English Reformation facts for kids

King Henry VIII of England

The English Reformation was part of the Protestant Reformation. Many Christian churches in Europe broke away from Rome. Each of the countries that went through this process did so in a different way. Earlier the Roman Catholic Church had supreme powers.

Henry VIII broke ties with the church and became head of the English church. This was done in 1534 in the Acts of Supremacy. It was the beginning of the Church of England. His friend Thomas Cranmer became Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury. For years, the Church of England was almost exactly the same as the Catholic Church, except that it was ruled by the King instead of the Pope. This is different from the Reformation on the European continent, where the reformers wanted big changes right away.

There were several causes for the English Reformation. One of these was that Henry VIII, who was King of England, wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon. Another reason was because Henry wanted the Church's wealth and power, and got them with the dissolution of the monasteries.

The Protestant Reformation in Scotland, however, was based more on the teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin, so it was more like the Reformation in continental Europe.

Images for kids

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  King Henry VIII of England by Hans Holbein the Younger. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid.

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  The Tyndale Bible was the basis for later English translations.

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  Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (c. 1485–1540), Henry VIII's chief minister 1532–40.

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  Thomas More, with John Fisher the leader of political resistance against the break with Rome. Both were executed in 1535.

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  St Paul's Cross (in the lower left corner of the painting) was a prominent preaching cross on the grounds of Old St Paul's Cathedral.

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  Remains of Finchale Priory, a Benedictine monastery near Durham that was closed in 1535

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  The chapter house of Forde Abbey, a Cistercian monastery closed in 1539 and converted into a country house

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  The 14th-century Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Chantries were endowments that paid priests to say masses for the dead to lessen their time in purgatory.

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  King Edward VI of England, in whose reign the reform of the English Church moved in a more Protestant direction

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  This statue in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral was vandalized during the Reformation.

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  Title page of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer

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  Edward VI and the Pope: An Allegory of the Reformation. This Elizabethan work of propaganda depicts the handing over of power from Henry VIII, who lies dying in bed, to Edward VI, seated beneath a cloth of state with a slumping pope at his feet. In the top right of the picture is an image of men pulling down and smashing idols. At Edward's side are his uncle the Lord Protector Edward Seymour and members of the Privy Council.

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  Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), Henry VIII's Archbishop of Canterbury and editor and co-author of the first and second Books of Common Prayer.

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  Queen Mary I of England restored the English allegiance to Rome.

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  Cardinal Reginald Pole presided over the English Church's reconciliation with Rome

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  Westminster Abbey was one of seven monasteries re-founded during the Marian Restoration.

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  Frontispiece of John Foxe's Book of Martyrs

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  Queen Elizabeth I of England reached a moderate religious settlement.

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  Polemical popular print with a Catalogue of Sects, 1647.

See also

In Spanish: Reforma anglicana para niños