Expert: John White - 9/4/2006

Question
To be honest, I can not think of any other way to phrase my question. I said that I mean no offence, as I felt that I best ask the question bluntly, and not try to dance around the issue. However, after putting a tad more thought into it, I found a "better" way to rephrase the question.
Why wa sthe Anglican Church founded? I have ehard because Henry VIII wanted antoher divorce, yet could not get one. Is that true?

-Danny
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Followup To

Question -
I do not mean to be offensive, but have jsut always wondered this. How can you reconcile the fact with your own conscience that the HCurch of England, and through it, all ANglican churches, were founded on the fact that the King could not get a divorce.
Thank You for your time,
Danny (age 14)

Answer -
Yes, Danny, your question can be taken as offensive.  But since you are 14 I will not take offense.  I will only offer the advice, and I hope you find it helpful, that if you are asking a question for which you wish to recieve a complete and candid reply, you will attempt to phrase your question in a manner that is least likely to cause offense.  Now, as to the content of your question, I will say that there were many underlying causes of the Anglican Reformation, and if the desire of Henry VIII to receive a divorce was a part of the cause, it played only an incidental and secondary part.  Now, if you wish to try to rephase your question in such a way that my own conscience (or yours for that matter) is not an issue, I will try to elaborate on this admittedly terse answer.  Thank you.  John White.

Answer
That's much better, Danny.  If you had worded it that way the first time, there would have been no danger of offense.  You see, adults don't like to feel scolded or patronized.  Perhaps you didn't mean it to sound that way, but that was the way it came out.  But enough of that, because I want to give you three reasons why Henry VIII is not viewed as the founder of our church:

1.  The English Reformation was an historical process:

From the coming of Christianity to the British Isles, that is from St. Augustine through the Middle Ages, England had been Roman Catholic.  But her geographical separation from Rome, along with the gradual nationalization of England and the assertion of authority by subsequent English kings (Remember Henry II and Thomas Becket, long before Henry VIII), along with the replacement of Latin by a developing English language (remember John Wycliffe and the English Bible), combined with Protestant influences from continental Europe (Calvin and Luther among others), meant that England in the sixteenth century was already agitating for an ecclesiastical separation from Rome.  History had prepared England for a separation, and the people were ready for a reformation.  Henry was not the cause.

2.   Henry was a devout Catholic and opportunistic politician, not a church reformer:

Henry’s intention was far from founding a new church. He was titled “Defender of the Faithâ€? by the Pope, and took that faith seriously.  It is likely that he actually felt God had punished him for marrying Catherine of Aragon, his brother’s widow, and that the marriage was never valid.  Therefore, by custom and precedence, he may have expected an annulment, or at least that the Pope would grant him a divorce.  Even after the Act of Supremacy in 1534, declaring Henry "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England," Henry retained Catholic worship.  His view of  â€œThe Church of Englandâ€? was that of the Catholic Church in England, minus the Pope.  The Pope excommunicated Henry, but in his heart he remained a Catholic.

3.   The Church of England developed after Henry:

While Henry’s divorce was opportunistic for him, the Protestant elements in England saw it, and Henry’s assumption of ecclesiastical authority, as an opening for Protestant agitation.  English history for he next two hundred years is a record of changing ascendancy of Protestant and Catholic worship.  It was only the Elizabethan Settlement that established a largely Protestant church.   Later monarchs, including James II (King James Bible) did more to establish an independent, Protestant church.  Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury during Edward VI (son Henry VIII) was most important to the development of the Church of England, for it was he who wrote and promoted the new Book of Common Prayer.

    To sum up, Henry did not foresee, nor did he want, a Protestant church in England.  His “tawdry affairâ€? (as one article I read put it) was an expression of personal frustration and political ambition.  Others are seen as the founders of the Church of England and later the Anglican Communion of churches.  Henry VIII definitely is not.

    For more information, look up the Wikipedia articles on any of the people or events mentioned, and see articles in AnglicansOnline, at www.anglicansonline.org.