King Henry Reformation Blog :
The English Reformation started in the reign of Henry VIII. The English Reformation was to have far reaching consequences in Tudor England. Henry VIII decided to rid himself of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after she failed to produce a male heir to the throne. He already decided who his next wife would be - Anne Boleyn, by 1527, Catherine was considered too old to have anymore children.
However, a divorce was not a simple issue. In fact, it was a very complicated one. Henry VIII was a Roman Catholic and the head of his church was the Pope based in Rome.
The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not recognize, let alone support, divorce.
Those who were widowed were fee to re-marry; this was an entirely different issue. But husbands could not simply decide that their marriage was not working, divorce their wife and re-marry. The Roman Catholic church simply did not allow it.
If he went ahead and announced that as King of England he was allowing himself a divorce, the Pope could excommunicate him. This meant under the Catholic Church Law, your soul could never go to Heaven. To someone living at the time of Henry, this was a very real fear.
