The Year of Their Revolution

My final class and lecture to blog about is English Reformation. The lecture I attend weekly at Cambridge is called Christianity and the Transformation of Culture. My lecturer is Dr. Richard Rex, and my supervisor here at Westfield House for this class is Dr. Jonathan Mumme. In addition to my lecture every Thursday for English Reformation, I wrote a research paper under the guidance of my supervisor which I blogged about last month. It's a true privilege to learn about one of the defining moments in English history in England from an Englishman at England's finest university.
In short, the English Reformation was far more political than religious. The Reformations of both Luther and Calvin were religious ones, honestly seeking a change in the corrupted doctrine or practice of the Roman Catholic Church. One cannot say this about England's Reformation.
Henry VIII became King of England in the year 1509, when Martin Luther was still a lowly monk, struggling to find peace in his conscience wracked with guilt and uncertainty. Throughout the course of the German Reformation, Henry adamantly opposed Luther's teachings from his throne in London. Henry wrote tractates supporting Catholic doctrine and papal authority. It wasn't until Henry's wife Catherine continuously failed to give him a son that he desired a Reformation. As King of England, he felt that he needed a male heir in order to preserve peace in his kingdom. He was also infatuated with a number of women who he wasn't married to. For these reasons, he sought an annulment from the Pope. The Pope said no. Henry didn't take kindly to being told "no," so he broke with Rome, and made himself the supreme head of the Church of England.
Now he could do whatever he wanted. And believe me, he did. He divorced Catherine, married one of his lovers named Anne Boleyn, and when she failed to give him a son, he had her executed.
He then married his next mistress, Jane Seymour, who finally bore the son Henry desired. Three additional divorces and marriages later, Henry died and his eight-year-old son Edward VI assumed the English throne. Edward, a sickly child, only lived to be sixteen, but during his reign he did a great deal. He did not have six wives like his daddy, but he "purged" the land of Catholic images, altars, and Masses, along with establishing a new Protestant prayer book and statement of faith called the 42 Articles. After Edward's death in 1553, his half-sister Mary took the throne. Mary I (known as "Bloody Mary") was a Catholic, and reversed the actions of Edward, brought back the images and altars, and made Catholicism the religion of England once more, along with burning 278 Protestant "heretics" at the stake in five years.
Once her short reign was over (1558), Elizabeth I became Queen and brought about a middle ground of sorts, making England a Protestant nation that clung to many Catholic customs.
I find it difficult to understand how 21st-century Anglicans can justify their Reformation in hindsight. It was political. It came about not from a re-discovering of the gospel like Luther's, or from a re-construction of doctrine like Calvin's, but from a power-hungry sex-addict who wanted a divorce. And that's no Reformation I wish to be a part of.