"Catholicism without the Pope" best describes Henry VIII's religious power over England. Assess the validity of this view.
A* Grade (22/25) received from this essay - good structure to template off along with related historian evaluation.
Catholicism without the pope
‘Catholicism without the pope’ is the result of a culmination of various reforms implemented by
Henry, which consequently caused the precarious nature of the church. This reformation became
the basis for the founding of Protestantism – leading to the reformulation of certain basic tenets of
Christian belief and thus resulting in the division of Western Christendom between Roman
Catholicism and new Protestant traditions. It is abundant that Henry performed such changes in a
bid to satisfy his greed rather than a Protestant favour - as not only did he gain a great deal of wealth
and power from such religious changes, but previous Catholic practices (such as transubstantiation)
remained. This provides a coherent explanation as to why Henry enforced more Catholic structures
towards the end of his reign, as Scarisbeck construed; ’“the Henrician church took long strides
towards the Reformers and that English Protestantism which came into flower in the next reign had
many roots in this one”. Therefore, the interpretation of ‘Catholicism without the pope’ is valid, as
Henry’s main intents were to keep Catholicism ideologies however allowing flexibility to ensure he
was able to get his annulment to Catherine of Aragon, to reap the reputation, wealth and,
ultimately, acquire an heir to continue the Tudor dynasty.
Henry’s attitudes to purgatory, pilgrimage, and monasteries towards the start of his reign
significantly departed from straightforwardly orthodox Catholicism - the reformation proved to be a
turning point in the history of pilgrimage to holy places. Catholic and Orthodox Christians continued
to revere traditional shrines, but it was associated as a ‘cult of the saints’ in England. Reformers such
as Martin Luther moved from questioning the value of pilgrimages to outright condemnation,
declaring that “all pilgrimages should be stopped. There is no good in them… no obedience attaches
to them”. These views were similar to Lollards’, that acquiring acceptance with God through ‘good
deeds’ and emphasising special ‘holy places’ devalued other locations, such as the local parish
church. There was an accepted social belief that those who went on pilgrimage were all simply
evading their daily responsibilities. Luther’s ideas are reinforced by the bishop of Worcester in 1535,
who opened convocation with two memorable sermons, in which he advocated reformation.
Although Henry seemingly shared similar ideologies with Luther, many events in the past suggested
entirely the opposite. Even after the Break with Rome, the king never agreed with Luther due to a
conflict in Henry’s annulment – with Luther being a great believer in the sanctity of marriage.
Perhaps this shows that Henry does not agree with some protestant ideas - being a devoted Catholic
after all - and instead is using such famous reformers to gain support to appease those who were
against him (those who were angry at the dissolutions for eradicating their place of worship), in
order to create a protestant society in which he could finally receive his divorce. The drastic assault
on around 800 catholic monasteries highlighted just this; the lengths Henry would go to successfully
acquire his annulment and makes the statement ‘Catholicism without the pope’ valid.
Henry’s early reformist changes continued with very Protestant ideologies. In 1536, Henry
introduced the injunctions to clergy, which required clergy (now with no spiritual place of worship
due to the dissolving of monasteries) to abandon various practices, observe the anti-papal laws and
teach their people the Lord’s prayer. These practices are further strengthened by the very protestant
ideology (influenced by Lutheranism) that scriptures held greater influence over the Pope – Henry
presents this by instructing that the English Bible should be used in every church. In 1536,
Parliament passed the Act of 10 Articles, which many historians view as a ‘compromise’ between
Catholics and reformers. The sole sacraments were Baptism, the Eucharist (both Catholic practices)
and penance. Purgatory became a non-essential doctrine, and the prayers for the dead and the
calendar of the saints were continued. One aspect of theology that remained unclear in the
Henrician Church was the nature of Purgatory; “It is a very good and charitable deed to pray for
souls departed… but, forasmuch as the place where they be, the name thereof, and kinds of pains
there also, be to us uncertain by scripture” – Article X of the Ten Articles (1536). Many view
scriptures like this within the Act as highly ambiguous, and thus cannot be proof of a protestant
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