Photo credit: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England
Have you ever heard of Henry the VIII? If you haven’t, then you are missing a lot of interesting history.
He had been very important in the Reformation, England, Today’s world and The Catholic Churches. He was the son of Henry the VII, King of England. But his father died on April 12, 1509. He had 6 siblings, but only 3 of them survived, when they were little. His siblings were older than him. Who were Arthur, Margaret and Mary. But the girls couldn’t be queen because it was improper at that time. So Arthur became King and was married to Catherine of Aragon. But then Arthur died. So, when Henry was 17, he married Catherine of Aragon. And they became king and queen of England.
Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII
He ruled for 36 years. He married 6 times, 3 times to have a son. The other marriages weren’t for any importance. His first followed Catholic Churches but then he changed, he started following a new church of England that believes in Anglican practice. Anglican beliefs are Catholicism and Protestantism beliefs combined. They have notable freedom and anyone can practice the Anglican practice. The beliefs on 3 Creeds, Apostles’ creed, Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed. For the practicing faith and beliefs is for the bible. The practicing, prayer and beliefs are for the book of common prayer and others like that.
The Book of the common prayers was made by Thomas Cranmer, at 1549. He was an Archbishop of the Canterbury Church. He had translated to Catholic Latin to English and changed some prayers that had it. The Anglican churches have only 2 oaths ,(Sacrament), which were baptism and the lord’s supper. They didn’t do baptism that much. They had rituals, did some readings, had bishops and priests. Some decorated their churches. They sometimes prayed with a rosary (a necklace that has a beads with a cross). Or sometimes they would have a statue of virgin marie. Which is when Marie meets an angel that tells her she is going to have a zeus’s son, (Jesus). And they do different things to pray for god. One difference that the Anglican Church and Catholic Church is that the Catholic Church came from Rome and the Anglican Church started because of the reformation. Another is that Anglican Churches think that they should only care about the sacrifice of the cross, not man works. But for the Catholic Churches they care about both, sacrifice of the cross with man works. What were his teachings? His culture was first Catholic. But soon he believed in Anglican.
He had an impact on Reformation when Martin Luther wrote 59 complaints (or theses), they called it and put it on the Wittenberg Catholic Church. All of those theses said that It wasn’t doing all their teachings and practices. At that time Henry the VIII thought he was wrong and went on the church’s side. But, until he wanted to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn (His Wives mistress). The Pope said he couldn’t divorce his wife because God wouldn’t like that. He got mad at the pope, So he instead attacked the Catholic Churches and tried to make Cardinal Thomas Wolsey let him to marry Anna. The Archbishop and a Cardinal of England. But instead Cardinal Thomas Wolsey didn’t say yes. So he got angry of trying. He didn’t really know what to do then. But 2 people helped him (or convinced him) to make a new church. So he made a new catholic church of England and gave the power to the king of all catholic churches, not the pope. And married Anne Boleyn. In 153, 30,000 people had all decided to do a rebellion about the king’s changes. But in the end he was still king and a lot of people died.
There are not that many people that believe in Anglican. Up to 85 million people in 165 countries practice it. There are not that many churches that practice it because it is mostly about Christ’s answering of sacrifice of the cross, not what man works. But only 40 churches practice Anglican.
He was born on June 28, 1491. And died age 55, january 28, 1547 and never got to be an older king. They think he died because of weight, old age, the plague and other things they thought that he died of. He was good in sports and book reading (as the call) to be a king. But he was good at sports, hunting, dancing and others.
Photo Credit: Arthur photo, https://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/. Mary photo form: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Tudor,_Queen_of_France and Margaret by: https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/the-death-of-margaret-tudor/
These are all his three siblings that had survived when they were young. They all are older than him. The first one was Arthur, The second one was Mary and the last one was Margaret.
Photo Credit: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/history/luther-posted-95-theses-11629921.html
This is where Martin Luther put these on the wall.
Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses
And these are all of the 59 theses.
Photo Credit: https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2016/07/29/where-is-king-henry-viii-buried-and-why-doesnt-he-have-a-tomb/
Then: This is what it looked like, when Henry the 8th made the church of England.
Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_Communion Now: And now this is what it looks like today. There are 27 million people that come to pray or to visit.
Cites: Some of the Work Cited
By Biography.com Editors and A+E Networks, adapted by Newsela staff. “World Leaders: Henry VIII.” World Leaders: Henry VIII, 19 Aug. 2016.
By History.com, adapted by Newsela staff. “How King Henry VIII’s Divorce Led to the English Reformation Reformation.” How King Henry VIII’s Divorce Led to the English Reformation, 27 July 2019 Accessed 27 July 2019.
CNN Editorial Research. “Episcopal Church Fast Facts.” Episcopal Church Fast Facts, 25 Aug. 2020.
History.com Editors, editor. “The Reformation.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 11 Apr. 2009.
Morrill, John S. “Henry VII.” Henry VII. Accessed 17 Apr. 2021.
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