1532. Sir Thomas More, who had succeeded Wolsey as chancellor, resigned his office. Commencement of the Reformation.
1533. Cranmer appointed archbishop of Canterbury. He held a court at Dunstable, and declared that Henry’s marriage with Catherine was null and void.
1534. PAPAL SUPREMACY ABOLISHED IN ENGLAND. Henry declared to be “the only Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England.” Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More attainted of high treason for refusing to acknowledge the invalidity of Henry’s marriage with Catherine.
1535. Fisher and More executed for declining to acknowledge Henry as head of the church. Cromwell appointed the king’s vicar-general in ecclesiastical matters.
1536. Wales incorporated with England, and subjected to English laws. Suppression of the lesser monasteries. Insurrection in Lincolnshire, and another in Yorkshire, called the Pilgrimage of Grace, both of which were caused by the changes in religion.
1539. Suppression of the remaining monasteries. Statute passed known as the Statute of Six Articles. The abbots of Glastonbury, Reading, and Colchester executed for high treason.
By the Statute of Six Articles—1, Transubstantiation; 2, Communion in one kind; 3, The celibacy of the clergy; 4, Vows of chastity; 5, Private masses; and 6, Auricular confession,—were declared to be agreeable to the law of God. Those who denied the first were to be burnt; those who denied the rest were to suffer the loss of property for the first offence, and death for the second.
1540. Cromwell, now earl of Essex, executed for high treason.
1541. Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, executed for high treason. Henry declared king of Ireland.