Religion, ideas and reform under Henry VIII

• Humanism


  An educational and cultural movement that emphasized the study of classical texts and the development of the individual
• John Colet


  • Refounded St. Paul's School, London
  • Appointed members drawn from a city guild as school governors, rather than clergymen
  • Curriculum included Erasmus' work
  • Teaching methods were derived from humanist principles
  • Head teacher was William Lily, a humanist
• Schools like St. Paul's and Magdalen College, Oxford


  • Were at the forefront of educational reform
  • Adopted Platonist educational principles
  • Taught many boys who would later become prominent in the religion and politics of Tudor England
• Cardinal Wolsey


  • Gave personal commitment to educational improvement by founding his college, and a school in Ipswich
• By the end of Henry VIII's reign, humanist influence had a lasting effect on university curricula
• Whilst Erasmus was a friend of Fisher and More, Erasmian humanism had limited scope and much of the change stemmed from new religious thinking rather than scholarly Renaissance humanism
• Knowledge of classical learning

  • Increased with elite groups of society
• Henry VIII saw himself as a promoter of new ideas and humanism i.e. "Renaissance Prince"
• The Crown needed well-educated diplomats to communicate with their counterparts in a fashionably elegant style
• The commissioning of the effigies on his parents' tomb by Florentine sculptor Pietro Torrigiano, showed the influence of fashionable artistic trends taken from Italy
• The Lady Chapel is an example of perpendicular Gothic architecture which contrasts the Renaissance style effigies
• Richard Marks argued Gothic remained the predominant cultural form
• Dominant painters at Henry VIII's court

  • Were from the 'Northern Renaissance' which owed far more to Gothic influences than it did to the Italian Renaissance
  • Hans Holbein
  • Fleming Lucas Horenbout
• Tapestries were of Flemish origin and displayed chivalric themes from medieval culture
• England's main cultural links reflected the close commercial ties which existed between England and the Low Countries
• Henry VIII's withdrawal of the English Church from the jurisdiction of the papacy

  1. Assisted by Thomas Cromwell and Archbishop Cranmer

  2. Established the king as the supreme head of the Church

  3. Dissolved the monasteries

  4. Began to alter the Church's doctrine and practices
• Weaknesses of the Church

  • Pluralism- receiving the profits of more than one post
  • Simony- the purchase of Church office
  • Non-residence- receiving the profits of a post but not being present to perform the duties associated with it
• Some common lawyers objected to the influence of canon law (law of the Church)
• There were objections to the legal privileges of the clergy
• There was clerical misconduct, as evidenced by the death of Richard Hunne in 1514
• Simon Fish's Supplication of the Beggars (1529) was an attack on the clergy
• Christopher Haigh concluded that anticlericalism was less a cause but rather more a consequence of the Reformation
• The operation of the religious houses was open to criticism, and precedents for the dissolution of the monasteries existed by the 1530s
• Wolsey secured the dissolution of approximately 20 houses in the 1520s to fund the establishment of Cardinal College, Oxford
• Some historians suggest monasticism was a relic of a bygone age and had lost its direction, while the larger monasteries had become substantial businesses with huge resources in terms of land and buildings
• Alternatively, orders such as the Observant Franciscans and Bridgettines were flourishing up to the final days of the dissolution
• Evidence of early English Protestantism

  • Little evidence in the years following Luther's attack (1517) on the Catholic Church
  • Some Lollard beliefs survived
  • Evidence of the influence of German reformers in London and the east-coast ports in the 1520s
  • Nucleus of future reformers based in Cambridge in the 1520s who met for religious discussions at the White Horse
  • Leading figures were Robert Barnes and Thomas Bilney
• Archbishop Cranmer proved to be the most influential of the early English Protestants
• James McConica argued that the years from 1529 showed a group of humanists with shared ideals based on the ideas of Erasmus helping to shape royal policy
• The two most influential humanists in royal circles, Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher, were killed for opposing the religious changes
• King became supreme head of the Church


  1. Confirmed by the Act of Supremacy (1534)

  2. Cromwell appointed Vicegerent in Spirituals (1534), giving him considerable power over the Church
• Dissolution of the monasteries

  1. Compilation of Valor Ecclesiasticus by Cromwell to see how wealthy the Church was

  2. Start of 'visitations' to monasteries

  3. Act of Parliament 1536 to dissolve smaller monasteries

  4. Act in 1539 to dissolve the remaining monasteries
• Attack on traditional religious practices

  1. Issue of royal injunctions in 1536 and 1538 restricting holy days, pilgrimages, and veneration of relics and images

  2. Clergy required to publicly recant
• The English Bible


  • Injunctions of 1538 required each parish church to acquire an English Bible and encourage reading
  • First edition of the Great Bible appeared in 1539
  • Act for the Advancement of True Religion of 1543 restricted the public reading of the Bible to upper class males
• Changes to doctrine


  • Luther's concept of sola fide
  • Consubstantiation rather than transubstantiation
  • No consistent pattern of doctrinal change which reflected the king's inability to make his mind up on such matters
• Key doctrinal changes


  • Ten Articles (1536)
  • Bishops' Book (1537)
  • Six Articles Act (1539)
  • King's Book (1543)
• The passing of the Six Articles Act in 1539 and the fall of Cromwell in 1540 seriously weakened the cause of religious reform
• Continuity and change in religion and culture by 1547


  • Continuity: Hierarchy of the Church remained largely intact, services remained largely traditional, services continued to be held in Latin, music had an important role
  • Change: Jurisdiction of the Pope had been destroyed, dissolution of the monasteries, parish churches required to possess Bibles in English, religious culture influenced by humanism