Henry now thought well of the suggestion of Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), then teaching a Cambridge University, that the opinion of the universities should be sought. This was done 1530, with only partial success; but a friendship was begun between Henry and Cranmer that was to have momentous consequences. Since a favorable action from the Pope was out of the question, Henry decided to rely on the national feeling of hostility to foreign rule, and on his own despotic skill, either to break with the papacy altogether, or to so threaten papal control as to secure his wishes. In January, 1531, he charged the whole body of the clergy with breach of the old statute Praemunire of 1353 for having recognized Wolsey's authority as papal legate - an authority that Henry himself had recognized and approved. Henry not only extorted a great sum as the price of pardon, but the declaration by the convocations in which the clergy met, that in respect to the Church of England, he was "single and supreme Lord, and, as far as the law of Christ allows, even supreme head." Early in 1532, under sever royal pressure, Parliament passed an act forbidding the payment of all annates to Rome save the King's consent. In May following, the clergy in convocation agreed reluctantly, not only to make no new ecclesiastical laws without the King's permission, but to submit all existing statutes to a commission appointed by the King. About January 25, 1533, Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn. In February Parliament forbade all appeals to Rome. Henry used the conditional prohibitions of annates to procure from Pope Clement VII confirmation of his appointment of Thomas Cranmer as archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer was consecrated on March 30; on May 23, Cranmer held court and formally adjudged Henry's marriage to Catherine null and void. On Septmeber 7, 1533, Anne Boleyn bore a daughter, princess Elizabeth, later to be Queen.
While these events were occurring, Pope Clement VII had prepared a bull threatening excommunication against Henry on July 11, 1533. Henry's answer was a series of statutes obtained from Parliament in 1534, by which all payments to the Pope were forbidden, all bishops were to be elected on the King's nomination, and all oaths of papal obedience, Roman licences, and other recognitions of papal authority were done away. Then two convocations formally abjured papal supremacy. On November 3, 1534, Parliament passed the Supremacy Act, by which Henry and his successors were declared "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England," without qualifying clause, and with full power to redress "heresies" and "abuses." This was not understood by the King or its authors as giving spiritual rights, such as ordination, the administration of the sacraments and the like, but in all else it practially put the King in the place of the Pope. The breach with Rome was complete.
Nor were these statutes any way meaningless. In May, 1535, a number of monks of one of the most respected orders in England, that of the Carthusians or Charterhouse, were executed with particular barbarity for denying the King's supremacy. In June and July the two most widely known subjects of the King, Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas More, distinguished alike for their character and scholarship, were beheaded for the same offense.
Meanwihile, Henry was relieved from the danger of foreign invasion by the death in January, 1536, of Catherine of Aargon. Now Henry seems to have wanted to contract a marriage not open to criticism as was that to Anne Boleyn, of whom he grown tried (no male heir). She was accordingly charged with adultery, in May, 1536, whether rightly or wrongly is impossible to decide, though the accusation seems suspicious, and on the 19th she was beheaded. Two days before Cranmer pronounced her marriage to Henry null and void. Eleven days later Henry married Jane Seymour, who bore him a son, Edward, on October 12, 1537, and she died twelve days later.
When in 1534 King Henry VIII proclaimed himself the head of the Church of England, his quarrel with the Pope was not on religious grounds, but merely on the selfish grounds that the Pope would not sanction Henry's proposed divorce from Queen Catherine. Henry himself (though excommunicated) remained a Catholic in doctrine and practice all his days. In 1536 Henry issued the Ten Articles which aimed to restore the traditional Catholic faith, but in which he made his utmost concession to Protestantism. The authoritative standards of faith was the Bible, the Apostle's, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, and the "four first councils." Only three of the sacraments are defined: baptism, penance, and the Lord's Supper; others are not mentioned either in approval or denial. Justification implies faith in Christ alone, but confession and absolution and works of charity are also necessary. Christ is physically present in the Lord's Supper. Images are to be honored, but with moderation. The saints are to be invoked, but not because they "will hear us sooner than Christ." Masses for the dead are desirable, but the idea that the "bishop of Rome" can deliver out of purgatory is to be rejected. In 1539, Parliament passed the Six Articles which showed that Henry had broken only the ecclesiastical tie between the Church of England and Rome. Thus Henry did destroy the power of the Pope and ended monasticism in England. But these Articles showed that in theology the Church of England remained true to Rome.
When the danger of foreign attack passed, Henry again enforced the reactionary Six Articles of 1539. But a powerful religious movement toward reform was already going on at the same time. Contributing to this movement was the English translation of the Bible, instigated by Cranmer. Henry had made concessions to reform by authorizing an English translation of the Bible. Hence the Great Bible was issued in 1539 as a revision of the work of Tyndale and Coverdale. Cranmer wrote the preface. It was known as the "Chained Bible" because it was chained to its stand in many churches. This translation which was made up in large part of Tyndale's version, but considerable portions was from the inferior work of Miles Coverdale, was allowed sale in 1537, and was ordered by Thomas Cromwell (1485?-1540), the viceregent to the King in ecclesiastical affairs, to be placed accessible to the public in each church. The Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments were taught in English, the litany was translated; but otherwise worship remained substantially unchanged in the Latin language and form while Henry lived.
During these years, Henry was free from foreign interference, because Charles V and Francis I were at war from 1536 to 1538. But with the arrival of peace Henry's problem increased. The Pope demanded a joint attack by France and Spain on the royal rebel. Henry's diplomacy and the mutual jealousy between them warded it off. But Henry took several important steps to lessen his peril. He decided he would show the world that he was an orthodox Catholic, save in regards to the Pope. Accordingly, in June, 1539, Parliament passed the Six Article Act. It affirmed as the creed of England a strict doctrine of transubstantiation, denial of which was to be punished by fire. It repudiated communion in both bread and wine, and priestly marriage. It ordered the permnament observance of the vows of chastity, enjoined private masses, and auricular confession. This statute remained in force until Henry's death. And it was not enough that Henry showed himself to be orthodox; Cromwell was urgent that he strengthen his position by a marriage, which would please the German Protestants and unite him to those who opposed the Emperor Charles V. Anne of Cleves, sister of the wife of John Fredrick, the Saxon Elector, was selected. The marriage took place on January 6, 1540.
Meanwhile Henry had completed the confiscations of all the monasteries in 1539. He was stronger at home than ever. Francis and Charles were evidently soon again to be at war, and the Emperor was beginning to court Henry's assistance. The German Protestants looked askance at his Six Articles, but Henry no longer needed their aid. Henry had regarded the marriage to Anne of Cleves as a mere political expediency. An annulment was obtained in July, 1540, from the bishops on the grounds that the King had never given "inward consent" to the marrage; Anne was handsomely indemnified pecuniarily. For Cromwell, to whom the marriage was due, Henry had no further use. A bill of attainer was put through Parliament, and the King's able, but unscrupulous, servant was beheaded on July 28, 1540. These events were accompanied by an increasing opposition to the Protestant element, and this Catholic inclination was evidencied in Henry's marriage to Catherine Howard, niece of the duke of Norfork, shortly after his separation from Anne of Cleves. But the new Queen's conduct was open to question, and in February, 1542, she was beheaded. In July, 1543, Henry married Catherine Parr, who managed to survive him. On January 28, 1547, Henry died.
At Henry's death in 1547, England was divided into three parties. The largest, embracing the great body of Englishmen, were those who stood fairly with the late King in desiring no considerable change in doctrine or worship, while rejecting foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This had been Henry's strength that, in spite of tyranny, he was fairly representative of this great middle party. Besides this there were two smaller parties, neither fairly representative: a Catholic wing that would restore the power of the papacy, and a Protestant wing that would introduce reform as it was understood on the Continent. The latter had been growing in spite of repression, during Henry's last years. It happened that England was to experience the control of these two smaller and unrepresentative parties in the next two reigns.
Meanwhile, Somerset was beset with political problems. To counteract the growing power of France in Scotland, he urged the union of the two countries by the ultimate marriage of King Edward to the Scottish Princess Mary, to be "Queen of Scots", and Somerset supported his efforts by an invasion of Scotland in which the Scots were terribly defeated on September 10, 1647, at Pinkie. But his main purpose was frustrated; the angered Scotish leaders hastened to betroth Mary to the heir of France, the later Francis II, an event of prime significance for the Scottish reformation. The downfall of Somerset came in October, 1549, when the Earl of Warwick headed a conspiracy to thrust Somerset from the protectorate. Warwick or the Duke of Northumberland as he later became, although never assumed the title of Protector, was now the most powerful man in England. Somerset had been a man of great moderation, anxious to conciliate all parties. Northumberland was without religious principle himself, but he pushed forward the Protestant cause for political reasons, and the movement now took on a more radical character. Though apparently reconciled toward Somerset, he distrusted the former protector's popularity, and he had Somerset beheaded in 1552. His own greed, tyranny, and misgovernment made him cordially hated.
The Prayer Book of 1549 was not popular. Conservative dislike the changes. On the other hand, the Protestants felt that it retained to much of Roman usage. These criticism were supported by a number of foreign theologians of prominence, driven from Germany by the Interm, who found welcome in England, of whom the most influencial was Butzer of Strassburg. This hostility was now able to be effective under the more radical policy of Northumberland, and led to another revision of Prayer Book, and its reissue under a new Act of Uniformity in 1552. Much more of the ancient ceremonial was now done away. Prayers for the dead were now omitted, a communion table was substituted for the altar, common bread, instead of a special wafer, used in the Lord's Supper, exorcism and anointing were set aside, the priests' vestments was restricted to the surplice, and what was the second clause of the Anglican form of the delivery of the elements was changed, implying a doctrine looking toward Zwinglian conception of the Lord's Supper.
Cranmer was busy in the preparation of a creed, which was submitted by order of the Council of Government in 1552 to six theologians, one of whom was John Knox. The result was the Forty-two Articles, which was authorized by the young King's signature, June 12, 1553, less than a month before his death. Though moderate for the period, they were decidedly more Protestant in tone than the Prayer Book. Edward VI was visibly frail in body, and Northumberland feared for his life, should Mary succeed to the throne. The plan that he now adopted was to induce the young King to settle the succession on Lady Jane Grey, wife of Northumberland's fourth son, Guilford Dudley, and granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary. Edward VI had no legal right so to do; he was by passing the rightful claims of his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. To this wild plan Cranmer gave his reluctant consent. On July 6, 1553. Edward VI died.
Reconcilation with Rome had thus been delayed, though bishops and other clergy of reformatory sympathies had been removed, and many of the more earnest Protestants had fled to the Continent, where they were warmly welcomed by Calvin, though coolly treated by the Lutherans as heretical on the question of Christ's physical presence in the Lord's Supper. The reason for this delay was fear lest the confiscated church properties should be taken from their present holders. On the intimation that this would not be the papal policy, Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500-1558) was admitted to England. Parliament voted the restoration of papal authority, and on November 30, 1554, Pole pronounced it and the nation was absolved of heresy. Parliament now proceeded to re-enact the ancient laws against heresy and to repeal Henry VIII's ecclesiactical legislation, thus restoring the church to the state in which it had been in 1529, save that former church property was assured by the statute to its present possessors.
Queen Mary was a bigoted and intolerant Catholic, yet a religious woman. Sever persecution soon began and its first victim was John Rodger, a prebendary of St. Paul's, who was burned in London on February 4, 1555. The attitude of the people, who cheered him on the way to the stake, was ominous for this policy; but before the end of the year, seventy-five had suffered by fire in various parts of England, of whom the most notable were the former bishops, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, whose heroic fortitude at their deaths in Oxford, on October 16, 1555, created a profound popular imprssion. Another conspicuous victim that year was John Hooper, former bishop of Gloucester and Worcestor. Mary was determined to strike the highest of the anti-Roman clergy, Archbishop Cranmer. Cranmer was not of the heroic stuff of which Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and Rogers were made. Cranmer was formally excummunicated by sentence at Rome on November 25, 1555, and Pole was shortly after made archbishop of Canterbury in his place. Cranmer was now in a logical dilemna. He had asserted, since his appointment under Henry VIII, that the sovereign is the supreme authority in the English church. His Protestantism was real, but now that sovereign was a Roman Catholic. In his distress, he now made submission declaring that he recognized papal authority as establish by law. But Mary had no intention of sparing the man who had pronounced her mother's marriage invalid. Cranmer must die. But it was hoped that by a public adjuration of Protestantism at his death he would discredit the Reformation. That hope was nearly realized. Cranmer signed a further recantation denying Protestantism wholly; but on the day of his execution in Oxford, March 21, 1556, his courage returned. He repudiated his retractions absolutely, declaring his Protestant faith, and held his offending hand, by which he signed the now renounced submissions, in the flame until it was consumed. His dying day was the noblest of his life.
Philip had left England in 1555, and in his absence, coupled with her childless state, preyed on Mary's mind, inducing her to feel that she had not done enough to satisfy the judgment of God. Persecution therefore continued unabated until her death on November 17, 1558. In all, somewhat less than three hundred were burned -- a scanty number compared with the number of suffers in the Netherlands. But the English public sentiment deeply revolted. These martyrdoms did more for the spread of anti-Roman sentiment than all the previous governmental efforts had accomplished. It was certain that the accession of the next sovereign would witness a change or civil war.
Elizabeth proceeded cautiously with her changes. Parliament passed the new Supremacy Act, with much opposition, on April 29, 1559. By it, the authority of the Pope and all payments and appeals to him were rejected. A significant change of title appeared by Elizabeth's own insistence. Instead of the old "Supreme Head," so obnoxious to the Catholics, she now took the title of "Supreme Governor" of the Church in England -- a much less objectionable phrase, though amounting to the same thing in practice. The test of heresy were now to be the Scriptures, the first four General Councils, and the decisions of Parliament. Meanwhile, a commission had been revising the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. The prayer against the Pope was omitted, as was the declaration that kneeling at the Supper did not imply adoration, while the question of Christ's physical presence was left intentionally undetermined by the combination of the forms of delivery in the two Edwardean Prayer Books. These modifications were designed to render the new service more palable to Catholics. The Act of Uniformity now ordered all worship to be conducted, after June 24, 1559, in accordance to this liturgy, and provided that the ornaments of the church and the vestments of its ministers should be those of the second year of Edward VI.
The oath of supremacy was refused by all but two obscure members of the Marian episcopate, but among the lower clergy resistance was slight, the obstinate not amounting to two hundred. New Bishops must be provided, and Elizabeth directed the election of her mother's one-time chaplain, Matthew Parker (1504-1575), as archbishop of Cantebury. His consecration was a perplexing question; but there were those in England who had received ordination to the bishopric under Henry VIII and Edward VI. Parker was now consecrated, on Decmeber 17, 1599, at the hands of four such -- William Barlow, John Scory, Miles Coverdale, and John Hodgkin. The validity of the act, on which the apostolic succession of the English episcopate depends, has always been strongly affirmed by Anglican divines, while attacked by Roman theologians, on various grounds and declared invalid by Pope Leo XIII in 1896, for defect in "intention." Thus inaugurated, a new Anglican episcopate was speedily established. The definition of the creed, other than implied in the Prayer Book, was purposely postponed; but in 1563 the Forty-two Articles of 1553 were somewhat revised, and the famous Thirty-nine Articles, became the statement of the faith of the Church of England.
Thus by 1563 the Elizabethan settlement was accomplished. It was threatened from two sides: from that of Rome, and, even more dangerously, from the earnest reformers who wished to go further and were soon named to be nicknamed Puritans. The remarkable feature of the English revolt is that it produced no outstanding religious leader -- no Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, or Knox. Nor did it, before the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, manifest any considerable spiritual awakening among the people. Its impulses were political and social. A great revival of the religious life of people of England was to come, the early history of which was to be coincident with Elizabeth's reign, but which was to owe nothing to her.