The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church

It is commonplace to attribute the birth of the Church of England to Henry VIII's desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. Bernard, professor of early modern history at the University of Southampton, demonstrates that Henry's reformation of the English church involved more complex motives and methods than his desire for a new wife and an heir. Bernard examines in meticulous detail the issues surrounding the divorce, including Henry's assertion that his first marriage had never been valid. But the divorce was only one factor in Henry's desire to reform the church. In 1536-37, he instituted a number of statutes-the act of appeal, the act of succession, the act of supremacy and others-that dealt with the relationship between the king and the pope and the structure of the Church of England. During these years, Henry also suppressed monasteries and pilgrimage shrines in his attempt to reform the church. Bernard offers a magisterially exhaustive account of Henry's religious reforms, his opponents, and his supporters, as well as the ways that Henry's policies led to the political and religious reformations of Thomas Cranmer and Oliver Cromwell. This is a first-rate account of a controversial king and his role in the development of the English church.