The religion of King Henry VIII?

Question

I know that King Henry VIII declared himself the head of the English church in the 1530's, but what was his previous religion?

Answer 1

Before King Henry VIII declared that England was a Protestant nation, he was a devoted Catholic. He broke away from the Roman Catholic Faith, and rejected the Holy Father as the head of the Holy Church and placed himself as Head of the Church of England.

King Henry VIII of England was born a Roman Catholic. After many years as King, he found himself faced with a huge crisis, he had no male heir to take over when he dies, which also lead to his marriage crisis with his first wife, a devoted Roman Catholic, Catherine of Aragon. He eventually divorced his wife and broke away from the Roman faith and established his very own Church of England and declared himself "Supreme head of the Church in England." Although he declared England to be a "Protestant" nation, he remained a "Conservative Protestant" who gives priority to traditional values and traditional beliefs and practices. Meaning his religion was created through a mix of both Catholicism and Protestant, obviously he favors whichever benefit him the most. Henry didn’t really establish new ideas about religion, he just wanted England’s church to be independent, and never really abandoning the fundamentals of the Catholic faith.

Answer 2

Catholicism

Answer 3

He was a devout Catholic. He however, wished to dissolve his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, another devout Catholic because she couldn't produce a male heir. He fell out with the Pope over this and he then proclaimed himself Defender of the Faith (Protestant Faith)  a title which the current Monarch holds today. That is how the Protestant faiths came about.... they protested the Catholic Church. So they are all break aways from the Catholic Church at some point. Funnily enough many in the protestant faiths never include Catholics when they use the term Christians.....

Answer 4

Hi,

Henry VIII was devout Roman Catholic initially and his administration was very hard on protestants. With the help of his Chancellor, Thomas Moore he wrote a book against Martin Luther called "In Defense of The Seven Sacraments"

in which he cuts many of Luther's arguments to pieces. For this great work, it was the "Pope" who gave Henry VIII the title, "Defender Of The Faith " ironically still used by the monarchy to this day.

As other posters have mentioned, he needed a son along with having a roving eye anyway and he tried divorcing Catherine Of Aragon. The Pope, tied up politically with Spain and the greatest power, The Holy Roman Empire was reluctant to give Henry the divorce since those two powers favored and were related to Catherine.

Henry, furious broke yoke with the Pope and declared himself head of the Catholic Church in England which is much the same as the Roman Catholic church and uses the same readings and epistles each Sunday as the Catholic church does to this day.

Finally, heads rolled when members of his cabinet, starting with Thomas More could not in good conscience sign the Act of supremacy which acknowledged Henry as head of the church in England.

Cheers,

Mike K

Answer 5

King henry the VIII was Chatholic.

Answer 6

He was a Catholic aka a Papist.

Answer 7

The previous religion of Henry VIII was Catholicism.