Thursday, July 11, 2024

It is the 11th of July 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Today’s show starts out with a word to any would-be historians. Perhaps you are  thinking, “Sure, the general weight of glory that comes with being a historian in general is great… but what if I also wanted to be fabulously wealthy?”

Well, you want to be a historian rock star? Just listen now to what I say: do stuff on the Tudors.

With a “d”- the Welsh dynasty on the English throne- Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, the Virgin Queen, and all that. These are the books and movies made with advances that erase college debt, but I digress…. I’ll admit that I sometimes assume a certain knowledge of these characters, and we don’t get the chance to sit with how WILD some of these stories are. 

Henry VIII was the king of England- his brother died, so this sport-loving man of many appetites was on the throne. He marries his dead brother’s wife- the Old Testament tells him he must (that, or he must not… oh well). To do so, he needs the pope to give him a blessing to get it. Henry and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, have a terrible time conceiving; ultimately, they had the future queen Mary- but no male heir. Seeing this as his duty to the kingdom and fearing that taking his brother's wife was actually AGAINST Scripture, Henry decided to go to the Pope to ask him to annul his marriage to Catherine. 

It didn’t hurt that he had a mad crush on Anne Boleyn by now… a man of “many appetites.”

And Henry had been the Pope’s main man. Henry watched as that pest Martin Luther attacked the papacy, the sacramental system, and the church hierarchy. Henry and his pals even wrote a public defense of the Seven Sacraments against Luther. Henry and the Pope together could squash the German menace. The Pope named Henry the “Defender of the Faith”—this could be a formidable duo on the European stage.

Except about that divorce… Catherine of Aragon—of the house of Aragon and Castille—was the Spanish family adjacent to the Habsburg family and Emperor Charles V. Catherine was the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles.

So Pope Clement denied the request to annul the marriage. Some in Henry’s council thought that the injunction against marrying one's sister-in-law overruled the others and the papal dispensation from Pope Julius.

Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn and had Thomas Cranmer nullify the marriage to Catherine. According to Cranmer, Henry, and others, the king had a divine right to make decisions in his own realm.

Like so many Reformation debates, this one, too, came down to the issue of authority. Who has the right to tell anyone what to do? Henry would make his position clear with the passing of the Act of Supremacy, which claimed he, and not the pope, was the head of the church of England. The long, strange trip that is the English Reformation was underway- launching movies, TV shows, historical fiction, and those historians driving about in sports cars….

The gauntlet was thrown down on this, the 11th of July in 1533, as Pope Clement could stall no longer- Henry’s intentions were known, and Clement couldn’t lose face amongst the Emperor and other Catholic leaders in Europe. Clement officially excommunicated Henry VIII.

There is a decent argument that even without the divorce, Henry would have tried to make the same argument with Cranmer about the king's supremacy in all matters in England, including the church. He had defended the Pope in 1521 but had likely seen the winds changing and the opportunity to claw back some power in his own realm.

At the end of this, Henry, of course, got his wife, but Anne Boleyn only gave Henry another daughter—the future queen Elizabeth (to rule after Mary). Of course, this would be moot if Edward—finally a son for Henry by his third wife, Jane Seymour—had not been so sickly and died after just a short time on the throne. But then the stories wouldn’t be so juicy, and those sports cars don’t pay for themselves….

Today, we remember the excommunication of Henry by Pope Clement on this day in 1525.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- a word to the Colossians- and to us about all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge:

I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. 2 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 11th of July 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man surprised to hear of the English Reformation ties to Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.. he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by reminding you the house of AraGON is Spanish, AraGORN is a ranger from the North- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.