125 The Reformation in Britain (Five Hundred 9)

Restitutio

In this sprint through British church history, you’ll learn about King Henry VIII and his staggering Act of Supremacy when he pulled the Church of England out of Catholicism and appointed himself the head of the church. After Henry’s death, England swayed back and forth as Henry’s successors adopted Protestantism then Catholicism then Protestantism again. Still none of this tumult compares to the chaos of the English Civil War a century later when a Protestant Parliament executed a too Catholic King Charles I for treason and initiated stringent Puritanical laws throughout the land. You’ll also learn about the persistent and tenacious John Knox who was instrumental in bringing the Reformation to Scotland.

This is lecture 9 of a history of Christianity class called Five Hundred: From Martin Luther to Joel Osteen.

All the notes are available here as a pdf.

—— Notes ——

Henry VIII (1491-1547)

• Wives, Heirs
  • Catherine of Aragon (m. 1503), mother of Mary Tudor
  • The Great Issue: could not divorce her to marry mistress Ann Bolin
  • 1534: Act of Supremacy (Henry declared “Supreme Head” of the church
  • Ann Bolin (m. 1533), mother of Elizabeth
  • Jane Seymour (m. 1536), mother of Edward
  • Anne of Cleves (m. 1540)
  • Catherine Howard (m. 1540)
  • Catherine Parr (m. 1543)
• Religious Policies
  • Ostensibly Catholic, apart from his great issue (Cardinal Wolsey)
  • Dissolution of monasteries and shrines
  • 200 hangings of people who resisted Henry’s royal assertions as head of the church
  • Six Articles (1539) affirmed traditional Catholic understandings of
  • Transubstantiation, no cup for laity during communion, chastity for clergy, private Masses, confession

William Tyndale (1495-1536)

• Languages: Greek, Latin, French, German, Spanish, Italian, English
• 1521 – ordained a Catholic priest
• 1522 – he was called before John Bell—chancellor of the diocese of Worcester but was released

“We were better to be without God’s laws than the pope’s.” Master Tyndale, hearing this, full of godly zeal and not bearing that blasphemous saying, replied, “I defy the pope, and all his laws;” and added, “If God spared my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou doest.”

• 1523 – he went to Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall to ask permission to translate the Scriptures
• 1524 – he fled England to the continent possibly to study at Wittenberg (12 years a fugitive)
• 1525 – he finished the NT
• 1526 – the NT was printed in Worms and Antwerp
• 1526 – Tunstall had as many copies as he could find publicly burned
• 1529 – Cardinal Wolsey condemned Tyndale as a heretic
• 1530 – he finished the Torah (Gen-Deut)
• 1530 – he wrote The Practice of the Prelates, opposing Henry VIII’s divorce as unscriptural
• 1531 – he finished Jonah
• 1534 – a new edition of the NT published (thoroughly revised)
• 1535 – Henry Philips gained Tyndale’s trust and friendship and betrayed him to the authorities.

Letter from Tyndale to overseer of the castle in September: “I believe, most excellent Sir, that you are not unacquainted with the decision reached concerning me. On which account, I beseech your lordship, even by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to pass the winter here, to urge upon the lord commissary, if he will deign, to send me from