Anglicans Identify with the Early Reformers
Anglicans can feel a little inferior when it comes to founding leaders. Lutherans trace their roots back to Martin Luther and his courageous stand while Presbyterians look to John Calvin and his rigorous theology. When Anglicans look to their beginnings they find…Henry VIII and a disappointing marriage!
Henry VIII never intended to be the “VIII.” As the second son of Henry VII and younger brother of Prince Arthur, Henry trained for the priesthood while Arthur prepared to be king. The unexpected death of Arthur changed the course of Henry’s life, making him successor to the throne.
As king, Henry was a true Renaissance man who excelled in the arts and sports, while also practicing his Catholic faith. Henry opposed the early reformation movements in England, even earning a commendation from the Pope for a paper he wrote refuting the thinking of Luther.
Only after his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, failed to provide him a male heir did Henry align himself with the reformers. Henry sought an annulment of his marriage, which the Pope refused. In response, Henry, with the help of those who supported the Reformation, declared the Church of England free from the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church. Even so, Henry remained Catholic in his beliefs and continued to oppose further efforts at reform. Henry opened the door to the reformation in England, but he was no reformer.
To find the earliest English reformer you have to go back to the 1300s, two hundred years before Henry VIII. John Wycliffe criticized abuses and false teaching of the Catholic Church. Believing Christians were directly responsible to God, he translated the Bible into English so they could know and obey God. For all his efforts the Church expelled Wycliffe from his teaching position at Oxford and 44 years after his death had his bones exhumed and burned. Persecution silenced and scattered his followers, ending his influence in England.
But Wycliffe’s ideas spread to Bohemia through Czech students who attended Oxford. His ideas were passed along until they influenced a young priest, Martin Luther. You see, before Henry, Calvin or Luther, there was the forerunner to the Reformation, John Wycliffe. In his work we find the true foundation of our Anglican heritage.