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What is more, Henry had fallen in love with the beautiful Anne Bobble. The only way Henry could get what he wanted was to divorce Catherine of Argon, then he could marry Anne Bobble! However, Henry later discovered bible passages that worried him: “And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing … They shall be childless. Set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord you God, and a curse if ye will not obey. ” Henry got his lawyers to secretly look into whether his marriage to Catherine was gal or not.
The marriage was found to be legal – but Henry still wanted a divorce. The only chance Henry had was to ask the Pope. He was the only man in the world who could give him the divorce he wanted so badly. Henry VIII was also very annoyed at Wolves his adviser at the time for not being able to get him a divorce so he fired him and had him beheaded but he died on the way to execution. The Roman Catholic Church was very powerful in England. Henry hated the fact that his country should allow someone else to have so much power of them.
After all, Henry was very lustful for power, and was used to getting what he wants when he wants! If he broke with the Roman Catholic Church he would win many Protestant friends and have more power in England. The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not recognize, let alone support, divorce. Those who were widowed were free to re-marry; this was an entirely different issue. But husbands could not simply decide that their marriage was not working, divorce their wife and re-marry. The Roman Catholic Church simply did not allow it.
This put Henry VIII in a difficult position. If he went ahead and announced that as King AT England en was allowing enamels a Lover, ten pope could excommunicate him. This meant that under Catholic Church law, your soul could never get to Heaven. To someone living at the time of Henry, this was a very real fear, and a threat which the Catholic Church used to keep people under its control. Another approach Henry used was to make a special appeal to the Pope so that he might get a special “Papal Dispensation”. This meant that the Pope would agree to
Henrys request for a divorce purely because Henry was King of England but that it would not affect the way the Catholic Church banned divorce for others. The pope refused to grant Henry this and by 1 533 his anger was such that England broke with the Roman Catholic Church based in Rome. This is called the Reformation. Henry placed himself as head of the church and in that sense, in his eyes, his divorce was perfectly legal. Some of the Monks in England didn’t support Henrys new Church of England. They supported the Pope! So Henry closed down all the monasteries and all the land was sold.
The monasteries were very wealthy and the King made a hefty profit! Henrys desire for a baby boy began a series of events that altered religion in England forever! In one move, he had his divorce and made himself a lot more powerful. The Pope in Rome no longer had the English Church under his control – Henry did, and all its wealth too! To this day, The King or Queen is the Head of the Church of England. From 1 538, Henry VIII ordered that in every church, the Bible was to be read in English, not Latin. At last, ordinary people could understand what their religion was telling them!!