Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/87

 to a head. It was this fact which urged Henry to bring about that good object which the English nation had so long desired. The Pope himself, of course, resented Henry's bold act, and he pronounced the second marriage null and void. But Henry cared little for his threats, for he had good support behind him, especially in his chief minister, Cranmer.

This event led Parliament to set to work in good earnest to help on the Reformation.

Before considering the events which make up that great movement, I should like to say something about Henry's real position as a reformer. He certainly was not a Protestant, and in no way can you say that he made the Church of England Protestant, or changed a Roman Catholic Church into a Protestant Church. The Church of England, in fact, as a Church, never was Protestant. You nowhere find it so described in the Book of Common Prayer or in the Articles. If Henry was anything in religion he was a Roman Catholic. In fact, before the Reformation in England, he wrote a book against the teaching of the reformer Luther, and this was so much approved of by the Pope that the Pope signified his pleasure of the work by sending back to Henry a beautiful and costly sword, and bestowed upon Henry the title Defensor Fidei—the Defender of the Faith. After Henry broke from Rome he punished and condemned not only Roman Catholics but Protestants as well, and passed some severe laws against the latter. Seeing that the Protestant spirit of the Continent was affecting England, Henry put in force his six articles, or as the persecuted called it, the whip with six strings. These Articles forced on the people all the special Romanist