CIVILISATION BRITANNIQUE

I THE ENGLISH REFORMATION

A The break with Rome
English reformation: came from the King Henry VIII. He wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of
Aragon, to marry Anne Boleyn in order to have a male heir. Henry asked his main minister Thomas
Wolsey to contact the Pope to ask him to invalidate his marriage. But the Pope is under the influence
of Charles V, who is Catherines nephew, he refuses to invalidate the marriage. From to ,
Thomas More has replaced Thomas Wolsey as Lord Chancellor. Thomas More was a roman
catholic.
To divorce, Henry VIII decided to split with Rome. He called his parliament to give his decision more
legitimacy. The members of parliament were dissatisfied with the church taxes. The parliament was
called by the King and sat from to . The parliament passed several laws to ratify Henrys
break with Rome.
The main laws: The Act in Restraint of Appeals in , which proclaims Henrys imperial status.
The Act of Supremacy in , the King is the supreme head of the Church. The Treasons Act in
, you couldnt deny the Kings supremacy. The Act against the Popes Authority in , the
Pope has no power on the Church of England.
From to , Thomas Cromwell has replaced Thomas More as Vicegerent in Spirituals.
Thomas Cromwell was a protestant. He advised Henry to dissolve the monasteries for reasons:
this places were close to the Pope, there was a risk of rebellion, and it was safer to eliminate them.
This would also boost the Kings finances. From to , the smaller monasteries were
suppressed. Then, in , the bigger were all of them suppressed. All the monastic lands were
confiscated by the crown. Two kind of people bought them: the nobility and the gentry.
Thomas Cromwell persuaded the King to adopt a protestant doctrine: The Ten Articles of .
They said that only sacraments were necessary to be saved: penance, baptism and communion.
In , Henry passed The Six Articles: they reflected to a return to traditional Catholicism:
transubstantiation, which means that the bread and the wine are the body and the blood of the
Christ, and the celibacy of the priests were reintroduced. Henry was conservative in the theological
matters.
Some people didnt react at all, because many people didnt miss the Pope because of the taxes.
Some others thought that it wasnt bad to attack Rome. There was also opposition of some people
who rebelled against the Kings authority. There were passive and active resistance. In his dying
speech, Thomas More said that no layman could be King of the Church. In , there was a rebellion
which was called the Pilgrimage of Grace, because the North of England was catholic. The rebels
made several demands: the removal of Thomas Cromwell, the dissolution of the monasteries to be
stopped, the Pope to be restored as the head of the Church of England, and Mary of Aragon to be
the heir of the thrown. The demands were rejected, and the rebels were repressed.

B Religious Instability
1 The intellectual background to the reformation
The two main figures of the reformation were Martin Luther and John Calvin. Luther is known for
his Theses against Indulgences in , which were made for the Pope to make money. This
criticism was the beginning of the protestant movement. Luther thought that you couldnt go to
heaven because of indulgences. He insisted by justification of faith and not by deeds. According to
him, to he saved, it was necessary to believe in God and Christ, and to read the Bible daily. For him,
only sacraments were necessary: baptism and communion, and priest were allowed to be married.
The nd figure is Calvin. He thinks that men are corrupted. He thought in the concept of
predestination ( free-will), categories of men: the elect and the reprobate. Calvin is hostile to
transubstantiation and to episcopacy.
2 Edward VI religions reformation
Edward VI came to the throne in . He was a protestant, and in , the parliament voted the
Act of Uniformity. It was made in the Book of Common Prayer, it was still close to Catholicism. The
nd Act of Uniformity passed in , it was more Calvinistic (protestant). It contained no reference
to transubstantiation, and altars were to be replaced by communion tables which should be placed
in the middle of churches, to make communion less sacred.
In , the parliament passed the Articles. They defined the new doctrine of the Church. It was
prepared by Thomas Crammer. Those theses rejected purgatory which was a catholic doctrine. The
worship of saints was also rejected, as the cult of images and relics. These articles rearmed the
dogma of predestination. Edward VI died in and was replaced by his step sister Mary I. She is
Catherines daughter.
3 Mary I counter reformation
As the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary Tudor was brought up in the romans
catholic faith. Her policy was dominated by aims; restore Roman Catholicism in England and to
have a child, because her sister Elizabeth was protestant. So she married Philippe II who was the
King of Spain. She acted very quickly and abolished the work of Edward VI and Henry VIII. In ,
her first parliament repealed the Act of Uniformity and the Articles. In , the statute of
repeals abolished the main anti act passed under Henry VIII. This statute also issued injunction to
priests: they have to celebrate all Roman Catholic ceremonies, they were to reorder Roman Catholic
priests again, and they were to turn away married priests.
In , Mary I decided to suppress protestant heretics. She persecuted Protestants, and put to death
heretics who were burned at the stake. Some of the victims were great figures of the reformation,
such as Thomas Crammer. Then Mary I became bloody Mary. She wanted to initiate the Counter
Reformation, but she did not have much time, because she died in .

C Elizabeth I religious settlement

She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She became Queen in . At that time,
Protestantism was strong in London and in the South of England. In the North, many people
remained faithful to Catholicism.
Elisabeth showed a moderate Protestantism. She was following the advice of William Cecil. The st
law voted under Elizabeth I was The Act of Supremacy, in , like Henry VIII did. So there was a
new split with Rome, which restored the supremacy of monarch under the Church. She was called
the Supreme Governor. The Act also contained an oath obliging clergymen to recognize the royal
supremacy.
In , a rd Act of Uniformity was voted. There was also a rd Book of Common Prayer. It was based
on the edition. It was mainly Calvinistic (protestant) except for the part concerning communion.
There was also a edition sentence concerning bread and wine.
The doctrine of the church was defined in Articles which took up most of the Articles voted
under Edward VI. They were composed in , and ratified in . The new church was Calvinistic,
but it remained close to Roman Catholicism. The Elizabeth via media came under attack from
puritans, who were English Calvinists. It was also criticized by Catholics. Puritans were Protestants
but extremists. They thought that only a few people were chosen by God: the elect, and would be
saved. They were hostile to episcopacy. There was a conflict between Elizabeth and the Puritans.
In , Thomas Cartwright criticized episcopacy as anti-Christian. He thought that church should
be organized on a Calvinistic model. He was sent to prison. This marked the conflict between Puritans
and Elizabeth.
In , the publication of the Marprelate Tracts ridiculed the Church of England. The authors were
brought to a tribunal: Star Chamber.
In , this was the year of the Northern Rising. The idea of this insurrection was to replace
Elizabeth by Mary Stuart, who was a Roman Catholic. The Rising was a failure, and law were passed
to suppress heresy. Between and , more than Catholics were put to death. Mary Stuart
was Elizabeths cousin. She was Queen of Scotland, but she fled to England for protection, but she
was put to prison by Elizabeth, because she feared that Mary might be put on the throne. Mary
lived in prison for years, and she has been executed in . At the end of Elizabeths reign,
Protestantism had won, and Roman Catholicism was defeated. The Church of England which was the
product of Elizabeths religious settlement still exists today.