March 22 - Common Prayer

March 22 – Common Prayer

It took the death of Henry VIII, but England finally saw reform. Though Henry had separated from the Roman Catholic Church and created the Anglican church, things hadn’t actually gotten any better.

Thomas Cranmer had advised Henry during the fiasco with his first marriage to Catherine. His influence with the Catholic universities got a decision that Henry’s marriage to her was invalid and he was allowed to annul the union, thus leaving him open to marry Anne Boleyn.

In 1534, the English Parliament passed a series of laws forbidding payment to Rome and made Henry the supreme head of the Church of England. Anyone who disagreed was guilty of treason. Sir Thomas More was imprisoned for opposing the king and later executed.

As head of the Church of England, Henry voided his marriage and made his secret marriage to Anne public. She didn’t give him an heir, was accused of adultery and beheaded. Jane Seymour finally gave him a male heir, but later died. He married Anne of Cleves to establish an alliance with German Lutherans, but that didn’t work out so well for anyone. He divorced her, married Catherine Howard, who advocated against reformation. She was beheaded. Catherine Parr was his next wife and she did support the Reformation and Henry finally died in 1547.

Reformation was spreading through England whether Henry liked it or not. Cranmer had become Archbishop of Canterbury and supported the king hoping that more change would come in time. He ordered that the Bible be translated into English and finally English Bibles were in every church.

Cranmer couldn’t do too much while Henry was in charge, but at his death, Cranmer became a regent for nine-year old Edward VI. Changes occurred rapidly at this point. Confessionals were removed, clergy were able to marry, both bread and wine were used in communion, Oxford and Cambridge employed religious scholars from Europe.

The Mass continued to be said in Latin and Cranmer set about to change that. In 1549, he and a committee published the Book of Common Prayer which maintained the liturgy, but did away with many of the Catholic portions.

When Edward died, Henry’s first daughter, Mary became queen. Bloody Mary demanded that Catholicism be returned to England. She forced Cranmer to recant, but at his trial he refused and was burned at the stake. Her sister Elizabeth came into power and the Reformation then finally returned to England.