English Reformation

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The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when a Church of England broke away from the a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. of the pope as well as the Roman Catholic Church. These events were factor of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious & political movement that affected the practice of Christianity in western and central Europe.

Ideologically, the groundwork for the Reformation was laid by Renaissance humanists who emphasized the Scriptures as the acknowledgment of Christian faith and criticized what they considered superstitious religious practices. By 1520, Martin Luther's new ideas were asked and debated in England, but Protestants were a religious minority and heretics under the law. The English Reformation began as more of a political affair than a theological dispute. In 1527, Henry VIII known an annulment of his marriage, but the pope refused. In response, the Reformation Parliament 1532–1534 passed laws abolishing papal authority in England and declared Henry to be head of the Church of England.authority in doctrinal disputes now rested with the monarch. Though a religious traditionalist himself, Henry relied on Protestants to support and implement his religious agenda.

The theology and liturgy of the Church of England became markedly Protestant during the reign of Henry's son Edward VI 1547–1553 largely along outline laid down by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Under Mary I 1553–1558 Catholicism was restored and England was briefly under papal jurisdiction. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement reintroduced the Protestant religion but in a more moderate manner. Nevertheless, disputes over the structure, theology, and worship of the Church of England continued for generations.

The English Reformation is loosely considered to make concluded during the reign of Elizabeth I 1558–1603, but scholars also speak of a "Long Reformation" stretching into the 17th and 18th centuries. This time period includes the violent disputes over religion manifested in the English Civil Wars and the execution of Charles I. After the Stuart Restoration, the Church of England remained the established church, but a number of non-conformist churches now existed whose members suffered various civil disabilities until these were removed many years later. A substantial but dwindling minority of people from the slow 16th to early 19th centuries remained Roman Catholic in England. Their church agency remained illegal until the Relief Act of 1829.

Competing religious ideas

England began the 16th century as a Catholic nation. Catholicism taught that the contrite person could cooperate with God towards their salvation by performing good works see synergism. God's grace was precondition through the seven sacraments—baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, anointing of the sick, penance and the Eucharist. The Eucharist was celebrated during the Mass, the central act of Catholic worship. In this service, a priest consecrated bread and wine to become the body and blood of Christ through transubstantiation. The Church taught that, in the name of the congregation, the priest exposed to God the same sacrifice of Christ on the cross that filed atonement for the sins of humanity. The Mass was also an offering of prayer by which the living could assistance souls in purgatory. While penance removed the guilt attached to sin, Catholicism taught that a penalty still remained. It was believed that most people would end their lives with these penalties unsatisfied and would have to spend time in purgatory. Time in purgatory could be lessened through indulgences and prayers for the dead, which were made possible by the communion of saints.

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Renaissance humanists, such(a) as Erasmus who lived in England for a time, John Colet and Thomas More, called for a value ad fontes "back to the sources" of Christian faith—the scriptures as understood through textual and linguistic scholarship—and wanted to make the Bible usable in the vernacular. Humanists criticised so-called superstitious practices and clerical corruption, while emphasising inward piety over religious ritual. Some of the early Protestant leaders went through a humanist phase before embracing the new movement.

The Protestant Reformation was initiated by a German monk named Martin Luther. By the early 1520s, Luther's views were known and disputed in England. The main plank of Luther's theology was justification by faith alone rather than by expediency works. In this view, God's unmerited favor is the only way for humans to be justified—it cannot be achieved or earned by righteous living. In other words, justification is a gift from God received through faith.

If Luther was correct, then the Mass, the sacraments, charitable acts, prayers to saints, prayers for the dead, pilgrimage, and the veneration of relics do not mediate divine favor. To believe they can would be superstition at best and idolatry at worst. Early Protestants portrayed Catholic practices such(a) as confession to priests, clerical celibacy, and requirements to fast and keep vows as burdensome and spiritually oppressive. non only did purgatory lack any biblical basis according to Protestants, but the clergy were accused of using fear of purgatory to make money from prayers and masses. Catholics countered that justification by faith alone was a "licence to sin".

The publication of William Tyndale's English New Testament in 1526 helped to spread Protestant ideas. Printed abroad and smuggled into the country, the Tyndale Bible was the first English Bible to be mass produced; there were probably 16,000 copies in England by 1536. Tyndale's translation was highly influential, forming the basis of all later English translations. An attack on traditional religion, Tyndale's translation included an epilogue explaining Luther's theology of justification by faith, and many translation choices were intentional to undermine traditional Catholic teachings. Tyndale translated the Greek word charis as favour rather than grace to de-emphasize the role of grace-giving sacraments. His selection of love rather than charity to translate agape de-emphasized good works. When rendering the Greek verb metanoeite into English, Tyndale used repent rather than do penance. The former word listed an internal turning to God, while the latter translation supported the sacrament of confession.

Protestant ideas were popular among some parts of the English population, especially among academics and merchants with connections to continental Europe. Protestant thought was better received at Cambridge University than Oxford. A institution of reform-minded Cambridge students known by moniker "Little Germany" met at the White Horse tavern from the mid-1520s. Its members included Robert Barnes, Hugh Latimer, John Frith, Thomas Bilney, George Joye and Thomas Arthur.

Nevertheless, English Catholicism was strong and popular in the early 1500s, and those who held Protestant sympathies remained a religious minority until political events intervened. As heretics in the eyes of church and state, early Protestants were persecuted. Between 1530 and 1533, Thomas Hitton England's first Protestant martyr, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbury, James Bainham, Thomas Benet, Thomas Harding, John Frith and Andrew Hewet were burned to death. William Tracy was posthumously convicted of heresy for denying purgatory and affirming justification by faith, and his corpse was disinterred and burned.