Hello and welcome to the Renaissance English History podcast.

I'm your host, Heather Tesco.

This episode will continue looking at the reign of Henry the 8th as we go

through the history of the Tudor monarchs. In addition to having a lot of wives, the one other thing that

Henry the 8th is most famous for is bringing Protestantism to England. Henry, knowing full well

how to take advantage of trends, figured out a way to extricate

himself from the Pope's power, get a divorce, get a new wife, start a new church, and

make a ton of money, all in one fell swoop.

He did have some help, though.

So let's dive right in.

In some way, it's ironic that Henry would be the first English monarch to fight the Pope.

Let's set the stage. In 1517, a papal cleric named Johann Tetzel was sent to Germany to collect indulgences to help pay for a rebuild of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. At this time, there was only one Christian

church in Europe, the universal Catholic church, of which the Pope was the head. Theology at the time

stated that faith alone cannot save a man, but that faith demonstrated through charity and good

works were the keys to salvation.

In place of the good works, one could purchase indulgences, either for one's own self

or for relatives who might be suffering in purgatory, and by donating the money, one would

receive the same benefits as doing those good works.

Martin Luther was a monk and a theology teacher at the University of Wittenberg, who objected

to the sale of indulgences. He initially wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz, dated

31st of October 1517. In this letter, he

stated that salvation was God's alone to grant, and he objected to clerics, leading people

...