Miscellaneous Thoughts on Tudor England and the Reformation

by Mom

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: 

he turneth it whithersoever he will. Proverbs 21:1 

For our Reformation Day 2011 lesson, I jotted down some miscellaneous thoughts on Tudor England and the Reformation.

God places men and women in positions as He wills. 

Proverbs 8:15 teaches that by God “kings rule, and princes decree justice.” King Henry VIII (1491-1547) was an unlikely candidate to bring spiritual reformation to England. Besides being a hedonist and an adulterer, Henry VIII was a staunch defender of Catholic doctrine against the “new faith” of the Protestants. But when the Pope refused to annul Henry’s first marriage, Henry declared himself the head of the Church of England and effectively ended papal control of England. God used the selfish actions of a wicked king to open the door for religious freedom.

Henry VIII instituted reforms in the Church of England as long as they suited him politically, but at the same time, he persecuted reformers like William Tyndale, who was martyred in October of 1536. Ironically, God placed women in Henry’s household who supported the Reformation wholeheartedly and at their own peril. Three of Henry VIII’s six wives were Protestants: Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Parr. Anne Boleyn supported William Tyndale, and Catherine Parr was the patron of Tyndale’s associate, Miles Coverdale. More importantly, Catherine Parr was responsible for the educations of Henry VIII’s two youngest children, Prince Edward and Lady Elizabeth, both of whom later became Protestant monarchs. Catherine Willoughby, the Duchess of Suffolk, was rumored to be a candidate for Henry’s seventh wife. Willoughby, too, was an influential Protestant whose chaplain was the reformer Hugh Latimer.

Sometimes God’s Hand is evident only from afar. 

Contemporaries of Henry VIII must have often thought that evil ruled the day. King Henry divorced two of his wives and beheaded two other wives. He vigorously opposed the English Bible and doctrines of the reformation, and he put several reformers like Thomas Bilney, John Frith, William Tyndale to death.

But looking back five centuries, we can see God at work in Tudor England. Henry VIII’s messy personal life was the catalyst for England’s ecclesiastical separation from Rome. This was the first step towards religious liberty in England. Tyndale’s English New Testaments poured into England in spite of Henry’s opposition. Henry’s wife, Anne Boleyn, even had a copy in the palace. God answered William Tyndale’s dying prayer, and Henry VIII authorized the English-language “Great Bible” to be read throughout England. Henry instructed Archbishop Cramner to write prayers for the army in English. These instructions became the basis for the Book of Common Prayer. Henry abolished the monasteries, destroying another link with Rome. By the end of the brief reign of Henry’s son, the Church of England had an English Bible, prayer book, liturgy, and a draft of a Reformed doctrinal statement. Though much more reform was needed, and would come, a great deal was accomplished during Henry VIII’s reign.

We should be thankful for the English Reformation. 

As we learned last year, the Reformation in England really began with Erasmus’ Latin/Greek translation of the New Testament. But prior to Anne Boleyn’s becoming queen, the Reformation had been largely confined to students at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr helped to spread the Reformation at Court. Anne Boleyn’s support for an English Bible helped to bring Reformation to the common people. Edward VI encouraged the development of Reformed doctrine in the Church of England, and wealthy patrons like Catherine Willoughby, the Duchess of Suffolk, supported Protestant clergymen. In a short time period, great changes were made in England.

These changes came less than 100 years before Englishmen established the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies in North America. Because of the Reformation, the first English settlers in North America brought with them the Protestant faith. Because of the Reformation, the papacy never controlled North America, and religious freedom was established on these shores.

We should not prematurely judge what God is doing in our own lifetimes. 

Just as contemporaries of Henry VIII could not see all that God was accomplishing through their wicked king, so we cannot always see what God is doing in our time. So we should be careful not to prematurely judge our era. We may see evil triumphing in our day, but our God is the same God who transformed Tudor England, and He continues to work “all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11).