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The English Reformation Parliament, which sat from 3 November 1529 to 14 April 1536, established the legal basis for the English Reformation, passing major pieces of legislation leading to the break with Rome and increasing the authority of the Church of England. Under the direction of King Henry VIII of England, the Reformation Parliament was the first in English history to deal with major religious legislation, much of it orchestrated by, among others, the Boleyn family and Thomas Cromwell. [1] This legislation transferred many aspects of English life away from the control of the Catholic Church to control under The Crown. [2] This action both set a precedent for future monarchs to utilize parliamentary statutes affecting the Church of England; strengthened the role of the English Parliament; [2] and provided a significant transference of wealth from the Catholic Church to the English Crown. [3]
By the mid-1520s, King Henry VIII was in desperate need of a male heir. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, was increasingly considered to be past child-bearing age, and in Henry’s mind, having a female on the throne (i.e, his only legitimate heir, later Mary I of England) would destabilize the country. [4] Henry then concluded that a divorce was needed in order for him to marry Anne Boleyn and sent Cardinal Wolsey to negotiate with Pope Clement VII. [4]
Wolsey was unable to convince Clement to grant a divorce. Frustrated with Wolsey and the English clergy as a whole, [5] Henry then turned to combating the influence and the benefits that the Catholic clergy enjoyed in England, hoping that pressure on the Church would influence the Pope to support his cause. [6] However, England was not all that powerful and important enough in Europe at this time for the Pope to pay it much attention. [4]
Henry then consulted with his advisors including Thomas Cromwell to address the influence of canonical law in England. [4] Cromwell orchestrated much of the legislation and ran propaganda campaigns throughout England to win over the laity. [3] Henry called Parliament to session in 1529.
The major pieces of legislation from the Reformation Parliament included:
An Act was passed to prevent the clergy from being subject to separate canonical courts. Instead, they were now to be tried in the same way as everybody else in England was and not be looked upon favourably by the courts.
In October 1530 Cromwell surprised even his mentor Wolsey by taking praemunire action against the English clergy, essentially accusing them of appealing to a power outside of the realm (i.e., the Pope) - not for a specific reason but rather the entire principle of papal authority over English law. [7] The clergy were therefore charged with treason. Once the clergy acknowledged Henry as the head of the Church of England, charges were dropped. [8]
The session of 1532 saw plan and purpose that had not been evident in earlier sessions. [9]
The first Act of Annates (the Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates) was passed allowing only 5% of the money normally remitted to Rome. Annates were monies (church taxes effectively) that were collected in England and sent to Rome. They were levied on any diocese by Rome as payment in return for the nomination and papal authorization for the consecration of a bishop. One third of the first year's revenues from the particular diocese went to Rome. The King passed legislation threatening to deprive the pope of these revenues. During this year even more intensive work was done to try to get Pope Clement to agree to the divorce Henry required. The Parliament threatened that if Henry did not get his annulment/divorce within a year, then all payments to Rome would be stopped. The anti-clerical Act, "Supplication against the Ordinaries," was also passed.
This act removed the Pope from any jurisdiction over the English crown, affairs, or lands; the English monarch was now the ultimate authority. Henry used the argument that England was an empire and therefore not subject to the Pope’s control. [3] Ultimately, as “supreme head” of the church, [10] this act provided Henry the ability to legally divorce Katherine and marry Anne Boleyn. [3] Most importantly, it provided the foundation for subsequent legislative reform concerning the English church and the monarch’s authority. [11]
Payment of Peter's Pence (a tax collected annually from householders) to the See of Rome was abolished. The Act also eradicated pluralism in the clergy (the right to hold more than one parish) and forbade English clergy from attending religious assemblies abroad.
The Succession Act of 1533 (passed in 1534) declared Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon's marriage invalid and Mary therefore illegitimate, which established his daughter Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) as his heir. [3]
Henry wanted to silence critics of these changes to legislation and heirs (for example, Elizabeth Barton [12] ). As a result, Cromwell wrote legislation to ensure that any challenge to the Act of Supremacy (questioning the monarch’s authority) or the Act of Succession (questioning the line of succession) would be considered treason and punishable by death. [13]
The second Act of Annates was passed, called the Act in Absolute Restraint of Annates. The annates were, along with the supremacy over the church in England, reserved to the Crown, and the English crown now took all revenue charged for the appointment of bishops. The Act of First Fruits and Tenths transferred the taxes on ecclesiastical income from the pope to the Crown. The Treasons Act 1534 made it high treason punishable by death to deny royal supremacy. The first Act of Supremacy (among other things) began the process by which the dissolution of monasteries was to be undertaken. It quickly followed the receipt of a survey called Valor Ecclesiasticus , but applied only to religious houses with an income of less than two hundred pounds a year.
This act decreed that smaller monasteries with a yearly income of less than £200 throughout England would be closed. [3]
Under the guise of addressing corrupt and usury practices of the clergy, Cromwell sought a way to not only extend Crown control of the clergy but also seize their assets. In doing so, Cromwell found a way to enrich the Crown’s struggling treasury. This action would also continue to limit the clergy’s authority. [14] In reality, the corruption of the clergy was most likely not as severe as Cromwell purported, and most laity seemed satisfied that their spiritual and pastoral needs were being met. [15]
Dissolving monasteries had been Cromwell’s goal for some time. By starting with the smaller monasteries first, he could avoid the accusation of displacing monks and nuns who could find a home elsewhere in larger, richer monasteries. It would also avoid angering influential patrons and supporters at Court, who largely supported those monasteries. Additionally, dissolution would also provide a means to win loyalty by enriching landowners by bestowing them these smaller monastic lands. [14] Abbots agreed, in the hopes that the larger monasteries would be spared. [16]
These eight sessions of Parliament began the separation of canonical law from statutory law in England. [17] Ultimately, these acts transitioned laws controlling many aspects of life away from Rome and under the control of Parliament and the Crown, establishing Parliament as the ultimate authority over English law without the pope's interference. [2]
As a result, it also transferred significant wealth away from the English Roman Catholic Church to the Crown, [3] with the added benefit of helping to boost the English economy. [18]
Henry VIII was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope.
Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
Thomas Cromwell, briefly Earl of Essex, was an English statesman and lawyer who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charges for the execution.
The dissolution of the monasteries, occasionally referred to as the suppression of the monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541, by which Henry VIII disbanded Catholic monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland; seized their wealth; disposed of their assets; and provided for their former personnel and functions.
Stephen Gardiner was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip.
Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden KG, PC, KS, JP, was an English barrister and judge who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1533 to 1544.
The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the English monarchs as the head of the Church of Ireland. The 1534 Act declared King Henry VIII and his successors as the Supreme Head of the Church, replacing the Pope. This first Act was repealed during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I. The 1558 Act declared Queen Elizabeth I and her successors the Supreme Governor of the Church, a title that the British monarch still holds.
The Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532, also called the Statute in Restraint of Appeals, the Act of Appeals and the Act of Restraints in Appeals, was an Act of the Parliament of England.
The Elizabethan Religious Settlement is the name given to the religious and political arrangements made for England during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The settlement, implemented from 1559 to 1563, marked the end of the English Reformation. It permanently shaped the Church of England's doctrine and liturgy, laying the foundation for the unique identity of Anglicanism.
The Act of Supremacy 1558, sometimes referred to as the Act of Supremacy 1559, is an act of the Parliament of England, which replaced the original Act of Supremacy 1534, and passed under the auspices of Elizabeth I. The 1534 act was issued by Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, which arrogated ecclesiastical authority to the monarchy, but which had been repealed by Mary I. Along with the Act of Uniformity 1558, the act made up what is generally referred to as the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.
The Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533, also known as the Dispensations Act 1533, Peter's Pence Act 1533 or the Act Concerning Peter's Pence and Dispensations, is an Act of the Parliament of England. It was passed by the English Reformation Parliament in the early part of 1534 and outlawed the payment of Peter's Pence and other payments to Rome. The Act remained partly in force in Great Britain at the end of 2010. It is under section III of this Act, that the Archbishop of Canterbury can award a Lambeth degree as an academic degree.
The Submission of the Clergy was a process by which the Catholic Church in England gave up their power to formulate church laws without the King's licence and assent. It was passed first by the Convocation of Canterbury in 1532 and then by the Reformation Parliament in 1534. Along with other Acts passed by the Parliament, it further separated the Church from Rome.
The Appointment of Bishops Act 1533, also known as the Act Concerning Ecclesiastical Appointments and Absolute Restraint of Annates, is an Act of the Parliament of England.
Events from the 1530s in England.
Thomas Wynter or Winter was the Archdeacon of York, Richmond, Cornwall, Provost of Beverley, Dean of Wells Cathedral and the illegitimate son of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England was forced by its monarchs and elites to break away from the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Reformation, a religious and political movement that affected the practice of Christianity in Western and Central Europe.
The Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535, also referred to as the Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries and as the Dissolution of Lesser Monasteries Act 1535, was an Act of the Parliament of England enacted by the English Reformation Parliament in February 1535/36. It was the beginning of the legal process by which King Henry VIII set about the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Anne Boleyn is a play on the life of Anne Boleyn by the English author Howard Brenton, which premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2010. Anne Boleyn is portrayed as a significant force in the political and religious in-fighting at court and a furtherer of the cause of Protestantism in her enthusiasm for the Tyndale Bible.
Richard Roose was accused in early 1531 of poisoning members of the household of the Englishman John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, for which he was boiled to death. Nothing is known of Roose or his life outside the case; he may have been Fisher's household cook, or less likely, a friend of the cook, at Fisher's residence in Lambeth.
The 1st Parliament of Queen Elizabeth I was ruled over by Queen Elizabeth I of England on 14 November 1958 and assembled on 23 January 1559. This Parliament would restore many of the laws created by Henry VIII and the English Reformation Parliament. Queen Elizabeth's 1st Parliament passed some 24 public statutes and 17 private measures by the time it was dissolved on 21 November 1959.