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For centuries, England was one of Europe's great Catholic kingdoms. Then, in the span of a single generation, it broke from Rome, closed its monasteries, executed saints and reformers, and created a church unlike any other in Europe. What began with a king's marriage crisis became a religious and political revolution that changed England forever. Learn more about the English Reformation and how it unfolded on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Mint Mobile. Most of you might have something that you're saving up for. Maybe it's the trip of a lifetime, your children, your retirement, or maybe even something nice for yourself. And if you're looking for some extra money, the easiest thing you can do is to cancel your current mobile plan and and switch to Mint Mobile. With Mint Mobile you can get high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network starting at only 15 bucks a month. Use your own phone and number, activate with ESIM in minutes and start saving immediately. No long term contracts and no hassle. That's why I recommend Mint Mobile. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans@mintmobile.com eed that's mintmobile.com eed upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5GB plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This episode is sponsored by True Work. If you ever had to work outside in the spring, you know how unpredictable it can be. Cold in the morning, warm by lunch, muddy by afternoon and maybe raining before dinner. That's why True Work stands out. They use advanced performance fabrics instead of old school cotton blends so their gear moves with you and handles changing conditions. The T2 work pant is built for spring weather with four way stretch for bending, kneeling and climbing, a water resistant finish to shed rain, and nine intelligently placed pockets to keep tools right where you need them. These pants have been tested for over 10 years by real trade pros on real job sites and have more than 15,000 five star reviews. I have a pair and I wish I had them years ago when I was traveling because they would have made the perfect travel pants. The work doesn't stop just because the weather changes. Upgrade to the T2 work pant and stay comfortable no matter what the day brings. Get 15% off your first order at TrueWerk.com with code everything that's T-R-U-E-W-E-R-K.com code everything TrueWerk built Like it matters, because it does. The single most important player in the English Reformation was King Henry viii. So understanding him is the key to understanding the events that unfolded. Henry VIII was born in 1491 as the second son of King Henry VII. As the spare son, he was seen less as a child and more as a political bargaining chip. However, this changed after the death of his older brother, Prince Arthur, in 1502. Henry then became the heir apparent, and he was betrothed to his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in order to keep the alliance between England and Spain. The betrothal to Catherine of Aragon was fairly controversial due to a passage in the Bible stating that you cannot have intimate relations with your brother's wife. However, at this time, to be considered married, you had to have consummated the marriage. Catherine of Aragon denied ever having done so with Prince Arthur, who died at the age of 15, giving the betrothed couple and their families a reason to argue that they could still be married. After bringing the matter to the Catholic Church, the Pope at the time, Julius ii, approved the union by agreeing that Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were exempt from the rule. When Henry VIII became king in 1509 at the age of 17, he was popular for his athleticism and intelligence, and he married Catherine soon after. For all intents and purposes, Henry VIII's early reign was fairly optimistic. He made popular political changes, such as arresting and executing the disliked ministers Edmund Dudley and Richard Empson, and increased spending. Like previous English kings, Henry VIII waged costly and unproductive campaigns against the French, in contrast to his father's thriftier approach. Because he was generous with his money, he had a lavish and popular court. In the background of Henry VIII's rule, the ideas of Martin Luther were starting to spread in England. The Protestant Reformation challenged the Catholic Church and the Pope's authority, fueled by resentment over the practice of selling indulgences for salvation. Martin Luther contended that salvation was a divine gift rather than a financial transaction, a belief that spurned the rise of new Christian denominations such as Lutheranism and Calvinism across Europe. When these ideas reached England, some people became Protestant, but Henry VIII remained loyal to the Catholic Church. In fact, in 1521, Henry wrote or sponsored a defense of the seven sacraments against Luther, for which Pope Leo X awarded him the title Defender of the Faith. However, there was a problem. His wife Catherine had not produced a male heir, and this was a really big deal at that time, especially for Henry. As his family, the Tudors had only recently taken power after the War of the Roses, with his father being the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty. By 1525, Catherine of Aragon had been pregnant six times, with only one resulting healthy Mary. With Catherine turning 40, she was considered barren. And Henry, at 34, wasn't getting any younger. He was especially frustrated as he had produced illegitimate sons, leading him to blame the lack of a male heir entirely on Catherine. Desperate for a male heir and to secure the family line, Henry decided he needed to divorce Catherine. The problem with divorcing Catherine was that under Catholic teaching, he wasn't able to do so. This was especially frustrating because he had already had a new wife in mind, Anne Boleyn. Henry was likely infatuated with Anne Boleyn because of her refusal to become his mistress. He went to Pope Clement vii, asking for him to annul his marriage on the grounds that it should never have been allowed because she was his brother's widow. However, a previous Pope went way out of his way to approve the marriage in the first place, and the Church wasn't going to completely reverse its position now. This set Henry on a collision course with the Catholic Church. Henry sent Cardinal Thomas Wolsey to plead his case, but the Pope refused the annulment and, frustrated Henry had Wolsey arrested. Henry had hired a new royal advisor, Thomas Cromwell, who went to Parliament to decide how to handle the divorce. Parliament passed several acts limiting the Catholic Church's influence in England, leading to religious reforms in particular. In 1532, two important acts were passed that weakened the Catholic Church's power in England. The first was the act against annates. Annates were restricted payments, also known as first fruits, which newly appointed bishops had traditionally PA the Pope. This was important because the money being taxed would have gone to the Pope. And by doing this, the English government was effectively cutting off payments being sent to Rome. Another act appointed Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, usurping the Pope's authority to appoint. After approval, Cranmer declared Henry's marriage to Catherine invalid. Henry and Anne then married. The next week, in response to Henry and Anne's marriage, the Pope excommunicated Henry. The goal in excommunication is for the person to repent until they are rehabilitated and welcomed back to the Church. However, excommunicating Henry did not lead to the result that the Pope wanted. Instead of sitting back and thinking about his sins, Henry and Parliament decided to fully break from the Roman Catholic Church. The 1533 act of Restraint in Appeals declared that England was an empire, meaning a sovereign realm not subject to any foreign jurisdiction. This prevented appeals to Rome in all religious matters. And shortly after this act, two more followed. In 1534, the act of Submission of the Clergy and the act of Succession were passed. These essentially stated that the King was the supreme head of the Church of England. After separating from the Pope, loyal Catholic clergy and faithful in England had to choose between their king and their faith. Refusal meant possible execution. The wealth of the monasteries was also transferred to the Crown, but much of the land was quickly sold or granted to nobles and gentry. This created a powerful class of landowners with a vested interest in the Reformation settlement. Once monastic properties had passed into private hands, restoring the old Church would become much harder. Many of these decisions were believed to be influenced by Anne Boleyn herself, who was often considered to have been a Protestant even before the marriage. Because of this status, she is often believed to have influenced Henry's appointment of new bishops and to have spread Lutheran ideas. You'd think that after going through all that effort to marry, the couple would be happy together. But reality proved different. Their partnership became quickly tumultuous. The country's break with the Catholic Church, peasant disapproval and court division added to the couple's poor relationship. Anne was opinionated and independent, and she didn't give Henry a son, but instead a daughter, Elizabeth. At the same time, England was in chaos, as a peasant rebellion against Henry's religious reforms broke out. In 1536, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, between 20 to 40,000 people rebelled against the King. When Henry confronted the group, he promised them a pardon and thanked them for bringing their issues to his attention. In reality, Henry quickly went back on his promises and had hundreds of the rebels executed, creating even more fear in country. The religious tension within England was strong. But Henry had another problem. He now wanted to end his relationship with Anne Boleyn and enter into a new marriage with one of his mistresses, Jane Seymour. However, Henry couldn't just divorce her, as he quite literally changed the entire religious foundation of all of England just to divorce Catherine to marry Anne. If he had divorced Anne, he would have effectively undermined his own religious reformation. This led Henry to accusing Anne of committing adultery, which was treason against the King. He also used the technicality that because Anne's sister had previously been one of his mistresses, their marriage should be annulled. This worked. Their marriage ended and Anne was beheaded for treason. Henry had four more wives. Because of the new legal basis within England, Henry was able to circumvent the Catholic Church and marry and leave these women as he saw fit. Although none of these marriages technically ended in divorce, his separation from each of these women was made far easier by controlling the Church. A large portion of the religious reforms within England occurred between Henry's divorce of Catherine and the beheading of Anne. In many ways, England's new religion under Henry was at least superficially similar to Catholicism still with the main difference being that Henry was now the head of the Church of England and that they severed the connection with Rome. True transformation in the Church of England began only after Henry's son by Jane Seymour, Edward VI ascended to the throne and began implementing more significant religious reforms starting in 1547. Despite Edward being just nine years old when he ascended the throne, he or more accurately, his advisors, began building his own church with more Protestant ideas. The first major change came about in 1548 with the orders of the Communion. This series shaped England's new theology in which masses and prayers had a more Protestant orientation. One of the most notable of these ideas was that confession no longer had to be said only to a priest and could instead be said with the entire congregation. Additionally, in 1549, the Book of Common Prayer was authorized, translating worship from Latin into English, allowing common folk in England to understand their prayers. However, before Edward could enact even more reforms, he fell ill and died at the age of 15. This led to his half sister and Catherine's daughter Mary taking over as Queen of England. Mary was a devout Catholic, So during her five year reign between 1553 and 1558, she worked to reverse Edward and Henry's policies and shift the country back towards Catholicism. Masses were returned to Latin and Mary began punishing anyone who did not embrace the Catholic Church. This led to many Protestants being executed for heresy during her reign, earning her the nickname Bloody Mary. Despite Protestant pushback, Mary's restoration of the Catholic Church was fairly successful, although short lived. There were too many parties in England at this point with a vested interest in Protestantism. After Mary died in 1558, her sister and Anne Boleyn's daughter Elizabeth became Queen. Elizabeth was restored to the line of succession after she took a vow to embrace the Catholic faith during Mary's reign. And despite this vow, Elizabeth was a Protestant and ruled accordingly, appointing Protestants to her court. Additionally, shortly after Elizabeth came to power, Parliament passed the act of Supremacy re establishing England's independence from Rome. As a result, Elizabeth became the Supreme Governor of the Church of England rather than the Supreme Head, a word choice that was carefully chosen. With this power, Elizabeth revived the Book of Common Prayer to appeal more to Lutherans and Catholics. She also made sure to outline the church's power in greater detail, and many of her changes kept both groups at least relatively content. In 1570, however, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her illegitimate. And this was a turning point because it made English Catholic loyalty to now suspect in the eyes of the government. Because if the pope said that Elizabeth was not the rightful queen, then Catholics could be seen not merely as religious dissenters, but now as potential traitors. In the end, what separated the English Reformation from the Protestant Reformation in continental Europe was the extent to which it was intertwined with power. There certainly was a theological underpinning, but the ultimate driver was the king's control over the church. If Catherine had a son, or if Henry were content with a daughter, history would have unfolded very, very differently. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible, and I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you too can have it read on the show.