January 5 - Pope Forbids Henry VIII to Remarry

This Day in History: 5 January 2020

 

5 January 1531

 

489 years ago, today, Pope Clement VII forbade King Henry VIII from remarrying, after he sent a letter to the King, threatening the penalty of excommunication, meaning that Henry would have been cast out of the communication of the church. King Henry was trying to break off his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and the widow of Henry's dead brother, Arthur. He ignored the Pope's warning, and went on to marry Anne Boleyn, which lead to his excommunication as the Pope had warned. The request to remarry is most likely due to the fact that Catherine could not produce a legitimate heir, so Henry searched for a way to end the marriage, in a way to not go against his Catholic faith. The King was a devote Catholic, and even was a known opponent of the Protestant Reformation, and earned the title of Defender of the Faith from Pope Leo X.

 

Emissaries were sent to the Pope in an attempt to have his marriage with Catherine annulled, but Pope Clement had no intention of this. Clement was also somewhat a prisoner to Charles V at the time, and so was powerless to stand in Charles' way. However, Henry was already charmed by Anne Boleyn, and decided excommunication was a fair price to pay for the independence from the Pope, as well as the chance to father an heir. So, in order to marry Anne secretly in 1532, Henry banished Catherine from his court, and in doing so, altered the course of Christian and European history. He then issued a line of decrees that removed his kingdom from papal rule, ending the Catholic Church supremacy, and creating the Church of England, so Henry and his successors no longer answered to the Pope.

 

Want to find out more about how Henry's divorce changed Catholicism in England? Click here for more details.