How did Henry VIII break from the Catholic Church?

Question: How did Henry VIII break from the Catholic Church!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

He had his Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy in 1534, which declared the king the supreme head on earth of the church in England!.

The Church holds that the pope is the supreme earthly head, with the authority to correctly teach the faith!. Henry, by this law, destroyed that authority, so that the king acquired the power to order what the Christian faith meant!.

By the way, I notice that one writer suggested that Henry founded the Anglican church, but this is not correct!. Henry remained most uneasy about making wholesale changes in the faith, and insisted that the English keep all of the basic teachings of the Catholic Church, such as the sacraments!. His daughter Queen Mary then restored Catholicism in 1553!.

The Church of England came to be in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, adopting at that time the modern doctrines that are the hallmarks of the Anglican church!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well first off, to one of the answers, He didn't start the "first" Protestant church, that was already done and he had the title from the Pope of "defender of the faith" for fighting Lutheranism!.

He started his own church because the Catholic Church didn't let him get a divorce!.

He simply told Parliament that he was the head of the church and they better agree or they would loose their heads!. He then either deported, imprisoned or killed all of the Catholic Church Officials that wouldn't switch from the Pope to him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

OH Baloney, you guys!.!.!. the first church (catholic) wouldn't let him divorce, so he started the first protestant church!.

Remember - he liked to marry and remarry, often offing the heads of his previous wives because he couldn't divorce!.

Thanks for asking, you're welcome!Www@QuestionHome@Com

he just created the angelican church!.!.!. he was the king, lol, thats HOW!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

As you probably know, Henry wanted to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn!. He may actually have sincerely believed that the reason all of his and Catherine's children died but for one daughter was that God was punishing him for marrying a woman who had previously been married to his dead brother!. At the beginning of his reign, when he actively WANTED to marry Catherine, he had obtained a dispensation permitting him to marry her, on the grounds that her marriage to his brother had not been consummated!. Now, years later, he argued that even if it hadn't, he had had no right to marry her!. Whether he would have thought so if someone else hadn't caught his fancy but refused to become his mistress is debatable!.

The Church had granted divorces (really what we call annullments today) to high and powerful people on lesser grounds before, but it happened that this time the Pope was the unwilling guest of the Holy Roman Emperor, who was Catherine's nephew!. So he was also unwilling to cooperate!.

Keep in mind that , since divorce at that time was what is now called annullment, it had more serious consequences for the people involved!. It didn't just END the marriage but invalidated it--declared that the marriage had never been legal in the first place!. Thus any children of that "marriage" were illegitimate!. So Catherine fought the divorce every step of the way!. Not only did she apparently still love Henry, but she was unwilling to have her daughter, Mary, declared illegitimate and deprived of her rights of inheritance!.

Keep in mind, too, that doctrinally, theologically, Henry was still thoroughly Catholic!. He had no use for the ideas of the Protestant reformers and had even written a treatise refuting the teachings of Martin Luther!. (Some scholars suspect that Thomas More was actually the major author,) About now, however, he turned to the Protestant-leaning priest Thomas Cranmer for advice, and Cranmer advised him to submit the question of whether his marriage to Catherine was legal and valid to theological scholars at the universities!.

While the issue was still being debated (and, in Rome, stonewalled), the Archbishop of Canterbury died, and Henry appointed Cranmer to succeed him!.

At this point, things get a little fuzzy!. Cranmer's appointment was confirmed by the Pope in February and March 1533 (don't know why it was confirmed more than once), and he was consecrated March 30!. However, Henry had already married Anne Boleyn about January 25!. Cranmer took immediate action to declare Henry's first marriage invalid from the beginning and his marriage to Anne valid--rulings that the Pope immediately contradicted!. However, the Parliament that Henry had convened in 1529 was still sitting and was in the ongoing process of severing legal ties with Rome!. In 1534 this split was essentially complete, and the King was now head of the Church of England!. Keep in mind that at this point the split from Rome was only one of authority and governance--the Church of England remained as Catholic as before in everything but its submission to the "Bishop of Rome!." While people who refused to acknowledge the King as the head of the Church were treated as traitors, those who espoused more Proterstant views were considered heretics!. When a foreign visitor to the country observed the situation and asked, "How do people live here!?" he was told, "The Papists are hanged and the Protestants are burned!."

Meanwhile, in September 1533, Anne Boleyn, who had been crowned June 1, gave birth to the baby girl who would grow up to be Queen Elizabeth I!. (See now why it was so important to move fast back at the beginning of that year!?)

So, in short, although we know WHY Henry broke from Rome, HOW and WHEN are less clear!. The Church of England has no dramatic event to point to or compare with Martin Luther's nailing his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517!. It was a long, agonizing process that didn't really become final and definite until the accession of Henry's daugher Elizabeth in November 1558!.Www@QuestionHome@Com