteenth century saw a power
struggle between Bishops and Pope. Combined, they hindered Papal government and
harmed the reputation of the Church in the eyes of the laity. They led early
sixteenth century popes to resist reform and bolster their own position by using
their spiritual power, along with war and diplomacy, to become territorial
princes in Italy, building their bank accounts on the way.
In England, the same period saw John
Wyclif, an Oxford academic, anticipate the arguments of Martin Luther over a
century later, and also produce the first English Bible. Piers Plowman, a
popular poetic satire, attacked abuses in the entire church, from Pope to
priest. But nothing happened. Wyclif's supporters, the Lollards, were driven
underground after their failed rebellion of 1414, and remained a persecuted
minority for another hundred years. The church carried on unabashed and proud,
selling offices and indulgences, a political plaything for princes and a useful
source of income for second sons and men on the make. And forget celibacy.
The wider picture
So European anticlericalism was nothing
new; it had been seething for centuries. What was new this time round was a
by-product of the infant capitalism: wealth, urbanisation and education. Whilst
still a minority, the literate laity were no longer confined to those in on the
game, and were better educated than many priests who claimed to be the path to
salvation (while taking their money in taxes). It rankled somewhat.
Criticism was stepped up, at home and
abroad, by the Humanists. Led by Colet, More and Erasmus, they went back to
basics, studying the Scriptures as they would any classical text. Yet they remained
Catholics, attacking corruption but keen to reform from within, stressing
toleration and man's inherent dignity. It was a depressed German cleric, Martin
Luther, who lit the fuse for the first, European, Reformation. Provided no
comfort by Catholic ritual and horrified by abuses in Italy, he concluded that
salvation was a personal matter between God and man: traditional church
ceremonial was irrelevant at best and at its worst - the sale of indulgences,
for example - fraudulent. Nailing his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg,
Germany, he prompted massive theological debate and was condemned as a heretic
and an outlaw.
Luther's ideas were white hot and they
spread fast. They soon reached England...
It is one of history's great ironies
that the man who publicly refuted him was none other than Henry VIII, rewarded
with the title of Fidei Defensor - Defender of the Faith - in 1521. But it was
too late. Luther's ideas were white hot and they spread fast. They soon reached
England and were discussed by academics here, most notably the White Horse
Group who were named after a Cambridge pub where scholars would meet, drank and
put the world to rights. Some things don't change.
The break from Rome
So England by the mid 1520s was hearing
grumbles of lay dissatisfaction, grumbles that remained. Catholicism addressed
many important needs and enjoyed general popular support. Even though the
grumblers could point to Europe as a lead, the same situation existed in
France, yet that remained Catholic. What France didn't have was a Defender of
the Faith; it didn't have a Henry. King since 1509, England's Renaissance Man
lacked but one thing in his life - a son. Catherine of Aragon had produced six
children but only a daughter, Mary, survived. Henry had become convinced that
God was punishing him for marrying the wife of his dead elder brother, Arthur.
He had also become infatuated with Anne Boleyn, daughter of a well-connected
London merchant whose family he knew well: her sister had been a mistress. No
beauty but no fool, Anne insisted that she be Queen or nothing. Henry was keen.
He was also married. It was his search for a solution that triggered the break
from Rome.
In 1527 he asked Pope Clement VII for a
divorce on Scriptural grounds. But unfortunately for both Clement and Henry,
Rome was surrounded by the Emperor Charles V of Spain, Catherine's nephew.
Unsurprisingly, Charles was unsympathetic to Henry's requests, which meant the
Pope had to be as well. Henry had to find another way.
No beauty but no fool, Anne insisted that
she be Queen or nothing. Henry was keen. He was also married.
It was Thomas Cranmer, one of the White
Horse Group, who in 1530 suggested a legal approach. The Collectanea argued
that Kings of England enjoyed Imperial Power similar to that of the first
Christian Roman Emperors. This meant that the Pope's jurisdiction was illegal:
if Henry wanted a divorce, he could have it, as long as the Archbishop of
Canterbury agreed. But William Warham didn't. Henry applied some pressure,
charging the clergy with Praemunire, the unlawful exercise of spiritual
jurisdiction. In 1532 they had capitulated, and the next year a new Act asserted
England's judicial independence. By now, matters were pressing: Anne was
pregnant. Henry had to marry for the child to be legitimate. Luckily, Warham
had just died. Henry replaced him with Cranmer and the divorce came through
within months.
Dissolution of the monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries
lasted four years to 1540. Two thirds of all the land was sold to the laity and
the money squandered in vanity wars against France. With the destruction of
priceless ecclesiastical treasures it was possibly the greatest act of
vandalism in English history but also an act of political genius, creating a
vested interest in the Reformation: those now owning monastic lands were
unlikely to embrace a return to Catholicism.
With the destruction of priceless
ecclesiastical treasures it was possibly the greatest act of vandalism in
English history...
But for all the work carried out in his
name, Henry was never a Protestant. Further doctrinal reform was halted by the
Act of Six Articles in 1539 and following Cromwell's sudden fall the next year
the court hung between religious conservatives and radical reformers with the
Reformation stuck in the mud. But on the quiet, Henry's young son, born to Jane
Seymour (wife number three), was being educated by Protestants. Edward was only
ten when he became king in 1547 but his two regents accelerated the pace of Protestant
reform considerably. The 1539 Act was repealed, priests were permitted to marry
- creating another vested interest - and more land was confiscated. Altars and
shrines were all removed from churches and the stained glass was smashed.
Changing attitudes
Becoming Queen in 1553 Mary, Edward's
devoutly Catholic sister, was always going to have a tough time undoing twenty
years' work. Although Protestantism remained patchy and its followers a
minority, this minority was entrenched and substantial, at least in London and
the South East. Mary did her best, reinstating Catholic doctrines and rites,
and replacing altars and images, but she handicapped herself by martyring
almost 300 ordinary men and women, as well as bigger names like Cranmer.
The burnings were unpopular and
immensely counter-productive, and she compounded her errors by marrying Philip
II of Spain, son of Charles V who had so successfully thwarted Henry in 1527.
Burning bodies, Spanish courtiers and Philip's awful English all fuelled
further Protestant propaganda and confirmed fears of the Catholic menace that
had been threatened since 1534. Fighting France for Philip, Mary's loss of
Calais in 1558 - England's last territory in France - helped turn distrust into
hatred and xenophobia. Tension mounted, Thomas Wyatt was rebelling in Kent, and
religious civil war seemed not too far away.
.. Mary, Edward's devoutly Catholic sister,
was always going to have a tough time undoing twenty years' work.
However, chance rolled the dice once
more. After two phantom pregnancies Mary died childless in November 1558: the
only heir was Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's daughter. A moderate Protestant, she
inherited a nervous kingdom where Catholicism dominated everywhere but the
major cities, the South East and East Anglia. She had to inject some stability.
The religious settlement of 1559 was intended to be inclusive. It restored
Royal Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity but, in a conciliatory gesture,
reintroduced clerical vestments and a more Catholic Eucharist. Altars were
allowed, and clergy had to get permission to marry.
A lasting legacy
In reality, however, the settlement was
very Protestant: it reissued Cranmer's Prayer Book of 1552 and its 39 Articles
were closely modelled on his work in 1553. All but one of Mary's Bishops were
removed from office after refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, replaced by
men hand-picked by Elizabeth's chief minister, Robert Cecil. Most were far more
radical than their Queen, as were the clergy who filled the parishes vacated by
resigning Catholic priests. While altars were theoretically allowed, in
practice they were removed by church commissions that toured the country to
check compliance.
The church was further bolstered in 1563
when another Act of Uniformity made refusal to take the oath, or the defence of
papal authority, a treasonable offence. But this time the foreign threat was
real: a revolt in 1569, the papal invasion of Ireland, Elizabeth's excommunication
and the arrival of priests from France all underlined the insecurity of the
Anglican Church. The severity of the Treason Laws increased alongside
anti-Catholic sentiment, effectively killing it as any real force by driving it
underground for the rest of her reign.
After the stop-start policies of Edward
and Mary, it had 45 years of Elizabethan rule to bed down.
And it was the length of her reign that
secured Anglicanism and established it as Protestant. After the stop-start
policies of Edward and Mary, it had 45 years of Elizabethan rule to bed down.
Had she succumbed to smallpox in 1562, a religious civil war might easily have
followed. But luck struck again, and by her death in 1603 the country was
united as had not been possible in the previous century, both by a common
religion and a common enemy. Patriotism and Protestantism were two halves of
the same coin, a coin baring Henry's title, 'Fidei Defensor'. They still do.
So why is the Reformation important?
True, it happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but it established
in English minds the image of an island nation, separate and supreme, still
resonant today. English policy became increasingly repressive in Ireland,
importing Protestant landowners to oppress the locals who resisted conversion.
That legacy still lingers, and the abiding sense of anti-Catholicism remained
potent enough to be a cause of the Civil War a century later.
Find out more
Books
The Religion of Protestants: the Church
in English Society, 1559-1625 by Patrick Collinson (1982)
The English Reformation (2nd edition) by A.G. Dickens (1989)
The Stripping of the Altars -
Traditional Religion in England, c.1400-c.1580 by Eamon Duffy (1992)
Reform and Reformation by Geoffrey Elton (1977)
Tudor England by John Guy (1988)
English Reformations - Religion,
Politics and Society under the Tudors by Christopher Haigh (1993)
The Impact of the English Reformation
1500-1640
ed. Peter Marshall (1997)
About the author
Bruce Robinson is a professional
journalist who graduated with a first class degree in History from Cambridge
University, specialising in English Social, Political and Economic History from
1300 to 1600.
