The Puritans And English Revolution

30 Pages 7461 Words

still finding their feet as a nation, all proved to the (ecclesiastical and otherwise) rulers that the people were fed up - upon which the rulers, with a skilful mixture of promises and threats (Henry IV introduced the practice of burning heretics at the stake in 1401 to suppress Lollardy) managed to drive the dissenters underground. But the Reformation of the 16th century was different; whereas religious reform had previously been a people's business, in the sixteenth century it was suddenly the highest-ranking citizen of all who did the reforming: the king.
Henry VIII had married Catherine of Aragon in 1510, and when he wanted to divorce her in 1526 because of lack of sons the Pope, fearing the anger of the powerful Catholic Charles V of Spain, turned down the application. Henry, with characteristic resolve, decided to rid himself of papal supremacy; he made himself head of church in 1531 and passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, according to which England became Protestant politically while retaining the Catholic religion. This move enabled Henry to dissolve the monasteries, take their money and lands, divorce Catherine, and get himself another wife (Anne Boleyn, mother of Elizabeth I). While this was all done for the sake of heirs to the throne and church money (which Henry wanted very badly) it set the avalanche rolling that would eventually break the bond between Rome and London completely and turn the fidei defensor ("Defender of the Faith", the official title given to Henry by the Pope some years before) into a despised heretic.
When Edward VI inherited his father's throne in 1547, at the age of 10, he was advised by Protestant nobles to carry matters further. A new, very Protestant, prayer book was published in 1552, but since the majority of the English people was still Catholic, it was not very popular. The Catholic backlash came when Mary "Bloody Mary" Tudor came to the throne after Edward's death in 1553. She was a fervent...