English Reformation Research Paper

The English Reformation involved the break of the English church from the Roman Catholic Church. This creation of Protestantism changed not only the dynamics of the church but also of the society of England. It took off in England for multiple reasons, but a commonly known reason has to do with Henry the VIII and his desire for a divorce. This has been an overpopularized reason as there were many more factors that played into the English Reformation. As it went though, Henry VIII was in the process of trying to get a male heir to the throne. The pope of the time, Pope Clement VII, would not allow Henry to divorce his current wife. Henry was frustrated that the Pope had this power over him, so he set off to weaken the church and dissolve …show more content…
These reasons that caused them to convert from Catholicism to Protestantism varied. “The reasons for turning away from Catholicism to Protestantism were diverse: for some it was enough to discover spiritual salvation in the new doctrines of grace, for others the appeal lay rather in liberation from oppressive authority, spiritual or secular.” This reflected back to how the youth felt a strain on them not only in the church but also in the secular society. The change from Catholicism to Protestantism seemed to be a fix for both, and therefore it was a very attractive outlet to the younger crowd. Specifically, the Catholic church had become very overbearing upon a person’s life. Many viewed it as a system that was drawing focus away from God and was corrupting the religion. This lead to many in England striving for freedom in Protestantism as it seemed the more graceful …show more content…
Brigden showed how the youthful group of Reformers was more than how the Catholic Church thought of them. This was shown in the case of mass and confession, which were the two leading sources of the churches power. “To deny them was to reject priestly authority, and to deny clerical power was to vitiate the potency of the sacraments.” This showed that simply questioning certain aspects of the Catholic church was equivalent to going against the entire church. Therefore, the people willing to do so definitely believed strongly in the Reformation and its purpose. This commitment would not belong to a group of youth who were revolting for the sake of it, as the Catholic Church thought. Also, confession and mass had been such a central theme for the Catholic faith, so it was very unlikely for anyone who had been around it for a long time to suddenly question it. This once again reinforced why it made sense that the youth were the center of the English Reformation, as they had been exposed to the religion for a shorter time.
The chapter entitled “Historiography contemporary to the English Reformation” by Rosemary O’Day also discussed the English Reformation. It mostly analyzed how the English Reformers viewed and used history for their arguments, although it also touched upon the importance of the people of England in the Reformation. Mostly secondary sources were used for this analysis