The reformation

Flowchart nodes

• Sack of Rome 1527 put the Pope in Charles V's hands.

• Cardinal Campiaggo sets up legatine court in 1529, after having received a secret dispensation in 1528 and putting off actually holding the court.

• Battle of Landriano 1529- Pope back in Charles' hands. Chance for annulment gone.

• 1531- Clergy collectively accused of praemunire (putting the ideas and wishes of the Pope above the King- so being disloyal to the monarch was now regarded as near treason.

• Wolsey falls from power October 1529. He began the dissolution process by shutting down 30 small monasteries himself.

• 1532- Act of Annates. The taxes that would go to the Pope now go to Henry VIII​​​​​​

• 1532- Submission of the clergy. Clergymen take orders from the monarch, not the Pope.

• Dec 1532- Anne Boleyn is pregnant. She marries Henry in January 1533. Thomas Cramner replaced the now-dead Archbishop of Canterbury and became a leader of the reformation, even though Rome appointed him.

• May 1533- Annulment granted by Cramner and Anne is crowned Queen. Elizabeth born in September. Unfortunately, she is female.

• The Act in Restraint of Appeals in 1533 declared that the monarch possessed imperial jurisdiction which was not subject to any foreign power (papacy).

• Catherine of Aragon could not appeal to Rome against the annulment

• The Act of Supremacy 1534 gave legislative force to the royal supremacy. Henry became supreme head of the Church of England.

• After this act, Henry's xenophobia was growing. The 'Imperial idea' shows us that he found it unacceptable that anybody else would have his people's allegiance.

• The Act of Succession 1534 declared Henry's first marriage void. Anne's children were now the heirs and their marriage was valid. An oath was made for people to accept this.

• The Treason Act 1534 tightened the laws of treason so that it could also be committed by the spoken word. It was treason to call the King a heretic or a usurper.

• 1533- Henry announced his intention to increase crown revenue by taking over Church lands.

• 1534- There is an anonymous proposal to confiscate all ecclesiastical lands. The crown was to support the clergy with annual salaries. The wealth of the church could help Henry to avoid raising taxes and would strengthen his throne.

• Cromwell began Valor Ecclesiaticus, or the Inspection of the Churches. He brought in commissioners hired by Wolsey to inspect the Churches with the promise of payment for every bad thing they found. 1535.

• They found decadence (people not fulfilling their roles), monks having sex, gambling, personal wealth, and many other terrible things.

• 1536- First Act of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Pilgrimage of the Grace.

• 1538- Cromwell pushed the dissolution. In 16 months, 202 houses had surrendered.

• 1539- Second Act of Dissolution of the Monasteries. Legitimised previous 'voluntary' surrenders, giving Parliamentary sanction to Cromwell and his agents. All greater houses property placed under the crown.

• 1540- The surrender of Waltham Abbey was the end of the monasteries. 8,000 monks had been pensioned off and 563 houses dissolved.

• The Lincolnshire Rising occurred between 1-11th October 1536. There were 3 government commissions in the county looking at smaller monasteries. There were rumours that they were trying to get the gold, jewels and extra taxes. Began in Louth. Nicholas Melton gathered with people from Horncastle and murdered the Bishop of Lincoln's chancellor in a frenzy. 10,000 people gathered in Lincoln and drew up a list of articles. The Duke of Suffolk's army basically scared them off until a herald arrived on the 11th and scared the rest off.

• The Pilgrimage of Grace.