Professor Paulina Kewes (Professor of English Literature) and Dr Frederick Smith (Early Career Fellow in Early Modern British History) have co-authored an article about how the papacy dealt with the excommunication of Henry VIII, which features in this week's issue of History Today.
Read a summary of the article below and find the full article online (for subscribers to History Today), or in print (released 20 November).
King Henry VIII was excommunicated – and deposed – by Pope Paul III on 17 December 1538 – almost 487 years ago. Despite abiding scholarly and popular interest in Henry VIII’s marital shenanigans and the break with Rome they helped inaugurate, the impact of the excommunication upon Henry’s policies at home and abroad has never been considered. Our piece is the first to chart the protracted process by which the excommunication came to pass - a process which took eight years, two popes, two printed bulls, and countless admonitions.
We argue that this dither and delay made it easier for Henry to proceed with his Reformation: a swift excommunication would most likely have strengthened domestic, and perhaps even international, resistance to the English King. However, more than this, papal dithering may well have pushed Henry to go further, and faster, in his religious changes than he might otherwise have done. We ultimately argue that Henry's efforts to expunge every trace of papal authority from England were supercharged by the lingering papal threat to use that same authority to turn the English people against him. By denuding the pope of his power and portraying him, not as a pious, spiritual shepherd, but as an avaricious and power-hungry prince, Henry diminished the pope's sway over his people and thereby robbed excommunication of much of its potential sting.
England's break with Rome was fueled by Henry's lust, his avarice, and his egotism. But the papacy's (in) action helped fan the flames.
