21st March
‘Religious divisions were the main reason for the fall of Cromwell.’ How far do
you agree?
By 1532, Thomas Cromwell had effectively taken over the management of the King’s
divorce, and by 1536, he had drafted a series of Acts that destroyed the power of Rome,
created the Church of England and granted Henry unprecedented power and status as a
monarch. However, he lost his influence even quicker than he had gained it due to the
actions that he took, primarily those concerned with religious division that were
implemented too fast too soon for the King. It was these such religious divisions that
contributed to other factors, including the deterioration of Henry’s relationship with
Cromwell, opposition at Court and financial disagreements, that all amounted to why
Cromwell was arrested in June 1540 and executed a month later.
Religious divisions were the main reason for the fall of Cromwell because it was his radical
Protestant beliefs that led him to enforce many changes regarding the Catholic Church, a
very controversial matter that had serious consequences for Henry. Cromwell himself was a
Protestant, with a Lutheran mindset, and following his appointment as Vicar General in
January 1535, a government post created by Henry himself to give Cromwell power to
institute Church reform, Cromwell had the power to make religious decisions on behalf of
the King. He exercised the power that this appointment gave him in a multitude of different
ways. For example, he declared that an English translation of the Bible must be placed in
every parish Church and he banned Catholic traditions such as idols and pilgrimages.
Furthermore, Cromwell wanted to abolish monastic life altogether and so came about the
dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540. Cromwell had instructed his
commissioners to find the most damaging pieces of evidence about each monastic
institution that they visited, even if that meant listening to unfounded gossip and rumours.
Historians have tended to dismiss the official reason for the dissolution (that the
monasteries were corrupt and dirty places), instead looking elsewhere for the causes; the
fact that monasteries were a constant reminder of the Catholic Church, of which Cromwell
was desperate to cut all ties with, has been deeply considered as one of the truer reasons
for the dissolution. However, such extreme measures were too radical for Henry and it
could be argued that the excommunication from the Catholic Church (1538) was never in
Henry’s interests, considering the King remained a Catholic until his death in 1547. Although
Henry had already upset the Pope with his actions in the past, specifically those concerned
with the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, it was the religious divisions that
Cromwell imposed, such as the dissolution of the monasteries, that were the tipping point
for the Pope to issue his bull of excommunication against Henry. It is after this point that we
see an ever-growing wedge emerge in Henry and Cromwell’s relationship and it is likely that
Henry thrust a great proportion of the blame for his unwanted excommunication upon
Cromwell.
Others may argue, however, that Cromwell’s relationship with Henry was the main reason
for his fall. Staying in the King’s favour was imperative to Cromwell’s survival, but as the
years progressed his positive relationship with Henry became endangered until it was no
more. Henry disliked Cromwell’s extreme Protestant reformist policies, exacerbated by the
