English Reformation Dbq Essay

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The fact that these Reformers stuck to their beliefs even when people were being banished for their Protestant views was further evidence that these people of the Reformation had strong beliefs in it. “Between 1525 and 1535 a number of English reformers were living in exile in Europe, unwelcome in Henrician England.” Youth who did not truly believe in the Reformation would not have had this type of commitment. This type of commitment would only lie in the hearts of people who truly believed in what they were reforming. Reflecting back to what was pointed out earlier, the reformers had goals for the future of the church and society. They definitely believed strongly in these goals as they were not scared away by the threat of expulsion from …show more content…

Now, she went on to show that these same people did have a large influence on the English Reformation. O’Day used Henry VIII and his involvement in order to show that the greatest instigators of the Reformation were the people of England. “For Tyndale, in exile, to declare the true reformation to be one from below was simple, to deny the validity of Henry’s official reformation merely bold.” This showed how some realized that Henry really was not all that influential for the reformation. Henry was only going along with this Reformation for selfish reasons, as he only had qualms with Rome over them not letting him remarry. Furthermore, he did not truly support the English Reformation for strong reasons like the people had. The true instigation for the Reformation came from the people of England. They knew what they were fighting for and did not shy away from the consequences of exile. Also, as shown earlier, these people were mostly made up of the youth of England. O’Day moved on to further detract from the image of Henry as a great reformer. “But Henry himself, doctrinally a Catholic and sharing little with the early Protestants other than a dislike of the power of Rome, was unlikely to remain content for long with such limited approbation.” This gave a summation of how Henry never actually aligned with the views of the Reformers, he just wanted to bring down the power of the papacy in Rome for his own personal

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