The Break With Rome

Question 1

How was the annulment a cause for the break with Rome?

Answer 1

• The Pope had refused Henry’s request for an annulment
• 1533 Act in Restraint of Appeals: prevented people (i.e. Catherine) from appealing against a decision made in England to Rome
• 1534 Act of Succession removed Catherine’s claim as Henry’s wife

Question 2

How was anti-clericalism a cause for the break with Rome?

Answer 2

• Pluralism was rife e.g. Thomas Magnus held positions in Yorkshire, York, Windsor, Lincoln, and Kendal
• Act in Conditional/Absolute Restraint of Annates 1532/34: stopped payments of clerical taxes to Rome

Question 3

How was anti-clericalism NOT a cause for the break with Rome?

Answer 3

Archbishop Warham visited 260 parishes in Kent in 1511-12 and only found 4 priests to be corrupt

Question 4

How was Henry’s desire for power and money a cause?

Answer 4

• First law was 1532 Submission of the Clergy which made the church give up power to make church law without king’s consent and agree that Henry was Supreme Head of the Church of England and that the pope had no power
• 1534 Act of Absolute Restraint gave Henry the right to appoint bishops
• 1534 Act of Supremacy recognised Henry as head of the Church and stated that he had always been ‘Supreme Head’. 1534 Treason Act made opposing this punishable by death

Question 5

How was Henry’s desire for power and money NOT a cause?

Answer 5

• Henry had spent many years trying to negotiate with the pope - becoming head of the church wasn’t a power thing but a necessity
• Henry only really gained financially from the dissolution of the greater monastries - chronology shows this was a bonus but not a cause

Question 6

How was religion a cause for the dissolution of the monastries?

Answer 6

• Monks and nuns devoted much time to praying for the souls of the dead
• Protestants did not see value in religious houses - all monastries had been dissolved in Protestant areas of Germany and Scandanavia

Question 7

How was religion NOT a cause for the dissolution of the monastries?

Answer 7

Henry refounded 2 monastries in the 1540s to pray for him and his family

Question 8

How was corruption a cause for the dissolution of the monastries?

Answer 8

• Moral standards had slipped - in Rivaulx Abbey in Yorkshire the abott had his own private quarters and every monk had their own servant
• At Hailes Abbey in Gloucestershire they claimed to have a vial of the blood of Christ which was in actuality a vial of honey coloured with Saffron

Question 9

How was corruption NOT a cause for the dissolution of the monastries?

Answer 9

Records from visitations in the 1520s show that most houses were very disciplined

Question 10

How was wealth and power a cause for the dissolution of the monastries?

Answer 10

• Henry took £1.3 million in wealth from the monastries - Cromwell promised to make him the ‘richest prince in Christendom’
• Cromwell implemented Valor Ecclesiasticus which was a census that assessed the wealth of churches - revealed religious houses had an income more than triple the royal estates’
• Monastries had an allegiance to the main house of their order which was usually outside England - challenged idea in Act of Restraint of Appeals that England was supreme

Question 11

How was wealth and power NOT a cause for the dissolution of the monastries?

Answer 11

Following the break from Rome Henry needed to protect against a Catholic crusade - much of the money was used to build fortifications of the South Coast - was not a greedy desire but in the interests of protecting England