2D - The Reformation Parliament: MPs and expression of grievances
Learn how the Parliament of 1529–1536 turned a prolonged marriage dispute into a transfer of church authority, and how royal direction worked through parliamentary grievances, statutes and pressure on the clergy.
Parliament and grievances
The Reformation Parliament first met in November 1529 and continued, through separate sessions, until 1536. It was not sitting continuously throughout those years. Henry had summoned it before Wolsey’s removal as Chancellor, but it first assembled after his fall, while the marriage problem remained unresolved. The eventual legislation had an expanding purpose; the first session should not be treated as the execution of a complete plan already agreed by every MP.
MPs brought grievances against clergy and church courts. Complaints concerned probate and mortuary fees, pluralism, non-residence and ecclesiastical procedures. Legislation in 1529 limited some fees and clerical practices. Such reforms could be welcomed by people who remained Catholic. Reducing charges did not itself transfer the pope’s authority or abolish the Mass.
Parliament mattered because statutes carried authority across the realm. The Crown could not obtain an equivalent result simply by arranging a private agreement with Anne or dismissing Wolsey. The Lords, including bishops and abbots, and the Commons had to be brought into a legislative settlement. Royal influence was powerful, but debate, lobbying and the use of existing grievances still mattered.
In 1532, the Commons’ Supplication against the Ordinaries attacked ecclesiastical law-making without lay or royal consent and criticised courts, fees and appointments. Royal ministers helped channel such concerns towards the Crown’s purposes. The petition itself criticised heretical books as well as clerical behaviour. That is a useful warning against describing the Commons as a united Protestant body: hostility to clergy could coexist with religious conservatism.
Pressure on clergy and pope
Before complete separation, Henry used escalating pressure to obtain submission or negotiation. Praemunire charges exploited the clergy’s acceptance of Wolsey’s legatine authority, which the king had previously supported. In 1531 the clergy agreed to a large financial settlement. The Canterbury Convocation recognised Henry as supreme head with the limiting qualification that this applied as far as the law of Christ allowed. The qualification shows an attempt to accommodate Henry while preserving a religious boundary; it should not be confused with the unqualified statutory supremacy of 1534.
The Submission of the Clergy in May 1532 restricted the clergy’s independent law-making. They agreed not to make new ecclesiastical legislation without royal permission and consent, while existing canon law was subject to review. This shifted authority towards the king before formal removal of papal supremacy. The arrangement was given statutory force in 1534.
The 1532 Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates threatened the payments made to Rome on episcopal appointments. Because its application was conditional, it could be used as a bargaining instrument. Financial pressure was meant to encourage the papacy to respond as Henry wanted; it was not initially simply a finished declaration that negotiations were over.
These measures reveal a process. Royal government weakened the clergy’s independence and threatened papal income while still leaving possibilities for agreement. Clement VII had to consider the marriage’s legal basis and Charles V’s support for Catherine. Henry increasingly concluded that dependence on Rome obstructed his aims. Failed pressure helped make a permanent domestic solution attractive.
Appeals and the marriage
The Act in Restraint of Appeals of 1533 addressed the practical obstacle at the centre of Henry’s marriage case: Catherine could seek a final judgement in Rome. The Act asserted that England was an empire, meaning a realm with sufficient authority to govern itself rather than being subject to an external jurisdiction. Here “empire” does not mean the later British overseas empire.
The statute stopped appeals to Rome in specified ecclesiastical matters, including matrimony. This allowed the marriage case to receive a final decision within England. After becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer declared Henry’s marriage to Catherine invalid in May 1533 and recognised his marriage to Anne. Without the restriction on appeals, Catherine’s recourse to Rome would still have threatened the security of a domestic ruling.
The Act did more than solve one case. It described the English political community as sufficient to determine spiritual as well as temporal disputes through its own institutions. The royal marriage gave immediate urgency to a wider claim of sovereignty. Nevertheless, the legislation did not by itself define a Protestant theology or rewrite every parish service.
Continue this lesson.
You’re previewing NovaLearn without an account. Create a free account to read the rest.
Create free account