Henry approached government about a divorce as he claimed that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was a sin as the Leviticus states that marrying your brother’s wife will be punished by remaining childless. Henry failed to get a divorce so Wolsey promised Henry that he would be able to get him a quick and easy divorce. However this was not the case as the divorce was granted many years later and Thomas Cromwell was the one to do so. This could have led to Wolsey’s downfall as it proved to Henry that he no longer needed Wolsey as he wasn’t able to do his job. As well as trying to claim that Henry’s marriage was a sin, he tried to persuade the pope that the previous pope was wrong to marry Henry and Catherine because Catherine and Arthur had consummated their marriage.
Robert Bolt’s “A Man For All Seasons” A Man For All Seasons is a great movie which mainly focuses on the life of Sir Thomas More from England and the current king at the time King Henry VIII. The time period was during King Henry the VIII's period of reigning. King Henry wanted to marry his brother's widow, and eventually received a special dispensation from the Pope. After learning that his new wife Catherine whom he married was not able to have children, he started to search again for another wife. It was thought that since King Henry VIII had married his brother’s wife that he was cursed in regards to Catherine not being able to have any children.
Henry wanted a divorce from Catherine of Aragon because she could not produce a son. Henry wanted a son to become king after him. He wanted a son in particular because boys are said to be better leaders, and better rulers than girls. Therefore Henry was desperate for a boy. Primarily Henry got rid of the monasteries because they were Catholic and the Catholics disapproved of his divorce from Catharine of Aragon.
The following are my observations of the annulment process as it applies to my experiences. In the fall of 2003, I started the RCIA class. At the same time, I talked to Father Nick Kastenholz about my current marriage to my Catholic husband, Mike, and our wanting to become members of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish. My Catholic husband had been unable to accept Holy Communion because of our civil marriage outside of the Catholic Church and my previous marriage. We had accepted this practice of non-communion because he believed, as is taught by the Catholic religion, that we were not in full communion with God and could not receive the gift of Holy Communion.
King Henry VIII of England was at first opposed to Luther’s ideas, but when he broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, he supported Protestantism. When he died and his daughter Mary took over the throne in 1553, she persecuted many Protestants trying to restore England to Catholicism because she was a devout Catholic, (John H. Ratliff, page 4). In 1558 Elizabeth I succeeded Mary restoring order to England. Elizabeth being a Protestant queen only intensified problems with Spain. This lead to problems between Catholic Spain and
Protestant Reformation in Europe During the sixteenth century, there were quite a few people who questioned the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This time period was called the Reformation, and during this time, the Church was criticized by the Protestants for their corruption. “The omnipotence of the church, both in the spiritual sense and in the political realm, had been called into question” (Rogers 9). The Reformation ended the period of unity created by Medieval Christianity. The two people who stand out during this time period are Martin Luther and John Calvin.
England for a long time had been told to hate Catholics and when James came from Scotland and became king he decided to marry Henrietta Maria, a Catholic, the people became unhappy because they did not know if their heir would be Protestant or Catholic. In 1625 England became involved in expensive foreign wars - with the Austrian Empire then in 1627 a war against France. This meant that Charles was very short of money and so he forced rich people to lend it to him. In 1628 Charles asked Parliament to let him raise custom duties on wines and many other goods. The MPs were not happy with the forced loans and foreign wars so they presented Charles with the Petition of Rights which was just parliament saying that Charles cannot raise custom duties without parliaments permission.
One of this war's causes was the nearly tacit public opinion, as well as the Parliament's, that they should support the Protestants due to Elizabeth (James's daughter) and Frederick - both involved in the war. The people and monarchy started to disagree, resulting into a loss of balance in the whole land. Catholics also earned themselves a bad image due to the gunpowder plot, once again creating a scarce relationship between them and the Protestants. However, it's common logic that the situation would be conflictual, as two forms of Christianity were impossible to coexist. As it was nearly impossible for James to neglect the conflicts, he attempted to marry his son Henry to a Spanish princess (dynastic marriage), the scope being to bring Protestants and Catholics at peace.
He and the Cardinal helped protest against the Communist government. At the time, the government outlawed new churches being built, but Wojtyla knew the church is actually the people, not the building. He was elected bishop at the age of 38, since the government thought he thought he could be convinced easily due to his age. But to their dismay, he kept his contrary thoughts, publicly protesting. To prevent people from figuring out he’s a priest outside the church, people of the church called him “Uncle”.
Throughout the 700s to 800's, the Catholic Church underwent many transformative experiences that brought it on track to be the Catholic Church we are a part of today. It began with the Byzantine growing less effective in protecting Rome because of threats from the Germanic tribe of the Lombards. The Church sought help of the called the Franks for protection. When the Pope Stephen II at first turned to Charles Martel, he found nothing in it for him to help the church. It was not until his successor, Pepin, saw it differently and decided to unite forces with the papacy.