The Reign Of Henry VIII And Catherine Of Aragon

Introduction:
The Reformation in Britain:
1. The reign of Henry VIII:
a. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon: the divorce issue
b. Thomas Cromwell's ascendancy, 1531-1540, and the establishment of royal supremacy over the church in England (Church of England)
c. Constitutional implications of England's break with Rome
d. The dissolution of the monasteries
e. Henry VIII's foreign policy
f. Anne Boleyn accused of adultery and Henry other wife's
2. The reign of Edward VI: Ecclesiastical and theological developments
3. The reign of Mary Tudor: The attempts to reverse the English Reformation fail.
4. The reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603:
a. The re-introduction of the Church of England
b. Marriage, succession and Mary, Queen
In light of the Old Testament warnings that the man who took his brother's widow to wife would have no issue, Pope Julius II issued a dispensation for the marriage." But Queen Catherine gave Henry no male heir, their only surviving child was Princess Mary Tudor not having a son to carry on his line, King Henry feared he was under God's wrath. "Henry was growing frustrated by his lack of a male heir, but he remained a devoted husband. He had at least two mistresses that we know of: Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn. By 1526 though, he had begun to separate from Catherine because he had fallen in love with one of her ladies (and sister of one of his mistresses): Anne Boleyn." In 1527 Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. King Henry requests that Rome annul his union with Catherine, thus leaving him free to marry Anne. "Such annulments were not uncommon, and the pope would grant them for various reasons. In this particular case, the argument was that, in spite of the papal dispensation, the marriage between Henry and his brother's widow was not licit, and that therefore it had never a true marriage. But other factors completely unrelated to canon law were much more weighty. The main consideration was that Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, who at that time had the pope practically under his thumb, and who had received a plea from his aunt to
In a document known as the Submission of the Clergy, the convocation of the English church accepted Henry's claim that all ecclesiastical legislation was subject to royal approval. Acts stopping the payment of annates to Rome and forbidding appeals to the pope followed. The pope still refused to give way on the divorce issue, but he did agree to the appointment (1533) of the king's nominee, Thomas Cranmer, as archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer immediately pronounced Henry's marriage with Catherine invalid and crowned Anne (already secretly married to Henry) queen, and the pope excommunicated