A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

The English Reformation 113

1529. But More, a lawyer and a
      humanist, was a vigorous oppo­
      nent of the reform movement.

Although a layman, each Friday
More whipped himself in memory
of Christ’s suffering. More balked
at Henry’s plan to have his mar­
riage to Catherine of Aragon
annulled. In 1533, Henry secretly
married the pregnant Anne
Boleyn. He then convoked Parlia­
ment, which dutifully passed a
series of acts that cut the ties

between the English church and
Rome. The Act in Restraint of

Appeals (1533) denied the pope’s
authority. Thomas Cranmer
(1489—1556), archbishop of Can­
showed himself a loyal
servant of the throne by simply
declaring Henry’s marriage to
Catherine, who was sent to a con­
vent, annulled. The Act of Suc­
cession in 1534 required all of the king’s subjects to take an oath of loyalty to
the king as head of the Church of England. Thomas More refused to do so,
and Henry ordered his execution. When Pope Clement named another cleric
languishing in the Tower of London a cardinal, Henry scoffed, “Let the pope
send him a [cardinal’s] hat when he will, but I will provide that whensoever it
cometh, he shall wear it on his shoulders, for his head he shall have none to
set it on.”
The Act of Supremacy, also passed in 1534, proclaimed the king “supreme
head of the Church of England.” Another law made possible the execution
of anyone who denied the king’s authority over the clergy, or who supported
“the bishop of Rome or his pretended power.” Parliament limited fees that
the clergy could assess for burials and forbade bishops of the Church of En­
gland from living away from their sees. Reforms brought the clergy under
civil law. The lack of resistance to Henry’s usurpation of ecclesiastical
authority reflected the pope’s unpopularity, as well as the growing strength
of the English monarchy.

After the Break with Rome

Henry VIII’s nascent Church of England remained doctrinally conserva­

tive in contrast to some of the continental reform churches. Several dozen

people were burned at the stake for heresy in the 1530s after Henry broke

Sir Thomas More, painted by Hans Hol­

bein the Younger. More, who is here shown

as lord chancellor, was later executed for

his beliefs.