In this sprint through British church history, you’ll learn about King Henry VIII and his staggering Act of Supremacy when he pulled the Church of England out of Catholicism and appointed himself the head of the church.  After Henry’s death, England swayed back and forth as Henry’s successors adopted Protestantism then Catholicism then Protestantism again.  Still none of this tumult compares to the chaos of the English Civil War a century later when a Protestant Parliament executed a too Catholic King Charles I for treason and initiated stringent Puritanical laws throughout the land.  You’ll also learn about the persistent and tenacious John Knox who was instrumental in bringing the Reformation to Scotland.

This is lecture 9 of a history of Christianity class called Five Hundred: From Martin Luther to Joel Osteen.

All the notes are available here as a pdf.

—— Notes ——

Henry VIII (1491-1547)

William Tyndale (1495-1536)

“We were better to be without God’s laws than the pope’s.” Master Tyndale, hearing this, full of godly zeal and not bearing that blasphemous saying, replied, “I defy the pope, and all his laws;” and added, “If God spared my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou doest.”

Letter from Tyndale to overseer of the castle in September: “I believe, most excellent Sir, that you are not unacquainted with the decision reached concerning me. On which account, I beseech your lordship, even by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to pass the winter here, to urge upon the lord commissary, if he will deign, to send me from