“Changes in religion in the reign of Henry VIII up to 1540 occurred because of Cromwell.”
Assess the Validity of this view.
A* standard essay example - used by my teacher as an example to the rest of the class.
“Changes in religion in the reign of Henry VIII up to 1540 occurred because of Cromwell.”
Assess the Validity of this view.
The religious changes which occurred during the reign of King Henry VIII were the most
important in hundreds of years. Before, England had followed the rule of the Pope as a Catholic
nation but by 1540 had cut ties with Rome and followed its own doctrine under the Church of
England headed by Henry himself. Many changes in religion can be attributed to the King’s
second Chief Minister, Thomas Cromwell, however, there were other major influences in the
change in religion such as a genuine desire for change due to the spread of anticlericalism and
Henry’s own personal incentives for leaving the Catholic Church.
As a younger man, Cromwell had traveled to Europe and seen the changes which had been
sweeping across Northern Europe as more countries followed Lutheranism and became
Protestant. Due to this, Cromwell had a large network of Protestant contacts who could help him
persuade the King of the merits of Protestantism, including Robert Barnes who became the link
between Henry and Luther princes of Europe. Barnes had written a book called “A Supplication”
which was revised when Cromwell advised him to and later it was used to convince Henry to
convert religions and also gave interpretations of key Lutheran issues. Therefore Cromwell’s
use of his vast network was useful in meaning that he was able to enact England’s changes in
religion up to 1540.
Cromwell also was able to make changes in religion occur because he used Parliament. The
Act of Succession in 1534 ensured that everyone would have to swear an oath to accept
Elizabeth (who was not yet born) as the true heir and thus denounce Mary as illegitimate. It also
made sure that everyone had to swear allegiance to the new Royal Supremacy, ie. that Henry
was now the head of the Church of England. Without Cromwell, it is unlikely that this change
would have occurred as Parliament had never been used to legislate in this way before, now
there was a system of ‘King in Parliament’ as opposed to the previous ‘King and Parliament’
system. Therefore it was Cromwell’s use of Parliament namely the ACt of Succession which
allowed the English religion to change in the reign of Henry VIII.
Furthermore, the Bishops’ Book in 1537 was supervised by Cromwell and brought together
bishops and Clergymen to create a document outlining the definitive exposition of the faith and
addressing specific problems which had not been solved before, namely purgatory and the
sacrament of penance. They created the Bishops’ book which was much less vague than the
previous Ten Articles and had less of a Catholic tone. This provided a structure that the new
religion could cling to, allowing clearer guidelines for the Clergy and ordinary people to know
what was and was not now allowed under the Church of England. Therefore Cromwell provided
a framework which was able to further develop the religious changes which occurred up to 1540
in the reign of Henry VIII.
However it was not only Cromwell who enabled religious changes to occur up to 1540, Henry’s
second wife, Anne Boleyn was also instrumental in getting these changes to happen. Anne was
already affiliated to a humanist way of thinking rather than the traditional Catholicism that most
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