Was Anne Boleyn or Thomas Cromwell the more influential in bringing religious reform in the 1530s?

Harry W. D. Smith KS ME Question #6

The 1530s was perhaps the most important decade in the history of religion in England since the re-introduction of Christianity by St. Augustine. It saw the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the introduction of bibles in English, and the emergence of a Church governed not by a far-off Pope, but by the King of England, which undoubtedly made later, more religion-based reforms far easier. What is not immediately obvious at first glance is how much Henry VIII’s failed ‘divorce’ from Catherine of Aragon, his first wife, in favour of his love for Anne Boleyn, caused these religious changes, and how far the Reformation’s success depended on the brilliant administrative skills (and Lutheran leanings) of Thomas Cromwell, the King’s Chief Minister, who first proposed the Break with Rome some time in 1531.

Catherine of Aragon had not had great child-bearing success. She had miscarried one baby, another had been stillborn, and her only surviving child was Princess Mary. Henry was beginning to get irritated about the fact that he had only one legitimate heir to carry on the Tudor line established by his father, and that she was female (he had an illegitimate son, the Duke of Richmond, but his claim to the throne could easily have been contested); the previous female monarch had been Matilda, whose reign had left the country in a state of chaos after a civil war. Henry was also an accomplished biblical scholar (his book attacking the teachings of Luther, published in 1521, had won him the title of ‘Defender of the Faith’ from the Pope), and he was worried about the legality of his marriage to Catherine. Before the death of his brother, Arthur, Catherine had been married to him for a few months (although it was generally accepted that the marriage was unconsummated), and upon Arthur’s death, she married Henry. Leviticus 20:21 says that ‘If a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an impurity: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless’. It is quite easy to see how Henry, fuelled by a love for Anne Boleyn and his own serious doubts about the legality of his marriage, could want to end his marriage to Catherine.

Unfortunately for Henry, Anne Boleyn, unlike her (married) older sister, who had been one of Henry’s mistresses, refused to become one of his lovers and then be cast off; she wanted marriage or nothing. This was rather inconvenient, as, although several ways existed for the marriage to be terminated (among them, Catherine could have become a nun, a suggestion which she greeted with the response that she would be glad to do so if Henry would become a monk; Henry could have arranged for her execution on trumped-up charges, a method which he and his ministers frequently employed to rid them of their enemies (for example, two of his wives, including Anne Boleyn, and some of his ministers); or he could have asked for annulment on the grounds that the papal dispensation issued for their marriage was invalid), the only real option was an annulment, which had to be granted by the Pope. Pope Clement VII, however, was virtually a prisoner of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was Catherine of Aragon’s nephew, who was occupying Italy. The Pope was also highly unlikely to admit that his predecessor had acted contrary to divine law, which would have been a cause of major embarrassment. In such circumstances, the likelihood of an annulment being granted from the Pope was slim indeed, due to complex considerations of Foreign Policy, and particularly seeing as Henry was related to Anne by first degree of affinity (having had an affair with her sister), which was exactly the same relation as Catherine was to him when the dispensation was granted for their marriage!

In 1528, the Pope sent Cardinal Campeggio to England to decide, along with Cardinal Wolsey, the Lord Chancellor, on whether an annulment could be granted or not. Campeggio, due partly to old age, and partly to his lack of concern over whether a ‘divorce’ was granted or not, did not reach England until December of that year, and insisted on doing everything slowly, and following to the letter the instructions that he had been given by Clement. In the middle of the summer recess observed by the courts in Rome, which Campeggio insisted on observing, the Pope decided that the trial had, after all, to be heard in Rome. This was the end of Wolsey, as Henry started to believe those (including Anne Boleyn, one of Wolsey’s sworn enemies) who said that Wolsey was as much to blame for the failure of the trial in England as was Campeggio. He was arrested in October 1529, but died at Leicester Abbey on the way to London from his diocese of York.

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Henry was not pleased that the trial was recalled to Rome, but it was not until 1531 that the obvious and brilliant but extremely dangerous idea was had by Thomas Cromwell, one of the fallen Cardinal’s lieutenants, to Break with Rome. This may in part have been due to his inclination towards Lutheran beliefs, but they are not necessarily as significant as they might appear, as Cromwell would probably have allied himself to any religion that was supported by his master. The idea of G.R. Elton that the Break with Rome was an important stage in the creation of the model sovereign nation state which he wished to construct is also a theory that appears highly suspect, as we can see from the events that happened after Cromwell’s death that Henry had frequent doubts about the Break with Rome. Also significant in sharing Cromwell’s ideas of Caesaro-Papism were Thomas Cranmer, who was elevated from being a normal ordained priest to Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532, and Christopher St. German, a common law theorist in his seventies who produced many clear arguments for the removal of the Pope’s authority in England.

Towards the end of 1530, the whole Church in England and Wales was charged with Praemunire, an offence originating in the Middle Ages that forbade the Church to recognize the power of anybody other than the King, for acknowledging Wolsey’s authority as Papal Legate; this made all the Church’s property liable to be turned over to the Crown. However, Henry agreed to settle the case in return for a payment of £100,000, and the title of ‘Supreme Head of the Church of England, as far as the law of Christ allows’ (the qualification was previously thought to have been negotiated by the Southern Convocation, but it may well have been added by Henry’s advisers in order to soften the blow and make the title more acceptable to the clerics). The Convocation also managed to secure an agreement that they would pay the money over five years. This was the first step in a campaign of persecution of the Church.

In these circumstances, it is interesting to note that Henry did not give up on Anne, as one might have expected him to. This is a testament to her determination and careful manipulation of him, as his sexual interest in Anne might have been expected to wane before the passing of five years. Anne’s resolve and cunning is one of the main reasons for the Reformation; had she not insisted on being married before sleeping with Henry, he would not have needed to get an annulment from the Pope and the Reformation would certainly not have occurred when it did, or have taken the same form; as it was, it was a political reformation, rather than a religious one, but if the annulment had not been required, it could quite easily have occurred a little later, and for religious reasons first.

Cromwell did not manage to convince the King to Break with Rome until 1532, by which time he held very great influence in the court as chief minister. His justification was that this was the only sure way of having a ‘divorce’ granted, and the King could gain more power over the Church and thus over his country. This reasoning must have appealed to Henry’s large ego, and the Act in Restraint of Annates, passed in 1532, stopped the payment of all but five percent of Annates (the payment made by newly appointed senior clergy of one third of their annual income), which were the Pope’s main source of income from England and Wales. The act was conditional; this was used as a lever to try and persuade Clement to grant Henry a ‘divorce’, as Henry probably wanted to make some sort of settlement with Rome even at this stage, and hoped that the Pope might be won over by the possible loss of a lot of money.

In January 1533, the whole proceeding was given a great sense of urgency by the discovery of Anne’s pregnancy. Confident that she and Henry would marry, either in a clandestine ceremony or openly after an annulment had been granted, she had evidently decided to give in to Henry. The marriage had to be solemnized, in order for the offspring (or more importantly, any male offspring) to be legitimate and thus have a claim to the throne. The Act in Restraint of Appeals was thus passed in March 1533 – this made it illegal to appeal to any authority outside the realm in any legal matter, which enabled the ‘divorce’ hearing of late May 1533 to take place independently and without the consent of the Pope. Catherine of Aragon refused to attend the hearing (in contrast to her passionate plea for mercy to Henry at Campeggio’s and Wolsey’s previous hearing in England), and it was completed in just three days. Henry and Anne had already been secretly married by Cranmer, and soon afterwards, Anne was crowned Queen. The Break with Rome had been more or less completed, thanks mainly to Cranmer, Cromwell and Anne, whose pregnancy (and Henry’s desire to insure the legitimacy of any male offspring) made sure that proceedings took the shape that they did.

Anne Boleyn’s influence, however, did not stop at the ‘divorce’. She was a reformer, and being so close to the King, it is easy to see how she could pressure him. She was fluent in French (having spent several years as a maid of honour to Margaret of Austria, who was ruling as a regent for her thirteen year old nephew) and she possessed a bible in French (which, unlike an English translation, was perfectly legal). This enabled her to see the benefits of being able to read the bible in the vernacular, particularly to those without their own chaplains. Both she and Cromwell were instrumental in the legalization of English bibles (by persuading Henry of the necessity of a vernacular translation to aid the religious comprehension of the masses) – Cromwell decreed that each Church must have ‘one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English’ by Easter 1539. The previous Bible order, of 1536, had largely been ignored, because there was no approved translation, the bishops were slow to enforce it, and the cost was too great. To this end, Cromwell ordered a licensed Bible to be printed in 1537. This was the work of Tyndale, writing under the pseudonym of Thomas Mathew. He commissioned another Bible from Miles Coverdale, which was to be printed in Paris; however, delays with the printing meant that it was not ready by the deadline. Although Anne influenced Henry quite considerably (she had in her suite an English copy of the Bible for anyone to read who wished), it was Cromwell, with his administrative know-how, who effected the changes.

When the Pope pronounced that Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was valid, in 1534, the Act in Restraint of Appeals was finalized, and Cromwell could now start removing all remaining traces of papal power in England. In 1535, acting as the King’s vicegerent, he organized a visitation of all the monasteries. Such visitations were common, but they were normally organized either individually by monastery, if there was particular cause for concern about the religious life of the monastery, or by the governing body of the order to which the monastery belonged, if for some reason it was exempt from the royal visitations. The visitations were, however, cut short by the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a study of all the wealth of the Church in England and Wales, which was carried out by Thomas Legh and Richard Layton, two of Cromwell’s employees who pursued their job with ruthless efficiency, often spending only a couple of hours at each monastery they visited. Indeed, so brutal were they in their treatment of the monks and nuns that they were singled out for special punishment in the petition that was to be presented to the King by the members of the Pilgrimage of Grace. In March 1536, all religious houses with an income of less than two hundred pounds per year were dissolved (although several were spared to accommodate the monks and nuns who chose to be relocated rather than seek employment as parish priests or to leave their orders altogether). This was followed in 1538-40 by the dissolution of all the other monasteries by region, except for friaries, which were all dissolved at once. Cromwell’s hand in this was obvious – he was a highly professional minister, who had learnt his craft on the continent, and he was highly successful at getting what the King wanted.

It is generally agreed that there was no real religious motive behind the Dissolution of the Monasteries – only a few were hotbeds of vice, and the rest, if not bursting with religious zeal, were at least carrying on doing more or less what they were meant to fairly satisfactorily. The real reason for their dissolution was that Henry wanted to get his hands on their large reserves of money; they owned one third of the land in England, and Henry gained substantially from their dissolution, which was effected by Cromwell. However, Cromwell may also have had ulterior motives; the Dissolution of the Monasteries made the transition to Protestantism under Edward VI much easier, as they would have been the principal centres of resistance. They still obeyed instructions from abroad (their headquarters were in France or Italy), which may also have influenced Henry when he decided to have them dissolved, as they detracted from his Supreme Headship.

Some historians (notably A.G. Dickens) argue that the Reformation in England was religious, rather than political, others that the ‘divorce’ was the occasion, rather the cause of the Reformation; that is, that the changes were due to popular dislike of the Catholic Church and belief in the Protestant teachings of Luther and his followers, and that the ‘divorce’ had no real bearing on the timescale of the Reformation. However, these views do not really stand up to much scrutiny; the divorce was primarily due to Henry’s infatuation for Anne and desire for a male heir. In October 1536, many men from the North of England went on the Pilgrimage of Grace, protesting at the Dissolution of the Monasteries (many of them believing that it was only a matter of time before local Parish Churches were either deprived of their wealth, their traditions, or dissolved altogether). Dickens also believes that the changes in religious practice of the people of England changed far earlier than they are traditionally held to have changed; however, this is quite unlikely, as the people of England, habitually conservative, would not have leapt to change their beliefs. This is partially illustrated by the slow speed at which English bibles were introduced in Churches following the order that they should be installed, although this could also be due to lack of funds. The fact that there were some Reformers (even Protestants) in high places does not alter the picture of the country as a whole. The very fact that the Break with Rome occurred when it did was because Clement VII refused to grant an annulment to Henry and Catherine, and consequently Henry and Cromwell removed Rome’s authority in England in order that an annulment could be granted by Cranmer, rather than the Pope, and Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn could be legalized.

However, the Reformation that occurred in Henry VIII’s reign was not one in which the religious ideology of the country changed substantially towards more Protestant beliefs. Although now independent of the Pope, England remained a Catholic country; none of the legislation enacted by Henry’s parliaments denied any Catholic principles such as transubstantiation (the belief that the bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Jesus at Communion), and Henry was still eager to persecute heretics. Even Cromwell and Cranmer themselves were halted when Henry thought that they were going too far; when Lutheran representatives arrived in April 1539, Henry encouraged Bishop Tunstall, Norfolk and Suffolk to impede Cromwell’s negotiations with them; the Act of Six Articles, published later that year, confirmed the existence and necessity of transubstantiation, votive masses, vows of chastity for monks, celibacy for priests, auricular confession and communion in one kind. The act was devastating for some of Cromwell’s political allies, who opposed it, but the end of the road came for Cromwell after he engineered the King’s marriage to Anne of Cleves, after Anne Boleyn had been beheaded on trumped-up charges of adultery and incest in May 1536 (the execution itself was organized by Cromwell, who realized that Anne was becoming a danger to Henry’s judgment. Henry allowed Cromwell to be arrested for heresy and treason in 1540, and he was executed on June 28th 1540. Without his political acumen, the Reformation of the 1530s would probably not have occurred; the one doctrinal change of the 1530s (the provision of English bibles) was carried out by him, and he was the main driving force behind the legislation concerning the Break with Rome (particularly the Act in Restraint of Appeals). The fact that it was he who influenced Henry to break with Rome is illustrated by the fact that Henry did not relinquish his authority to the Pope after the execution of Anne Boleyn and the death of Catherine of Aragon shortly afterwards; it is hard to believe that Henry and Cromwell did not discuss this, as Henry was still really a Catholic. The swings to and from Catholicism and Protestantism after Cromwell’s execution also show that Cromwell was a driving force behind the Reformation, and without him the conservatives (for instance, the Duke of Norfolk) might have influenced Henry, who was uncertain about breaking with Rome, to keep England as a Roman Catholic country.

In conclusion, it is very hard to decide whether Anne Boleyn or Thomas Cromwell was more important in the Reformation of the 1530s. Had it not been for Anne Boleyn, the annulment case would not have arisen as it did, and England would not have broken away from papal authority when it did (although, given Henry’s lack of a legitimate male heir, he might well have married another woman and divorced Catherine of Aragon in similar circumstances, giving rise to the same problem). A reformation could, however, have occurred for religious reasons, but it would probably have happened quite a bit later. However, if it had not been for Thomas Cromwell, it is doubtful whether Henry would have continued with the Break with Rome (although Henry might have married Anne Boleyn in secret, and then, when Catherine died, he could have obtained a papal dispensation legitimizing any children they had). Certainly, the monasteries would not have been successfully dissolved had it not been for Cromwell, and his political and administrative expertise were responsible for the Act in Restraint of Appeals and the Act in Restraint of Annates, the two crucial pieces of legislation related to the Break with Rome. Perhaps Cromwell’s principal role in the Reformation was in levelling the playing field for the more drastic Protestant reformations of Edward VI’s reign, by dissolving the Monasteries, the main bodies that would have objected to a Protestant country.

Bibliography

English Reformations – Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors – Christopher Haigh

Henry VIII and the Reformation in England – Keith Randell

The English Reformation – A.G. Dickens

Anne Boleyn – E.W. Ives

The Earlier Tudors 1485 – 1558 – J.D. Mackie

Tudor and Stuart Britain 1471 – 1714 – R. Lockyer

England Under the Tudors – G.R. Elton

Reform and Reformation – G.R. Elton

p.16, Henry VIII and the Reformation in England – Keith Randell

2 p.314, Anne Boleyn – E.W. Ives