The English Reformation

In this essay, the author

• Describes lollardy, a widespread heresy based on the ideas of john wyclif, an oxford scholar.
• Explains that the english protestant reformation, like wyclif's lollard heresy, would draw support from both the common people and the royal establishment.
• Describes how john wyclif and the people who followed him reflected how royal authority could be blurred into religious and spiritual reform.
• Explains that wyclif's and the lollards' views included the supreme importance of the scriptures as guide to living a christian life.
• Explains that the act de heretico comburendo allowed the government to kill heretics during henry iv's second year as king. the changing attitudes of the royal household towards the church speaks more of issues of power than it does of religion.
• Explains that anti-clericalism had not died with the government-sponsored prosecution and execution of heretics. henry viii harnessed the people's discontent for his own purposes.
• Explains that henry viii, like his predecessors, sought recognition from the church to legitimize his claim to the throne.
• Explains that henry's rejection of luther was based not on whether they were true or false, but on their loyalty. henry needed a special papal decree to invalidate the marriage of catherine of aragon.
• Explains how henry used the supplication against the ordinaries to sidestep the convocation and get the archbishop of canterbury to agree to the divorce.
• Analyzes how henry reminded the newly appointed archbishop of canterbury that cranmer's decision should be independent from both the crown and the pope.
• States that they recognize no superior in earth, but only g-d, and not being subject to the laws of any other earthly creature.
• Analyzes how henry concludes the letter by reminding cranmer how much is riding on the divorce. he lists g-d's own happiness as the first dependent of divorce, and mentions his own honor and wealth, his successor, posterity, the security of the kingdom.
• Analyzes how archbishop cranmer issued his ruling on the matter on 23 may 1533. he implied that the original grant of marriage for henry and catherine was wrong and against g-d's laws.
• Explains how henry pushed for more de jure powers over an increasingly non-papal english church. the convocation's subordinate position to the king is stated at the beginning of the document.
• Explains that henry's most striking move against rome and the papacy was the 1534 act that officially broke with the pope and made henry "the supreme head of the church of england."
• Explains that the right of authority and profits took on a longer and more solid form in the years following the 1534 act.
• Explains that the 1536 act of parliament closed smaller monasteries for consolidation purposes and confiscated all monastic property within henry's realm.
• Explains that land, riches, and saints' body parts were direct possessions of the crown. the dissolution of monasteries brought to the crown an additional net annual income of over £136,000.
• Explains that the act of six articles was neither protestant nor protestant, resulting in fear from luther's english followers.
• Explains how henry viii's actions created an independent church of england, but dogmatic beliefs in catholic traditions, like transubstantiation, celibate priesthood, and the need for confession, remained.
• Explains that the english reformation was a movement by people and its government, not one where individuals alone made the choice to leave the catholic church.
• Analyzes henry viii's letters and papers, foreign and domestic, vol. ii, sec. i, pg. 259, no.