Suzannah Lipscomb

“The decision to exercise the rights of his royal supremacy to decide theological doctrine and practice, despite Anne Boleyn’s fall and Henry’s remarriage to Jane Seymour (who was rumoured to be conservative in religion) came as a surprise to some European commentators, who had hoped for Henry’s return to the Catholic fold once Anne was safely out of the way. Instead, Henry’s decision to use the occasion to insist on the illegitimacy of his daughter Mary, to set his first minister, a layman, permanently up as his vicar-general, and to put forth his own definition of right theology, were defiant gestures.

The religious rulings of this year indicated the king’s commitment to shaping his church in line with his own character and conscience. This was the year in which Henry set out the defining values of Anglicanism – values that would shape Henry’s decisions on religious policy until his death, and which can even be seen to have fundamentally shaped the church established by his daughter Elizabeth and, therefore, the Church of England today.”—- Dr. Suzannah Lipsomb, 1536, The Year That Changed Henry VIII

+ Interview With James Clark on the Dissolution of the Monasteries

+ An Axe to Grind: Cromwell’s Cynical Propaganda