ABSTRACT
When Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, he left behind him a Church in England that was in transition. It had left the obedience of the Church of Rome and, however much the English Church may have considered itself part of the universal Church, Rome considered it schismatic. It no longer looked to the Pope as the supreme head – now that role had been assumed by the king. But it was only in throwing off the authority of the Pope that the Church in England bore any resemblance to the Protestant Churches on the continent. There were few doctrinal changes of any significance. The rejection of papal authority and the adjustment of ecclesiastical administration that resulted while an essentially orthodox structure of belief was maintained made the Church in England unique. This was entirely due to the particular needs and tempestuous leadership of Henry VIII. The king was not a Protestant and did not want a Protestant Church in England, but a break with Rome had served his political and dynastic purposes. In 1547, the government of the new king, Edward VI, and the episcopal leadership of the Church were prepared and willing to go much further down the Protestant path in practical and doctrinal terms than had ever been envisaged by the monarch who started it all, for Henry remained orthodox in his theology to the end. If the Church was not Protestant on 28 January 1547, it was about to become so.
