The Protestant Reformation in England - Essay Example

The Protestant Reformation in England Introduction Reformation is the reference to political and religious development in the early 16th century. The reformation contributors were Luther King, who was a German monk spearheading the change. Luther exposed the corrupt nature of the Roman Catholic Church to his followers that worsened the already growing dissatisfaction. The proponent of Luther’s ideas welcomed the need to rebel from such oppressive by the Roman Catholic Church through its reformation (Spalding 31). One of these areas was that the Latin language that Bible was produced. Luther discovered the difficulty of many people to read and understand the Bible as then instituted in Latin language. In addition, Luther earmarked the selling of forgiveness by the Church Priest that was considered immoral as it was being advanced by priest and other monks for many years (Alston and Welker 28). Luther simplified the frameworks and ideology through the reformation was to be discoursed. The reformation was to ensure the alteration of the church or reformation to eliminate greediness. Additionally, the Church was to be accessible and fairer to all persons and not dependent on the position of the social ladder or class as it was constituted. In England, the similar protest in the 14th century had long been documented despite being crushed by the privileged leaders and individuals opposed to the idea. Indeed, Luther gained massive support despite the earlier frustration by the rebels against the Catholic Church management. Such a great supports saves to the already growing unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the Pope and the Church. The Protestant Reformation in England The Reformation ideas in England got heated up during the reign of King Henry VIII, who originally opposed the Luther allegations and the ideologies. Such opposition saw the King by praised greatly by the Pope following his 1521 pamphlet poking several holes in the German work. It was until after the Split of Rome that Luther ideas became evidential to King Henry. He started by throwing his powerful support to the reformist by ordering the mass production of the Bible in English as earlier demanded by Luther and his followers. In addition, the King withdrew a lot of money and land from the Catholic Church. Despite his actions being fueled by his need for political gains and rather in genuine support for Luther’s ideology, his support and actions were a great turning point towards England Protestant Reformation. Accordingly, the King not knowingly laid stronger and influential pillars for the Protestantism in England (Spalding 58). The hunger for reforming the England from Catholic to a Protestant would later be realized under the leadership of Elizabeth and Edward that became a foregone deal by 1603. The Protestant Reformation was a chief 16th-century European movement projected at reforming the beliefs and policies of the Roman Catholic Church. The religious aspects of the Reformation tested and supplemented by the ambitious political leaders in power that wanted a surety for the extension of their power, as well as the control at the expense of the church. The unity imposed by the medieval Christianity and became a thing of the past following the Reformation (Spalding 55). On the hand, the Reformation marked the ushering of a modern era in the perception of many historians. The Northern Europe had already showcased the elements of awakening from the old order thanks to the rise of new successful urban areas alongside serious middle-class individuals’ middle-class cohorts. Over, the years, many futile efforts had be pressured against the poisoned Church notably a number of largely futile church councils. There was massive support however for the simplification of the worship services based on more determined clergy. Martin Luther signaled the steps towards the reformation in 1517. Luther posted 95 theses on the church door in the University town of Wittenberg. The postings were acceptable academic practices during then and meant to invite people for deliberations on particular issues, the Church Reformation. The Luther proposition criticized several areas rated oppressive and immoral in Roman Catholic doctrine as well a range of particularly unbecoming practices in the Catholic Church (Pelikan 174). Luther stood for the Bible as the critical and powerful tool and never the Pope way to discern God’s word. Such a perception raised the eyebrows in Rome. Martin Luther further held that salvation or justification was warranted by faith alone. Good works as well as the sacraments as held by the Catholic Church were not adequate or gate pass for salvation. Luther was already dissatisfied with many of the Church practices. The selling of indulgences as the Church sold the papal documents to penitents while being promised the remission of their sins in exchange depicting salvation as a product for sale according to Luther and other critic’s perception. Rome overwhelmingly supported such immoral and misleading practices to generate revenue for exorbitant Church projects such to assist in the building of the Basilica (Pelikan 59). Luther did not hide anything about his rebellious intentions against these practices and sent a copy to his bishop to forward the 95 theses to Rome. Indeed, the proponents to Luther became the Lutheranism as the detailed of the theses spread. The movements quickly gained the strong base in England with the chief objective to reform the Church and alter it England from the Catholicism to Protestantism nation. Many sincere religious reformers supported whereas others cohorts manipulated the movement for their political and control of valuable property gains. The English Reformation dates back to the era of Henry VIII. The reformation aimed at having extended implications in Tudor England. The King, Henry VII left his wife, Catherine of Aragon, following her failure to bear a male heir to the throne. The King actions were predetermined as he had already set an eye on another wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry knew for a fact that Catherine could never bear children by 1527. Their divorces, however, became complicated as Henry was a Roman Catholic whereas his church leader was the Pope based in Rome. The complication, therefore, arose from the concept of marriage for life amongst the Catholic. The Church never recognized the divorce and could never support the divorce. However, only the widowed could remarry which was totally different from the divorce as wanted by Henry VIII. Thus, the restriction was to limit husbands from popping up with the divorces cases against simple allegations about their wives to remarry. The King was thus between a rock and the hard place. The Pope could excommunicate him if he declared a divorce by himself as a King of England. The excommunication implied that one’s soul could never get to heaven under the Catholic Church Law. The church thus plotted such a great magnitude of fear amongst its followers as a control measure and thus at that time of Henry VII, it was a real and daunting challenge to the Catholics. In addition, the King made a special appeal to the pope to be granted a special Papal Dispensation. The special dispensation implied that the pope would consent to the King’s plea for a divorce purely due to his position as a King of England. Such a special dispensation was free from the bondages of the restrictions of the Catholic Church on banned divorce. When the Pope finally declined the Pope such a plea, his anger and rage became more evident. The King reacted or responded by ordering the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant him a divorce to marry Anne Boleyn. The Archbishop however did not hesitate and against the wishes of the pope, he granted the King a divorce. He therefore, had no option but to grant the King a divorce to keep his relationship with the king stronger. The granting of the divorce marked the turning point for a breakthrough from the uncalled and unworking Catholic Church based in Rome. Henry did not see any wrongdoing and illegality in his actions as he took over the Church management. Only a few dared to question his actions in 1933. The reaction of the people of England set pace for the reformation of the Catholic Church and the need for Protestantism. The greater percentage was hungry with the actions of the church by using them to generate huge chunks of money for the church projects. The Church called for huge payments when one wanted to marry and child baptism (a mandatory to get to heaven as it instigated priest to preach). In addition having the Church to bury the dead in their land attracted the payment as the Church restricted that one only go to heaven if buried on Holy Ground. The church generated revenue from every aspect of life making the church so wealthier at the expense of the poor believers. The follower’s money found their ways to the church in every aspect of life. Therefore, the Kings actions and the takeover from the pope did not attract much protest as the believers anticipated the reduction in payments and money. The King was aware of the declining Catholic popularity and subsequently exploited for his personal gains. The King took over as the final head of the Church by an Act of Parliament in 1534 putting a cap on the powers of the pope despite the country still being viewed as a Catholic nation. However, the wealthiest Catholics in England were seen by the King as the greatest source of threats as they represented the monasteries to produce the monks who supported the pope. However, during the Henry’s reign, the monks had grown fat, and laziness amongst them was inevitability. They thus failed to play the roles to assist the community as expected. They all seemed interested in generating a lot of money from the poor populace. In addition, the monasteries were vast and possessed huge tracts of land. Therefore, the monks could never be loyal to Henry despite being wealthy concurrently. The Kind reacted by ordering a shutdown of the monasteries in the country. The monasteries were to dissolve quickly as alluded to the sugar placed in a hot liquid (Pelikan 49). The strategy was therefore tagged ‘dissolution’ as the monasteries were to dissolve following the King’s order. The king cleverly portrayed the dissolution as backed by the law. The government official was, therefore, responsible to oversee the reactions of the monks. The arrangements were spearheaded by the Kings’ chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. It was such a complicated scenario. The officials, therefore, ensured the report was as preferred by the King to include the unworking monks and failing to make prayers. The King vowed to fish out the monks looking deeper for anything to discredit the monks. The investigation was based on leading questions as about whether monks kept all vows. Those monks who took the vows of silent and refused to communicate were tagged hesitant to help the king, hiding issues of concerns. The reports negatively portrayed the monks as corrupt and full of vice, having between eight to ten girlfriends to back the shutdown of the monasteries legally (Bainton 89). Therefore, the allegations against the nuns and monks stood for themselves. For example, at Bradley monastic house, a monk was accused of having fathered six children, and Marian had given birth to three children at Lampley Convent. By 1536, the smaller monasteries had been closed while, the larger ones being shut down by 1540. Due to the growing dissatisfaction with the Church, Pope and his monks and nuns, many people thumped up the actions of the King. Some few monks raised complaints and staged protest for compensation and pensions. In addition, some chief monk-abbots were hanged with others such as Marmaduke Bradley offered a 100 pound yearly as compensation token. The local populace was offered chances to take over the monasteries for free reducing the monasteries to a ruin. The Silver and Gold from such monasteries were taken to the Crown. The acquisition of the expensive building material for free hastened the dissolution popularity particularly amongst the people who got dissatisfied with the lazy monks. All these alteration gave people confident towards the reformation of the Church. Henry greatly benefited from the dissolution both in terms of popularity and wealth as the bulk of wealth’s stopped at his control. The reduction in revenue base for the church, elimination of monks, nuns and the pope further worsened the questions as very few could question the King. Henry only got a single protest in England in 1936 to oppose the King’s actions with the Pilgrimage of Grace. This is one of the ways through which people had to have a taste of the reformation of the church. Robert Aske, who was a lawyer, spearheaded the protest to defend the monasteries. The rebels made their trips to London to oppose the same, but Henry cleverly manipulated them with a promise to resolve their concerns with the protesters consenting happily. Nothing happened to revamp the Monasteries as no single concern disturbed the King’s mind (Luther 113). What follows was the arrest and hanging of Aske from a church tower in chains and later succumbed due to starvation. Several changes took place when comparing the conditions of the church before and after Henry had become the King in 1509 (Benedict 117). At the time, he became the King, the Head of the church was pope based on Rome. In addition, all churches services proceeded in Latin. Prayers were all made in Latin, and the Bible was only written in Latin. Finally, the priest was never allowed to marry. On the other hand, at the time of Henry’s death, the King became the head of the Church. Also, the Church Services were held in Latin during the prayers mostly said in Latin with the Lord’s Prayer made in English. The Bible was translated into English, and the priest was still retracted from marriage. Although, some reformation was achieved during King Henry’s reign, not all had been achieved. It should also be noted that King Henry was never a Protestant despite the little reformation attributable to him. The spirit of reformation remained alive in England even after the Henry’s demise and subsequent alteration of the doctrinal reform by the Act of Six Articles in 1539. In addition, the sudden fall of Cromwell the following year, the court hung between religious and conservatives and radical reformers. The Reformation remained stagnated, but Henry young son (Edward) was groomed by the Protestant to take the reformation to the next level. Edward took the reign at ten years in 1547 with his two regents hastening the pace of Protestant Reformation. The draconian 1539 Act was extinguished and replace warranting priest to marry that established another vested interest as while as confiscation of lands. The Altars and shrines were eliminated from the churches, and the stained glass shattered (Luther 137). In 1553, it was difficult for marry, Edward’s devoutly Catholic sister become a Queen that was seen to be undoing the twenty years work. Despite the patchiness and minority followers, the Protestantism was entrenched and substantial, in London and South East. Marry reinstated the Catholic doctrines and rites and substituted the Altars and images, however, the handicapped herself by martyring over 300 ordinary men and women including the prominent names like Cranmer (Bainton 117). The burnings were unbecoming as well as counterproductive. Mary further erred by marrying Phillip II of Spain, the Charles V’s son who had efficaciously disenchanted Henry in 1527. The Protestant propaganda got a boost through marry actions further confirming the fears of Catholic menace already attacked since 1534. Marry lost Calais, the last England territory in France as she fought the Country for Phillip in 1558. Such a loss aided in turning distrust into hatred, as well as xenophobia. The tension further build up as Thomas Wyatt rebelled in Kent with religious civil war seemed approaching. The death of Marry in 1558 childless saw Elizabeth, moderate Protestant took over. Elizabeth’s 1559 religious settlement meant inclusivity was revamping Royal Supremacy and Uniformity Act. She restored clerical vestments and Catholic Eucharist in a conciliatory move. She guaranteed Altars and permitted marriage for clergy. Practically, the settlement was Protestant as it reissued Cranmer’s Prayer Book of 1552 as well as its 39 Articles modeled on Cranmer’s 1553 work. Marry bishops except one were retrenched upon refuting Oath of Supremacy and their position filled with men selected by Elizabeth’s chief minister, Robert Cecil (Appold 37). The new bishops became radical more than Elizabeth as well clergy who took over the parishes left by resigning Catholic priest. Theoretically Altars were permitted but practically church commission removed them for compliance (Appold 29). Church bolstering further happened in 1563. Another Act of Uniformity presented Oath refusal or papal authority defense treasonable offense. The foreign threat became real with the 1569 revolution invading the Ireland as well as Elizabeth’s excommunication and ushering in of France’s priest underlining the insecurity of the Anglican Church. Treason Law severity escalated besides anti-Catholic sentiment extinguishing Catholicism (Fritze 36). The Anglicanism was secured, and Protestantism established during Queen Elizabeth’s era. Such era capped the Mary and Edward’s unfinished policies and the 45 years rule of Queen Elizabeth ensured Protestantism. By 1603, when Queen Elizabeth died, England was a united nation in relation to any other eras ever. The unity was based on common religion and enemy. The Protestantism and Patriotism bared Henry the title, Fidei Defensor’ as they were two halves of one coin. Conclusion In conclusion, the Protestant Reformation in England is attributed to a number of Kings and Queens as discussed. It was a long struggle but ultimately realized through Queen Elizabeth and King Edward. King Martin Luther sentiments about the Catholicism inspired the quest for Protestantism in England. In addition, King Henry VIII takeover of the Church leadership was a landmark towards the English people quest for Protestantism. Despite the fact that King Henry was not a Protestant, his actions led to great inspirations and subsequent change of perception amongst the pope, priest, monks and nuns. The realization of such oppressive payments in every aspect of life accounts for the current Protestantism and Patriotism in England. Works Cited Alston, Wallace M. Jr.; Welker, Michael, eds. Reformed Theology: Identity and Ecumenicity. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003. Print. Appold, Kenneth G. The Reformation: A Brief History, 2011. Print. Bainton, Roland. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Boston: The Beacon Press, 2008. Print. Benedict, Philip. Christs Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. Print. Fritze, Ronald H. "The English Reformation: Obedience, Destruction and Cultural Adaptation," Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2005) 56#1 pp 107–15. Luther, Martin Luthers Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, 2 vols. tr. and ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs, The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa, 2009. Print. Pelikan, Jaroslav. Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300–1700). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Print. Spalding, Martin. The History of the Protestant Reformation; In Germany and Switzerland, and in England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, France, and Northern Europe. General Books LLC, 2010. Print. Read More