ANSWERS: 8
  • Didn't he leave the church and form his own version of christianity?
  • if given a choice between being burned at the stake or having your head cut off go for the former. a hot steak beats a cold chop.
  • He decided to invent Pope-on-a-Rope.
  • He cut all ties with the Roman Catholic Church and founded the Church of England with the king (himself) at the head.
  • He did what most other monarchs in Europe had done at one stage of their reigns: he chucked a royal tizzy and declared that HE was the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England. It was nothing new: European heads of state had been fighting papal power for centuries and many of them, like Henry, ended up getting excommunicated. The problem with a sovereign being excommunicated, however, was that all his subjects were too, so the general idea was to settle the matter quickly, with a payment or some sort of mollifying "gift". Henry's big problem, however, lay with the fact that Catherine of Aragon's nephew was, at the time Henry decided to divorce Catherine, laying seige to the Vatican. So there was no way the Pope was granting this divorce/anulment (whatever you wanted to call it), although Popes regularly did grant these anulments (eg Henry II's queen Eleanor of Aquitaine had had her marriage to the French king declared void even though she had had several daughters to him. He wanted a son). Had political situations at the Vatican been different, Henry would have got his divorce, no questions asked, but Spain was in control. At the same time, Protestantism was making its mark on European society. Henry VIII had some sympathy with Protestantism when it wanted to "English the Gospels" and break the power of the pope, but Henry remained a staunch Catholic till his death. He did not abandon Catholic teachings on the mass and heavily persecuted Protestants for denying transubstantiation. His last wife, Catherine Parr, was a not so secret Protestant, and he was going to execute her for it, had he not died himself. Henry, by his actions, and by the political situation of the time, set the basis for Protestantism to become the national form of Christianity, but Henry did not leave catholicism, only denied the authority of the pope in order to get his own way.
  • He ignored the Pope, had his marriage annulled, and married Anne Boleyn anyway- putting himself at the head of the church-- The new Church of England--(having the final say in all decisions.) Basically, he had absolute power. This began the break of England with the Roman Catholic Church.
  • He separated the Church in England from Rome and declared himself to be the head of the Church. He then directed the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant his divorce from Katherine of Aragon. Marriage to Anne Boleyn followed shortly thereafter. +5
  • oh come on!

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