The English monarchy, the rise and fall from God’s grace

The former Bible destroyer and hunter of Protestant believers, awarded the Defender of Faith award in 1521 by the pope became Paul from Saul

Had it not been for the English monarch (but can even use stones), Protestant Reformation would hardly prevail the Roman Catholic wrath that proceeded from the evil paws of the popes at the Vatican who had rested on the conscience of men for centuries.

King Henry VIII was the first English King to receive the light of Reformation.

The former Bible destroyer and hunter of Protestant believers, awarded the Defender of Faith award in 1521 by the pope became Paul from Saul.

While he hunted the English for seeking freedom to worship and follow their conscience, he longed to be free to marry another woman his heart loved.

But the pope’s defender of faith could not attain permission from the rigid pope to allow him to marry someone he loved and so God used his longing for freedom to open the door for others to be free.

King Henry started realising the Pope as an enslaver of human conscience.

It so happened that Thomas Cranmer who was a priest had secretly married a German Protestant woman and was willing to bless the new marriage of King Henry VIII.

King Henry awarded Cranmer becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury after the marriage to his loved one.

In 1534 the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, allowing the Church of England to be headed by King, not the pope.

The Act of Supremacy led to the destruction of idols and images of the Roman Catholic in 1538 after about 400 years of total enslavement of human conscience through Catholic dogmas.

Before the Reformation, art was only for religious purposes and man could not think of using art to express other ideas like patriotism, love etc.

The destruction of images in England led to the civilisation of art in England and Europe.

English literature started taking shape guided by Protestant ideas, especially because of the printing press which had been invented in the 1440s.

Reformation paces were impeded by Queen Mary who ascended the throne in 1553 and was a devoted catholic, taking England back to the dark ages, murdering her people who opposed the papacy including Thomas Cranmer who was archbishop of canterbury.

Queen Mary called Bloody Mary died in 1558 succeeded by Queen Elizabeth I who was the daughter of King Henry.

Queen Elizabeth I was a mild Protestant who did not please the English who wanted Reformation to continue taking shape.

During her reign, devoted Protestants who were ridiculed as puritans asked for the separation of church and state as one way of cleansing England of Catholicism doctrines.

It was the puritans who asked King James I to give the English a Bible in their language which the King did through a commission that worked on the bible for seven years from 1604-1611.

The English were very pleased to have the word of God in their language but no further Protestant Reformation took place.

In 1620, devoted Protestants who were tired of pleading to the kings of England to continue the Protestant Reformation left England for the Americas.

About 40 ships left England with devoted Protestants left for the Americas to continue with the Reformation from where the English had halted.

The United States we see today was not so long ago a Protestant nation, actually, the opposite of the Vatican, not like it is today.

King Charles who ascended the throne in 1625 became very unpopular in this Protestant nation due to his catholic mindset and Protestants literary waged war against him.

A man named Oliver Cromwell with other English people staged a rebellion in which the King’s army was defeated.

King Charles was tried and found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, publicly gluttoned on 30th January 1649.

Cromwell became the leader of England and called it the Commonwealth of England but the monarchy returned in 1660 under Charles II, son of Charles I.

The great awakening saw the reign of Queen Victoria in 1837 who happily favoured the missionary work of Protestants abroad.

Although England did not reach the climax of the Reformation as expected, it can be likened to King Saul who did not accomplish the reformation of his time and was succeeded by King David.