Legislation of the Reformation

Legislation of the Reformation  

The attack on the Church

The reformation is the fancy word for the break with Rome in which Henry broke away from the Catholic Church and Rome and created the Church of England. This was all so that he could divorce Catherine of Aragon because the Pope was unwilling to do so. Thomas Cromwell was the leader of the attack on the Church and drew up the majority of the legislative powers and acted as a go-between parliament and the King. This allowed Henry to get what he wanted without having to do it himself. 

The Concept 

The idea to break with Rome originated from a team of scholars who were tasked with finding a clerical loop-hole for Henry to divorce Catherine in 1530. They instead found a text in Anglo-Saxon that claimed that the King had the right to be at the head of his own church in England. Henry liked the sounds of this and asked Cromwell to make it happen. 

The First attack 

The first piece of reformation legislation was the submission of the clergy. It was imposed on the Church and forced them to pay a heavy fine and accept a meaningless title but from this point onwards Henry was the supreme ruler of the Church of England. In reality this was only on paper and a lot needed to be done. In 1532…