Topic > The Influence of the Papacy on King Henry VIII's Creation of Anglicanism

How did the papacy influence King Henry VIII's creation of Anglicanism? Henry's immediate problem in the 1520s was the lack of a male heir. After eighteen years of marriage he had only a sick daughter and an illegitimate son. His queen, Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), after four previous pregnancies, gave birth to a stillborn son in 1518, and by 1527, when she was 42, Henry had concluded that he would have no more children. His only hope for the future of his dynasty seemed to be a remarriage to another queen. This, of course, would require annulment of his marriage to Catherine. In 1527 he turned to the Pope asking for its annulment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Normally, the request would probably have been granted; the situation, however, was not normal. Catherine had been the wife of Henry's late brother Arthur. Her marriage to Henry had required a papal dispensation, based on her oath that the first marriage had never been consummated. Now Henry professed concern for his soul, tainted by living in sin with Catherine for eighteen years. He also claimed to have been punished, citing a passage from the Book of Leviticus, which predicted childlessness for a man who married his dead brother's wife. The pope was sympathetic and certainly aware of an obligation to Henry, who for his verbal attacks on Luther had been appointed "defender of the faith" by a grateful previous pontiff; but to grant the annulment would have been an admission of papal error, perhaps even corruption, in issuing the dispensation. In addition to the Lutheran problem, this would have been doubly harmful to the papacy. On 7 March 1530, Pope Clement VII issued the following bull: “Bull, notifying that on the appeal of Queen Catherine to the judgment of the Legates, who had declared her in absentia for having refused their jurisdiction because she was not impartial, the Pope had undertaken the case, at his request, to Maestro Paolo Capisucio, chaplain of the Pope and auditor of the Apostolic Palace, with the power to sue the King and others; that the said Auditor, having ascertained that the access was not safe, had the said summons posted, with an injunction under censorship, and a fine of 10,000 ducats, on the doors of the churches of Rome, Bruges, Tournay and Dunkirk, and the cities of the diocese of Terouenne (Morinensis). The Queen, however, complaining that the King had boasted, despite the inhibition and the mandate against her, of proceeding with a second marriage, the Pope issues this inhibition, to be posted as before on the doors of the churches, under the penalty of excommunication major and the interdict to be imposed on the kingdom. Bologna, 7 March 1530, 7 Clement VII.” (LP iv. 6256) This was Pope Clement VII's reaction to King Henry VIII's disobedience to the Law of God. Catherine of Aragon had informed the Pope that King Henry VIII insisted on marrying Anne Boleyn, a Protestant. The Pope reacted by threatening excommunication. This attempt failed. King Henry VIII relentlessly attempted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Continuing his efforts to prove this achievement he even went so far as to send his men to universities to acquire evidence that his first marriage was against God's law. Understanding that this was not Henry's first attempt. On 13 April 1528, a papal bull appointed Cardinal Wolsey as the Pope's attorney "to take cognizance of all matters concerning the king's divorce." The Pope appointed Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio as his papal legate in June to prepare for the upcoming divorce hearing. All of thishad arisen since early in 1528, when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's right-hand man, had written to Pope Clement VII regarding Henry VIII's request that the cause for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon be decided in England.by Wolsey and a visiting papal legate, who would act with the full authority of the Pope. On 8 December 1528 Cardinal Campeggio arrived in London but Eric Ives explains how his "powers were not complete" which made “further tiring and unsatisfactory negotiations with the Papal Curia” necessary. This was done intentionally to delay the proceedings. This made matters worse for Henry VIII and Wolsey when Catherine of Aragon presented Pope Julius II's dispensation for her to marry Henry. This caused a glitch and further delayed the case. In the meantime Caterina was advised by Campeggio to enter a convent, this would have allowed her to easily annul the marriage. However, Catherine disagreed as she proclaimed herself to be Henry's true wife and queen, thus forbidding her to take the veil. Henry VIII and Wolsey then played dirty, threatening Catherine with separation from her daughter, Mary, if she did not obey the king. With the support of the people and men such as John Fisher (Bishop of Rochester), Archbishop Warham and Cuthbert Tunstall (Bishop of London) instead of submitting to the king, Catherine responded by appealing to Rome against the authority of Wolsey and Campeggio to prove the case before the Legatina Court. Campeggio could only stall for a time and on 31 May 1529 formal proceedings finally began at the Legatine Court of Blackfriars. On June 21, Catherine of Aragon gave what David Starkey calls “the speech of her life.” She approached her husband, knelt at his feet, and delivered the following speech in slightly broken English: “Lord, please, for all the love that has ever existed between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice. Have mercy and compassion from me, for I am a poor woman and a stranger born outside your dominion. I have no safe friends here, and even less impartial advice... Alas! Lord, how have I offended you, or what occasion of displeasure have I deserved? ... I have been a true, humble and obedient wife for you, always at ease with your will and pleasure, who has never said or done anything to the contrary. , being always very pleased and happy with all things in which you have had any delight or amusement, whether in little or in much. I never had a grudge in my words or face, nor did I show an expression or spark of discontent. I loved everyone you loved, just for you, whether I had reason to or not, and whether they were my friends or enemies. In these twenty years and more I have been your true wife and by me you have had several children, even if it pleased God to call them out of this world, which was not a lack in me... When you had me in the beginning, I take God, in my opinion, I was a real servant, without any human contact. And whether it's true or not, I'll put it on your conscience. If there is any just cause under the law which you can plead against me, of dishonesty or any other impediment to banish me and remove me from you, I am very happy to go away to my great shame and dishonor. And if there is none, then here I humbly beg you to let me remain in my previous state... Therefore I humbly ask you, out of charity and for the love of God - who is the just judge - to spare me the end of this new court, until I am informed of the path and order which my friends in Spain advise me to take. And if you will not grant me such impartial favor, then your pleasure will be satisfied and I will commit my cause to God! In this speech, Catherine also reminded Henry that her father, "The Second Solomon", and her father, hadconsidered "the marriage between you and me to be good and lawful." She ended her speech still on her knees, even though Henry had attempted to lift her up twice during his speech. He then asked the King for permission to write to the Pope to defend his honor, which he granted. Catherine then bowed and instead of returning to her seat she walked straight out of the room, ignoring the town crier who called her to return to her seat. As her general curator, GriffinRichards, told her she would be recalled, Catherine was heard replying: “There, there. It doesn't matter, because to me it's not an impartial court, so I won't delay. Go ahead." And with that he left the Legatine Court. Continuing from here King Henry VIII attempted to prove that Catherine had consummated her marriage to her brother Arthur, however Catherine had already signed the declarations of virginity and Bishop John Fisher shocked the court in his defense of Catherine's virtue, quoting from the Book of Matthew and saying: «Quos Deus conjunxit, homo non separet. «What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder». and joined by God with good intent, I say that I know the truth; that it cannot be broken or loosened by the power of man." Then he said that he was so convinced of Catherine's cause that he would give his life for it , of course, he eventually did when he was tried and executed by Henry in 1535. This was why he was martyred and future canonized.) This prompted Henry VIII to send Wolsey and Campeggio to see Catherine. They tried to force her to comply, but they were not successful. Without her knowledge, on July 13, Pope Clement approves Caterina's appeal, of which unfortunately she will not have any more news for some time. And so, in her desperation, Campeggio tried another tactic of her own. Thus, in July 1529, he announced that the court would adjourn until October, for a summer break due to the fact that it was "harvest and reaping" time in Rome, a time when the courts did not meet. This infuriated King Henry VIII, but despite this the Legatine Court was suspended. He was also never reunited when news reached England that Catherine's appeal had been successful. Henry, who was certain that the court would pass judgment and rule in his favor, was shocked. In February 1531, these events led Henry VIII to claim the title "Sole Protector and Supreme Head of the Church of England", although he had to compromise by adding "so far as the law of Christ permits, Supreme Head thereof.", who then wrested from Parliament the authority to appoint bishops, and appointed his willing instrument, Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), archbishop of Canterbury. In return, this paved the way for the break with Rome and the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine, finalized in May 1533. Thus allowing Henry VIII to marry Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony in January 1533, shortly before his coronation of Anna. Henry and the church began to stumble on the brink of schism. Any conflict with Rome was in accordance with national pride and often expressed itself in the traditional resentment against Roman domination. Late medieval English kings had challenged popes over Church appointments and revenues. More than a century and a half before Luther, an Oxford professor named John Wycliffe had denounced the false claims of popes and bishops. In more recent times, English Christian humanists, such as Sir Thomas More, had criticized the artificialities of Catholic worship. Therefore, when the pope delayed the decision, Henry was relatively confident of his support at home. King Henry's ambitions to gain control truly began when the Pope threatened excommunication, this gave Henrythe encouragement he needed. He passed an act obliging everyone to recognize the children of his new marriage as heirs to the throne. Then another passed making him the "supreme head" of the church in England. He dissolved the monasteries, redistributing their estates to his nobles to strengthen their loyalty. The monks who resisted were executed and the money from their treasures ended up in his coffers. However, in an era of the Reformation, his ecclesiastical reforms were conservative. He seemed to want a Catholic church, only one that was always faithful to him and to England. “I choose no one who has it in his power to command me, nor will I ever suffer it,” he once said. SO while he broke away from Rome, he continued to advocate transubstantiation and required clerical celibacy. Parliament also ended all revenue payments to Rome. Now, having no other choice, the Pope excommunicated Henry, making the violation official on both sides. England's break from Rome occurred in stages starting with the Act in Restraint of Annates of March 1532, which was therefore the first legal part of the process. This act limited annates (payments from churches to Rome) to 5%. In 1534 the annates were completely abolished with the law on the absolute restriction of annates. The Act in Restraint of Appeals of 1533 began the process of transferring the power of the Church in Rome to Henry VIII and his government, and is seen as the starting point of the English Reformation. All appeals to the Pope were forbidden and the King was given final authority on all matters. Through the Act of Supremacy of 1534, the king made himself the "supreme head" of the Church of England in place of the Pope. After this dramatic move, King Henry dissolved English monasteries, destroyed Roman Catholic shrines, and ordered that the Great Bible (in English) was placed in all churches. However, Henry allowed little doctrinal change and very little changed in the religious life of the common English believer. Under Henry VIII, the Church of England remained almost completely Catholic, with the exception of loyalty to Rome. Amid a marked anti-Catholic campaign in the 1530s, Henry secured the Anglican establishment, which became an engine for promoting royal policies, with the king's henchmen controlling every function from the construction of chapels to the formulation of the liturgy. The church's former revenues, including more than 40,000 per year from religious taxes alone, were poured into the royal treasury. In 1539, Parliament completed the confiscation of the monastery lands, selling some for profit and distributing others to ensure the loyalty of the crown's supporters. Meanwhile, Catholics suffered. The expropriated nuns, unlike the monks and priests, had no place in the new church and were often reduced to despair. One, the famous "holy maid of Kent," who dared to publicly rebuke the king, was executed, as were other Catholic dissenters, including the king's former chancellor, Sir Thomas More, and the saintly Bishop Fisher of Rochester. Henry even forced his daughter Mary to accept him as head of the church and admit the illegality of her parents' marriage. The new English Church, however, made few changes in doctrine or ritual. The "Six Articles", Parliament's declaration of the new creed and ceremonies in 1539, reaffirmed much of Catholic theology, with the exception of papal supremacy. Catherine of Aragon could never have known that her refusal to accept the annulment of her marriage to King Henry VIII and thus her appeal to Rome for the Pope's support would lead to England breaking with the his beloved church. Furthermore, demonstrating that the involvement and strengthening of the papacy paved the way for."