Henry the Eighth

[zak1]

What made henry the eighth a Catholic

[Peter Pedant]

is this a joke ?

Henry VIII was a Catholic because he was born one, his parents were, and at the time he was born, 1490 or thereabouts, there was very little choice - none of the reformation movements had stirred

The q as itself does not make much sense - although I understand Zak, thatif Zak is short for Zaki rather than Zachariah, this may not be mainstream for you

[vehelpfulguy]

England was a Catholic country when Henry was born so everyone was a catholic.

At the time most other European countries like France, Spain, Italy etc were (and still are) Catholic.

Henry married a Catholic Spanish lady (his first wife) who had also been married to his brother (his brother had died very young).

After many years without a son Henry wanted to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn.

But the Pope would not agree to the divorce (because of pressure from the Spanish).

So Henry withdrew England from the Catholic faith and made the country Protestant. He made himself head of the English church.

So Henry STARTED as a Catholic, but finsihed up a Protestant.

[vehelpfulguy]

In fact Henry's decision caused many problems in this country for many years.

During his life many religious leaders were unwilling to convert from Catholic and Protestant and were put to death.

When Henry died his son came on the throne, but died very young, and he was followed by Mary, who was a Catholic.

She tried to convert the country BACK to Catholic and killed many Protestants, she was known as Bloody Mary.

Then she died very young, and was replaced by Elizabeth the 1st, who was a Protestant. She tried to turn the country BACK to Protestant and killed many Catholics.

So it was a very dangerous time and many people prayed in private rather than risk being caught. Many old country houses have priest holes where Priests hid if the house was raided.

One such house is Coughton Court in the Midlands, owned by a strong Catholic family.

It gradually got sorted out , but even today the King or Queen of England cannot be a Catholic.

I believe Charles wife Cammilla IS a Catholic so that presents and interesting problem.

Religion eh !

[vehelpfulguy]

Here is a bit about Coughton Court priest hole

The owners were (and still are) catholics.

http://www.coughtoncourt.co.uk/page.cfm?LANGUA GE=eng&CFNoCache=TRUE&pageid=144

The house and family was central in the Gunpowder plot, which was another Catholic v Protestant argument.

After the Gunpowder plot failed many of those involved fled from London to Coughton Court and houses nearby and were hunted down and many killed.

[noxlumos]

Do you mean why did Henry marry Catherine Howard, a Catholic, AFTER he had created the Church of England?
Quite simply because he could.
By that point in his life he was well and truly fulfiling Thomas More's terror that he was doing what he COULD do, rather than what he SHOULD do and was very unpredictable.
Absolute power near enough, with the obvious consequences.