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Page 4 of 10

• 1. Reformation and reform
• 2. The Dissolution
• 3. Church in ruins
• 4. Henrician reform
• 5. Edwardian reform
• 6. Reorganisation
• 7. Laud鈥檚 reforms
• 8. Radicalism and reform
• 9. Anglican Church
• 10. Present day
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Henrician reform

Henry VIII was essentially a Catholic, but one who rid himself of allegiance to the Pope and the saints. His main concern was to gain control of the Church鈥檚 vast wealth, and to ease his path with regard to his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, rather than to radically alter the way the liturgy was performed. Thus, in secular cathedrals (governed by a group of clergy known as canons, as opposed to monks) and other non-monastic churches, the liturgy initially continued much as it always had, albeit on a much reduced scale.

'... the bones of saints were dragged out from their reliquaries and destroyed.'

This is not to say that secular cathedrals were exempt from the process of change that had been unleashed by the Break with Rome. For instance, in 1541 Henry VIII visited York Minster, and as a gesture of defiance against popery, and of allegiance to the king, the dean Richard Layton smashed the shrine of St William, formerly the main focus of worship at York.

Such actions were occurring all across England, as the bones of saints were dragged out from their reliquaries and destroyed. Occasionally these efforts were thwarted, as at Durham, where the monks were able to save the body of St Cuthbert when the Commissioners opened the shrine, and later re-buried him in the cathedral.

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Published: 2005-02-04