The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Reformation: various religious and political movements that affected both the practice of Christianity in Western and Central Europe and relations between church and state.
Disputes between the Church and the Crown had a long history in England as in other areas of Europe, and what is known as the English Reformation initially had more of a political than a theological nature. In 1527, Henry VIII sought an annulment of his 18-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon but Pope Clement VII refused. In response, the Reformation Parliament (1529–1536) passed laws abolishing papal authority in England and declared Henry to be head of the Church of England. Final authority in doctrinal disputes now rested with the monarch. Though a religious traditionalist himself, Henry relied on Protestants to support and implement his religious agenda.
Ideologically, the groundwork for the subsequent Reformation was laid by Renaissance humanists who believed that the Scriptures were the best source of Christian theology and criticised religious practices that they saw as superstitious. By 1520, Martin Luther's new ideas were known and debated in England, but Protestants were a religious minority and heretics under the law. The Church had often been politically powerful and was very wealthy. The dissolution of the monasteries and other seizures of ecclesiastical wealth during the English Reformation enriched the so-called Tudor kleptocracy.
The theology and liturgy of the Church of England became markedly Protestant during the reign of Henry's son Edward VI () largely along lines laid down by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Under Mary I (), Roman Catholicism was briefly restored. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement re-established the Church of England. Nevertheless, disputes over the structure, theology and worship of the Church of England continued for generations.
The English Reformation concluded largely during the reign of Elizabeth I () but some scholars refer to a Long Reformation stretching into the 17th and 18th centuries. This period includes the violent disputes over religion during the Stuart period, most famously the English Civil War, which resulted in the rule of Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan. After the Stuart Restoration and the Glorious Revolution, the Church of England remained the established church, but a number of nonconformist churches now existed whose members suffered various civil disabilities until these were removed many years later. A substantial but dwindling minority of people from the late-16th to early-19th centuries remained Catholics in England—their church organisation remained illegal until the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829.
Competing religious ideas
Late medieval English Catholicism
The Medieval English church was part of the larger Catholic Church led by the pope in Rome. The dominant view of salvation in the late medieval church taught that contrite persons should cooperate with God's grace towards their salvation (see synergism) for example by performing charitable acts, which would also merit reward in Heaven for the saved. God's grace was ordinarily given through the seven sacraments—Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, Anointing of the Sick, Penance and the Eucharist. The Eucharist was celebrated during the Mass, the central act of Catholic worship. In this service, a priest consecrated bread and wine to become the body and blood of Christ through transubstantiation. The church taught that, in the name of the congregation, the priest offered to God the same sacrifice of Christ on the cross that provided atonement for the sins of humanity.
The Mass was also an offering of prayer by which the living could help the saved souls in purgatory. While genuine penance removed the guilt attached to sin, Catholicism taught that a penalty could remain in the case of imperfect contrition. It was believed that most people would end their lives with these penalties unsatisfied and would have to spend "time" in purgatory. Time in purgatory could be lessened through indulgences and prayers for the dead, which were made possible by the communion of saints. Religious guilds sponsored intercessory Masses for their members through chantries. The monks and nuns who lived in monasteries prayed for souls as well. By popular demand, "prayer for the dead dominated Catholic devotion in much of northern Europe."
English Catholicism was strong and popular in the early 1500s. One measure of popular engagement is financial contribution. Besides paying obligatory tithes, English people voluntarily donated large amounts of money to their parish churches.
Humanism Some Renaissance humanists, such as Erasmus (who lived in England for a time), John Colet and Thomas More, called for a return ad fontes ("back to the sources") of Christian faith—the scriptures as understood through textual, linguistic, classical and patristic scholarship—and wanted to make the Bible available in the vernacular. Humanists criticised so-called superstitious practices and clerical corruption, while emphasising inward piety over religious ritual. Some of the early Protestant leaders went through a humanist phase before embracing the new movement.
A notable early use of the English word reformation came in 1512, when the English bishops were called together by Henry VIII, notionally to discuss the extirpation of the rump Lollard heresy. John Colet (then working with Erasmus on the establishment of his school) gave a notoriously confrontational sermon on Romans 12:2 ("Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye reformed in the newness of your minds") saying that the first to reform must be the bishops themselves, then the clergy, and only then the laity.
Lutheranism The Protestant Reformation was initiated by Martin Luther, a German friar. By the early 1520s, Luther's views were known and disputed in England. The main plank of Luther's theology was justification by faith alone rather than by faith then good works. In other words, justification is a gift from God received through faith.
If Luther was correct, then the Mass, the sacraments, charitable acts, prayers to saints, prayers for the dead, pilgrimage, and the veneration of relics do not mediate divine favour. To believe otherwise would be superstition at best and idolatry at worst. Early Protestants portrayed Catholic practices such as confession to priests, clerical celibacy, and requirements to fast and keep vows as burdensome and spiritually oppressive. Not only did purgatory lack any biblical basis according to Protestants, but the clergy were also accused of leveraging the fear of purgatory to make money from prayers and masses. The Catholics countered that justification by faith alone, without the need for penance or the consequence of purgatory, was a licence to sin.
The publication of William Tyndale's English New Testament in 1526 helped to spread Protestant ideas. Printed abroad and smuggled into the country, the Tyndale Bible was the first English Bible to be mass-produced; there were probably 16,000 copies in England by 1536. Tyndale's translation was highly influential, forming the basis of all subsequent English translations until the 20th century. An attack on traditional religion, Tyndale's translation included an epilogue explaining Luther's theology of justification by faith, and many translation choices were designed to undermine traditional Catholic teachings. Tyndale translated the Greek word charis as favour rather than grace to de-emphasise the role of grace-giving sacraments. His choice of love rather than charity to translate agape de-emphasised good works. When rendering the Greek verb metanoeite into English, Tyndale used repent rather than do penance. The former word indicated an internal turning to God, while the latter translation supported the sacrament of confession.
The Protestant ideas were popular among some parts of the English population, especially among academics and merchants with connections to continental Europe. Protestant thought was better received at the University of Cambridge than at the University of Oxford. A group of reform-minded Cambridge students (known by the moniker "Little Germany") met at the White Horse tavern from the mid-1520s. Its members included Robert Barnes, Hugh Latimer, John Frith, Thomas Bilney, George Joye, and Thomas Arthur.
Henrician Reformation
The Henrician Reformation refers to the period between around 1527 to 1547 when King Henry VIII of England took a series of measures to get matrimonial, political and spiritual authority away from the Pope and Catholic bishops in favour of himself, as well as confiscating considerable property and wealth.
Notable events in this period include:
The "King's Great Matter" of the annulment or divorce of his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. The Act of Supremacy to install Henry as the supreme head of the English church. The Dissolution of the Monasteries where religious houses and their property were destroyed or sold. Demonstrations of civil unrest such as the Pilgrimage of Grace. Temporary reversals of some reforms.
The First Act of Supremacy made Henry Supreme Head of the Church of England and disregarded any "usage, custom, foreign laws, foreign authority [or] prescription". English historian Geoffrey Elton called this Act an "essential ingredient" of the "Tudor revolution" in that it expounded a theory of national sovereignty. In case this should be resisted, Parliament passed the Treasons Act 1534, which made it high treason punishable by death to deny royal supremacy. The following year, ex-Chancellor Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher were executed under this legislation.
The break with Rome gave Henry the power to administer the English Church, tax it, appoint its officials, and control its laws. It also gave him control over the church's doctrine and ritual. While Henry remained, in his mind, a traditional Catholic, his most important supporters in breaking with Rome were the Protestants. Yet, not all of his supporters were Protestants. Some were Catholics, such as Stephen Gardiner, opposed to the new theology but coming to hold that papal supremacy was not essential to the Church of England's identity. The English population mostly remained traditionalist at this stage.
The historian Diarmaid MacCulloch in his study of The Later Reformation in England, 1547–1603 argues that after 1537, "England's Reformation was characterized by its hatred of images." The shrine and bones of Thomas Becket, considered by many to have been martyred in defence of the church's liberties, were destroyed at Canterbury Cathedral.
Edwardian Reformation
When Henry died in 1547, his nine-year-old son, Edward VI, acceded to the throne. During the seven years of Edward's reign, a Protestant establishment would gradually implement religious changes that were "designed to destroy one Church and build another, in a religious revolution of ruthless thoroughness".