King Henry VIII and the Anglican Church

The Protestant Reformation in England was largely a political and personal reform movement, again underscoring the lack of a united Protestant front.  Henry VIII, Tudor King of England from 1509-1547, was a devout Catholic.  In 1521, he was awarded the title Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X for his written attacks against Luther. With his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, Henry had six children, only one of whom, a daughter, Mary, survived through infancy.  Henry believed this was a sign the marriage was ill­ fated, and because he desired a male heir, the king chose to attain an annulment of the marriage from the Catholic Church.  But Pope Clement VII would not grant Henry an annulment.  Enraged, Henry refused to accept the pope's decision.  In 1533, he secretly married Anne Boleyn, who was pregnant with their child, a move that provoked Clement to excommunicate Henry.  In response, Henry published the Act of Supremacy, which named him-not the pope-supreme head of the Church in England.  Eventually, this act resulted in the creation of the Anglican Church, which adopted some of the changes of other Protestant reformers but remained very close to traditional Catholic doctrine and ritual.


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