Henry the Eighth and The Church of England?

Question

When Henry made The Church of England which aspects remained Catholic and which changed to Protestant - I need this for my exam revision pleeeeeaase help!

Answer 1

henry set himself up as Supreme head of the Church of England in place of the Pope.  He dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their wealth, and pilgrimage shrines were destroyed.  However, the cult of the saints was allowed to continue, and religious images in churches were allowed to remain.    The doctrine of purgatory was denied.  However, holy water, holy bread, and blessed candles, were all allowed to remain, but given more of a symbolic meaning than they had had under Catholicism.

Many of the Saints Days, which had traditionally been holidays, were done away with as they encouraged 'sloth and idleness' among the common people.  All feast days during the period of harvest, from 1 july to 29 Spetember, were abolished.     So were all feasts falling during the Westminster law terms, except for the feasts of the Apostles, the Blessed virgin, and St George.  Ascension Day, St Johns Day and Candlemass were alos allowed to continue.

Answer 2

The Church of England remained (and still remains) Catholic (Universal).  It no longer had (or has) the Pope as it's head however and so is no longer Roman Catholic.    That was the only initial change under Henry VIII.   The reformation came later as Henry stripped the monastries of power and funds to subsidise his own wars with Roman Catholic European countries who disagreed with his taking over as head of the Church in England.

There was no change to anything Protestant as the "Protesters" were followers of Lutherism, (not the Church of England) so called because of their letters of protest following the Diet of worms and the Diet of Speyer.   Protestantism later became a general term for Western, Christian religions which were not Roman Catholic.

Answer 3

During Henry VIII's reign, the Church of England remained Catholic in every respect but its acknowledgment of the authority of the Pope--and the existence of religious houses (convents and monasteries).  Although some English people, notably Sir Thomas More, chose to die rather than give up their allegiance to the Pope, a Catholic unaware of what had been going on could probably have walked into an English church and never known the difference.  (The same thing occasionally happens in Anglican or Episcopal churches today.)  Oh, yes--Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was married.  Twice, in fact.  

Otherwise it wasn't until the reign of Henry's son and successor, Edward VI, that the Church of England became truly Protestant, as the Protestant faction in the country gained guardianship of the child King and Cranmer had more latitude to introduce reforms.  The Article of Faith, in the Book of Common Prayer (written mostly by Cranmer, in 1549), specifically reject not only the authority of the Pope but also the doctrines of Purgatory and Transubstantiation.

Incidentally, in the following reign, that of Henry's daughter Mary I, the Protestant changes were reversed and the country made Catholic again for the few years of her reign.  Cranmer was removed as Archbishop and, after recanting his Protestant leanings, then recanted his recantation and was burned at the stake.

Answer 4

Henry remained fearful that the Pope would give the command for catholic countries to invade England. He also knew that deep down that the population were instinctively catholic. Henry had also patronized the translating of the bible into English but still gave orders to try Tyndale its translator as a heretic. Essentially the main aspects of Catholicism remained the communion sacrament. After publishing the act of the six articles, death became the punishment for anyone who did not believe that Jesus was present in the communion wafer..

Answer 5

The Anglican Church keeps liturgy and Communion as well as the Rite of Reconciliation (confession) but differs in its stance toward contraception divorce and priestly marriage allowing all of these as far as I know.