King Henry VIII and the English Reformation

King Henry VIII and the English Reformation

During the early 15th century, England had been under the ruling of King Henry VIII and the king in his turn had been depending on the Roman Catholic Church when concerning all matters that involved religion. This issue had been brought into question at the time when King Henry VIII had decided to divorce Catherine of Aragon in favor of Anne Boleyn that could provide him with an heir to the throne of England.

Coming to the decision that something crucial needed to be done, King Henry VIII took advantage of the fact that the English had been unsatisfied with the issue that the Catholic Church had been robbing Englanders of their money with the motive of God needing it. Thus, the relationship between the Catholic Church and England had been broken and King Henry VIII had been declared Supreme Head of the Church by an act of Parliament in 1534.

The monks of England did not like the way that their king acted and, as a result, King Henry VIII began an anti-monastery campaign for the supposed reason that the monks hadn't been doing their missions properly. After having sent examiners that would find all that the monks and the nuns had been doing wrong, King Henry VIII chose to close all monasteries in less than a decade. Nor the public or the monks had had any reaction to the exploit mostly due to the pensions that were given to the discharged monks.