Henry policies

This cut off the church from Rome

• The Act was passed by a Parliament that was anti-clerical as it was and had listed its grievances against the Church as early as 1529. 
• By going through Parliament, it appeared as if the will of the people had been listened to as the MP’s in Parliament represented the people (in theory). Therefore, no one could argue that just a few had imposed the act on the nation.
• it restrained people to appeal to the pope, otherwise they would be accused of praemenire 

The act of succession

The Act made Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn, who had been born on 7 September 1533, the true successor to the Crown by declaring Princess Mary, daughter of the King by Catherine of Aragon, a *******. The Act also required all subjects, if commanded, to swear an oath to recognize this Act as well as the King's supremacy.

Act of supremacy

made Henry VIII supreme head of the church.It also recognised his marriage to Anne Boleyn.

The treason act

This was made to execute anyone who did not recognise him as the head of the church.

Act removing the fruits and the tenths

money that once went to the pope now goes to the king

One step at a time- financial motives & political

Monasteries

• henry was well poor, he needed to use the government to fund his excersions. £4000 of church money had been going to Henry after the fruit and tenths act, 10% of clergy money went to crown.
• Cromwell suggested an evaluation of church lands to see how much they can charge them
• this was one of the resasons for visitations, they would assess the value of monasteries and how much they were making
• after a year of visitations they were valued to be £136,000 worth
• he could position himself to be as rich as the other european princes such as francis & Charles
• he could use the money to defend his shores against the other emperors, however they were also already having the hapsburg valois wars in Italy over states
• henry's long term plan was to invade france as his place was on the battlefield

religious motives

• attack on good works- as a means to salvation. 
• the royal injunctions made by cromwell in 1536 were intended to remove all superstition, forbade monks to worship relics, images and miracles.
• it was emphasised that only God could restore health and grant forgiveness
• in 1538 the shrine of thomas beckett was destroyed by the government, this was a pilgrimage centre of england
• monks and nuns were accused to have been lazy, self indulgent and have a range of sexual relationships
• although in reality this really wasn't true, 1/30 confessions were homosexual, women who joined the nunnary were already mothers after being widowed 
• luther had become very popular; he believed that there was no spiritual role for monks in the bible. it was part of his attack on the clergy (not being men who are the middle between man and god)
• they thought monks should be able to marry and be free to renounce his vows
• roberts Barnes and William Tyndale agreed with this

this act was the face of the new official church. it was highly protestant, however as it hghlighted lutheranism it also was conservative enough to pass through all the clergy

• lost 4 sacrements
• they only named three sacraments; baptism, penance, and the eucharist.
• focussed on the real presence of jesus but did not directly use the word Transubstantiation

in 1536, risings began in Louth, Lincolnshire and sprung over morth. around 30,000 armed men eventually assembled on the banks of donaster; it was a mass movement under robert aske

• they took an oath to stick together and be peaceful, they issued a series of articles outlining complaints and demands
• the rebels in some cases took control of the north, none of the ruling class dared to oppose them
• they took york which was really important, Lord Darcy surrendered Pontefract Castle
• Henry had to rely on Norfolk and Suffolk raising what troops they could. 
• they hoped henry would sack his low born councillers 
• henry issued propaganda about them calling them sinners
• he asked the leaders of the pilgrimage to come and agree with him, then executed them as they were ut down
• failure of the pilgrimage; darcy was beheaded as was aske
• duke of northumberland had died and made the king his heir, meaning that henry had more control of the north, there were also replacements of other norther earls
• what caused the rebellion? defence of the faith, food shortages, taxation, opposition to cromwell's policies and the northern earls not having much influence in court

the bishops book found the lost 4 sacrements (but deemed them lesser sacraments)

• emphasised the idea of justification through the merits of christ
• no mention of transubstantiation
• two such orthodox views were backed up by the primary funtion of priests to be to spread the word of christ and not to be the go between in mass
• mass wasn't too heavily mentioned in the book
• no mention of bishop office
• king had no time to read it as he was preoccupied with birth of edward

• he manipulated episcople appointments to ensure the reformers were preffered to the conservatives 
• he organised preaching campaigns against the catholic practices such as worshipping of images
• he promoted the circulation of a vernacular bible
• the first official translation of the bible appeared in 1537 
• henry saw this new bible as a way of propaganda, to promote his imperialism, putting the word of god in the hands of men
• they were first released in 1539, his injunctions in 38 were that they needed an english bible in every parish, also the bible ws reduced to cheap for the commoners

• 1535- Thomas cromwell appointed vice-gerent and people were immediately sent out to complete surveys
• 1536- act for the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, pilgrimage of grace
• 1538- monasteries begin volentary surrender
• 1539- act for the dissolution of the greater monasteries
• 1540- all monastic houses dissolved
• henry had invested some of the money in eductation
• monks and friars found alternative paid employment within the church, about 6500 out of 8000 moved on with their pensions. the 2000 nuns were not allowed to marry or become priests
• the buildings had been significant help to the poor, it aggrevated a hardening problem that the poor were getting worse
• henry had been charged with squandering the wealth acquired through sale. 

• Cromwell followed current ideas in attempting to prevent rural depopulation. An Act of 1534 limited the number of sheep that anyone could own to 2,400. A 1536 Act was directed against enclosure.
• Cromwell sponsored legislation to improve the quality of cloth:  the 25% increase in cloth exports 1533-34 may have been connected to government efforts.
• Cromwell tried to combat rising prices by laws setting an upper limit on the price of many goods including meat and wine; but it proved impossible to enforce these limits - in the case of meat at least.
• In 1536, Cromwell proposed an ambitious scheme for poor relief. It was based on the idea that the able-bodied should be employed on public projects (such as road and bridge building), while the infirm were supported from charitable contributions.

started a war with scotland in 1542 and a war with france in 1544

before this, henry had not been keen being involved with france due to the hapsburg valois wars, so he went against the pope by himself. henry ended up allying with charles so

although the two empires came together with the pope as he called henry diobiedient, so henry faced an even bigger threat. so he increased his navy, and contacted kings of germany and netherlands to marry into someones famiy, anne of cleeves brother accepted this request in order that both kings had diplomatic power.

These wars cost over £3 million. In order to pay for them, Henry had to sell off much of the monastic land he had acquired, and to tax at an unprecedentedly high rate. 

He also began to debase the coinage from about 1542 onwards  - that is, to mix base metals with the silver that was used for most English coins.

The one saving grace for Henry was that Francis was not in a strong position and he sued for peace. He granted Henry Boulogne for eight years and agreed to pay Henry a pension of 95,000 crowns for the duration of Henry’s lifetime.

earl of surrey had been made captain of boulogne,however made a stupid move in battle lost half his army and the other deserted him, so he deserted his army. news reached henry, he demoted surrey and made seymour

william paget and edward seymour were becoming more popular in court

they began to fight over who would be a regent to edward, members of court began to want control over the dry stamp as henry was bed ridden, this gave them control as to what they could pass as law

henry was well aware that divisions within government could lead to civil war after his death

so before his death, he proclaimed a clear doctrine and liturgy; he established a church which reflected humanist beliefs,  it had catholic doctrine which was centred on the eucharist