Why did Henry viii split from the catholic church?

Answer 1

Because he wanted a divorce from his first wife and the Catholic church wouldn't let him.

--------------------------------Why did henry split from the Church?

Short answer is , he didn't! Henry simply followed the teachings of the ancient Church and pointed out,virtually, that the Pope had no authority outside his own See,Rome! Te Bishop of Romewas so incensed at being unmasked that he withdrew from Communion with Henry!

Answer 2

A:

Martin Luther and others split with the Catholic Church over issues of morals and doctrine, when they believed the Church had become irretrievably corrupt and had introduced teachings at variance with the Bible. The split between King Henry VIII and the Catholic Church was fundamentally different.

King Henry VIII was a staunch Catholic and had no criticism of the Catholic Church, either in terms of morals or doctrine. In fact, it was his defence of the Catholic Church against the claims of Martin Luther, that earnt him the papal attribute of 'Defender of the Faith'.

However, Henry believed he needed a son to ensure the succession to the crown, as there was no strong precedent for female successors. He knew that the Church's rules on annulment were somewhat elastic and so petitioned Pope Clement VII for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. His grounds would be that her prior marriage with his brother had been consummated and therefore her marriage with Henry was technically incestuous. Clement desperately wanted to please Henry but vacillated for too long. When Pope Clement had unsuccessfully engaged the armies of Emperor Charles in battle, he was no longer a free agent and realised that as Catherine was the aunt of the emperor he could do no other than to refuse the annulment. Henry, in turn, broke ties with the pope and ordered the English bishops to annul his marriage. His only criticism of the Catholic Church was that papal rulings that had applied to others should have also been available to him.

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Answer

The main difference between Henry VIII's split from the Catholic Church and the other protestant heretics on the mainland of Europe was that Henry made himself head of his new Church. He was "fond" of Catholicism and wished to keep the trappings, I would suppose for two main reasons. As long as he was keeping the bishops and priests, the vestments, the "Mass" (howbeit in English and devoid of all its sacrificial aspects) he would not have as many problems with the common man who didn't know what was being said in Latin anyway. The new Church certainly looked the same, and they were called the same things, and they vested similarity. Henry had problems with his new Churchmen that he had installed for the very reason that they were all protestant to the core and did not like the fact that they still had some Catholic "trappings" even if they were totally eviscerated of any meaning that had previously held. Nevertheless many true Catholics who realized that their faith had been removed from them were martyred trying to stay with the faith. You do not hear about as many people killed in Germany, for instance, as Henry and his children murdered to enforce their new religion.

Answer 3

He wanted to divorce his wife and the Catholic Church refused him, so he set up his own church that would give him a divorce.