Opposition to the Reformation

Three who would not

On 20 April 1534 Elizabeth Barton, a servant girl from Aldington in Kent who had been having visions since 1525 and had told the king to his face that he would not reign a month after marrying Anne Boleyn, was hanged at Tyburn with five of the clergy who had promoted her. She was the first person to die for opposing the break with Rome, and she died by Act of Attainder, without a trial. Fourteen months later the two most respected men in England followed her. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who had defended Catherine of Aragon since 1529, was beheaded on 22 June 1535. Sir Thomas More, who had resigned as Lord Chancellor rather than serve the new order and had then said nothing for three years, was beheaded on 6 July 1535. Between them, on 4 May, three Carthusian priors had been hanged, drawn and quartered. The exam bullet is opposition to the Reformation and its impact on the Church. The question behind it is why opposition that came from a prophetess with a following, a bishop and a Chancellor made no difference at all, and what the Reformation actually changed in the parish. This module gives you the dated evidence for both.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in a 12-mark answer.

The opposition, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor the day after the Submission of the Clergy
• Elizabeth Barton is arrested and made to confess her visions were false at Paul Cross
• Barton and five clergy are hanged at Tyburn under an Act of Attainder
• More and Fisher refuse the oath of succession and are sent to the Tower
• Three Carthusian priors are executed for denying the supremacy
• Fisher is beheaded, and More two weeks later

Why did the opposition fail?

A prophetess with crowds, the most learned bishop in England and a former Lord Chancellor all opposed the break. None of it made any difference. Which explanation best accounts for that?

• The opposition never joined up: Barton was a Kent movement of clergy and gentry, Fisher and More were individuals who refused to conspire, and the nobles who disliked the changes took the oath; the Crown used attainder and the Treasons Act so that no trial could go wrong and silence itself became a crime; and most people accepted the oath because the doctrine of the mass had not changed and the king, not the Pope, was the authority they knew.
• Nobody in England really objected to the break.
• The Emperor invaded to support them and was defeated.
• They all recanted and were pardoned.

Two kinds of opposition

The question will name Barton, Fisher and More. Know how the Nun of Kent differed from the two scholars, and why the Crown feared her more.

Impact on the Church

Five statements about 1534 to 1539. Tap the TWO that give evidence of how the Reformation changed the English Church, as opposed to how opposition was dealt with.

• The Ten Articles of July 1536 set out the doctrine of the new Church and mentioned only three of the seven sacraments.
• At the trial of More on 1 July 1535 Richard Rich swore that More had denied the supremacy in the Tower, and More answered that he would not trust Rich with anything.
• The Injunctions of 1538 ordered every parish to buy an English Bible, and the Great Bible of 1539 was printed to meet the order.
• Elizabeth Barton was condemned by an Act of Attainder in March 1534 without any trial.
• The Pope made Fisher a cardinal in May 1535, and Henry said the hat could come but the head would be gone before it arrived.

Cranmer and the doctrine of the new Church

Select the THREE statements that are true of what the Reformation changed between 1536 and 1539.

• The Royal Injunctions of 1536 and 1538 ordered the clergy to preach the supremacy, discouraged pilgrimages and images, and required every parish to keep a register of baptisms, marriages and burials.
• The Bishops Book of 1537 restored the four missing sacraments but ranked them below the three of the Ten Articles.
• The Six Articles of June 1539 restated transubstantiation and clerical celibacy with the death penalty, and Bishops Latimer and Shaxton resigned over them.
• The mass was abolished and replaced with an English service in 1536.
• The Church of England adopted the Lutheran confession of Augsburg in 1538.
• Cranmer negotiated a reconciliation with the Pope in 1537.

How far did the Church actually change?

The 16-mark question on this bullet may ask how far the Reformation changed the Church by 1540, or how far opposition was a threat. Both need the same trick: separate authority from doctrine. Authority changed completely. The Pope was gone, the king was Supreme Head, Cromwell as Vicegerent from January 1535 outranked Cranmer, the monasteries were dissolved between 1536 and 1540, and it was treason to say any of it was wrong. Every one of those was permanent. Doctrine changed little and then swung back. The Ten Articles of 1536 and the Injunctions of 1538 moved a step towards the reformers, with three sacraments, fewer images and an English Bible in every church. The Six Articles of 1539 moved back: the mass, confession and celibacy were restated on pain of death, and by 1540 the reforming bishops had resigned and Cromwell was on the block. This meant that a parishioner in 1540 heard the same Latin mass as in 1530, in a church that now had an English Bible on a desk, no shrine, no monks nearby, and a king where the Pope had been. Opposition failed not because nobody minded, but because for most people the thing that mattered most, the mass, had not been touched.

In the shoes of Cromwell, 1533 to 1535

Four decisions about the opposition. Choose what Cromwell actually did, and notice what each choice was designed to prevent.

• September 1533. The Nun of Kent has prophesied the death of the king, her clergy have printed her visions, and Fisher and More have both met her. What do you do?
• April 1534. More and Fisher have refused the oath of succession. Under the Act, refusal is only misprision. What do you do?
• June 1535. More has been in the Tower fourteen months and will not say whether he denies the supremacy. Silence is not treason. What do you do?
• 1536 to 1538. The opposition is dead and you are Vicegerent. What do you change in the parishes?

From cause to consequence

Because Elizabeth Barton prophesied against the marriage, Cromwell had her confess in public and attainted her, and she was hanged at _____ in April 1534. Because refusing the oath of succession was only _____, More and Fisher could be imprisoned but not killed until the Treasons Act. Because More stayed silent, the Crown needed the evidence of _____ to convict him. Because the Ten Articles of 1536 named only _____ sacraments, the reformers seemed to be winning. And because the Six Articles of _____ restated the mass on pain of death, the reforming bishops resigned and the advance stopped.

Two executions, one summer

John Fisher was executed on 22 June 1535 and Thomas More on 6 July 1535. How many days apart were the two executions?

The 4-mark question

Question (a) might read: Describe two features of the opposition of the Nun of Kent. It is marked feature plus supporting detail, twice. Which answer scores all four marks?

• One feature was that it was religious prophecy: Barton had visions from 1525 and became a nun at Canterbury, where Dr Bocking promoted her as a holy woman. Another was that it became political: from 1532 she prophesied that the king would lose his throne within a month if he married Anne Boleyn, and said so to Henry himself.
• She had visions. She was executed.
• The Nun of Kent was a very dangerous opponent whom Henry had to deal with.
• She was executed because her prophecy threatened the succession and Cromwell needed an example.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question (b): Explain why opposition to the Reformation failed in the years 1533 to 1535. One reason opposition failed was that the government changed the law so that the opponents could be destroyed without a fair trial. Elizabeth Barton was condemned by Act of Attainder in March 1534, which meant Parliament simply declared her guilty, and she was hanged at Tyburn on 20 April. When More and Fisher refused the oath of succession that same month, refusal was only misprision, so Cromwell brought in the Treasons Act in November 1534, which made it treason to deny the supremacy in words alone from February 1535. This meant that silence no longer protected More, and the evidence of a single conversation reported by Richard Rich was enough to convict him on 1 July 1535. Opposition failed because the law was rewritten faster than the opponents could find a safe way to stand on it. What earned the marks: a cause named in the first sentence; specific support (attainder, Tyburn, 20 April, misprision, the Treasons Act, Rich, 1 July); the link phrase this meant that; and a closing sentence that returns to the question. Two more paragraphs, on the failure of the opponents to unite and on the fact that the mass itself had not changed, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Explain why opposition to the Reformation failed in the years 1533 to 1535. You may use the following in your answer: the Nun of Kent; the Treasons Act. You must also use information of your own.

• Support that counts: a date, a name, an Act or a place
• Causes of your own: the refusal of More and Fisher to conspire, the oath taken by the nobility, or the fact that the mass had not changed

The 16-mark judgement

Question (c) might read: "Opposition to the Reformation was never a serious threat to Henry VIII in the years 1533 to 1540." How far do you agree? A student has written the case FOR. Which is the strongest point to set AGAINST it?

• The individual opponents of 1533 to 1535 were no threat, but the Pilgrimage of Grace in October 1536 put around 30,000 men under Robert Aske in the field in the north, more than the king could raise against them, and forced Henry to negotiate at Doncaster and promise a pardon before he could break it in 1537; the question covers 1533 to 1540, and in 1536 the threat was real.
• More was the most famous man in Europe, so he must have been a threat.
• Barton had many followers.
• The Pope excommunicated Henry in 1538.