THE P RTAL
December 2014
Page 7
The Popes
and the Ordinariate
Dr Harry Schnitker traces the roots of the English Reformation
back over one hundred years before Henry VIII
L
ast month
we saw how, during the reign of King Edward III, there was a conscious drive to turn
the Catholic Church in England into the seinte eglise d’Angleterre. This was not quite a break with Rome,
of course. The Pope was still recognised as the head of the Church, and doctrinally it can safely be said that
the Church in England was amongst the most orthodox in Europe.
making the Church in England
more national
That said, from the days of Edward III there
was an undeniable and conscious move to
make the Church in England more national.
During the reigns that followed, this process
accelerated. The process was uneven, and
again, had nothing to do with doctrine. Henry
IV, for example, assisted the Church to crack
down on Lollard heretics, and, in 1401, gained
Parliament’s approval.
The result was the bill, De heretico
comburendo, which allowed for the
burning of Lollards, those “divers
false and perverse people of a
certain new sect...they make
and write books, they do
wickedly instruct and inform
people...and commit subversion
of the said catholic faith.”
On the other hand, he did not hesitate to execute
Archbishop Richard le Scrope of York for his role in
a failed uprising against the crown, against the law
which forbade secular authority to prosecute clergy.
Interestingly, Scrope came to be regarded by many as
a martyr, but, unlike the much more powerful Henry
II in the case of Thomas Becket, the king did not feel
compelled to do penance for the execution.
an end the Great Western Schism
It was his son, Henry V, who was to give increased
momentum to the process to Anglicise the Church. If
rumours have any validity, Henry could have become
the counterpart to the Bohemian King, Jiří z Poděbrad.
The latter embraced Lollard-inspired Hussitism, and
became the first non-Catholic monarch in Europe.
It is said that in his youth Henry was favourable to
Lollardism, but this vanished when he became king.
Indeed, Henry was instrumental in bringing to an end
contents page
the Great Western Schism, which saw three
different men claiming to be Pope.
What did not vanish was his ambition
to have a Church that was totally
subservient to the crown, and that
reflected the increasingly confident national
identity of his realm. This, after all, was
the king who very nearly conquered
France, the victor of the Battle of
Agincourt in 1415. It is true that
he yearned to lead a crusade and
recapture Jerusalem, but as the
leader of Christendom and not
as a servant of the Pope.
Much changed under
Henry’s leadership. The Use
of Sarum, once the liturgy of
some English dioceses, became
the national liturgy. The calendar
was reformed, and included were many of the
ancient, and almost forgotten Anglo-Saxon saints at
the expense of Norman or other European saints. The
king rigorously enforced legislation passed by his three
predecessors forbidding clergy to appeal to Rome in
legal issues concerning benefices.
covetous eyes on Church property
Ominously, Parliament went further. As during the
reign of Henry IV, it wished to take away the lands of
many of the great abbeys and cathedrals for the benefit
of the nobility. The king, like his father, disagreed, but
the greedy writing was on the wall.
The nationalisation of the Church in England
gathered pace, the king increasingly regarded the
Pope’s leadership و ]