The Reformation came early into the Neth erlands because of its close commerical and political connection with Germany. Charles V attempted to put a stop to the spread of the movement but the laws against were not executed with strictness in his reign. His son Philip II entered upon a more vigorous policy of persecution and through the Duke of Alva and his successors tried in vain to suppress the political and religious liberties of the Netherlands. The great leader in the struggle for independence was William of Orange, at first a Catholic and in his later years a member of the Reformed Church.. The inquisition of the Spanish type was introduced and the laws of the country were suspended. Persons ac cused of heresy were executed by the hundreds. Philip resolved to root out heresy even if it meant the ruin of the country. In vain the best generals in Spain were sent to overcome the resistance of the people. Under the guid ance of William of Orange the northern prov inces which were almost wholly Protestant de clared their independence of Spain, which was finally established at the close of the Thirty Years' War.
England had been influenced by the Human istic movement through the work of More, Colet, Erasmus and other leaders of the Renais sance but their effort was rather to purify the Old Church than to form a separate organize lion. The immediate cause of the separation was the act of the king who desired a divorce from his queen, Catherine. The Pope was not willing to grant this and so Henry took the matter into his own hands and declared himself the supreme head of the Church of England, obtaining his divorce through Cranmer, arch bishop of Canterbury. Parliament, under the control of Henry VIII, passed a law which took all authority in England away from the Pope and the king became supreme in all mat ters relating to the temporal affairs of the Church in England. No appeal could be taken on any ecclesiastical matter to any power out side the realm. It was the plan at first to make no changes in doctrine but there was a strong Protestant tendency under the leader ship of Archbishop Cranmer. This was made evident by the publication of the Ten Articles which formed the first statement of belief of the separated English Church. Henry encour aged the reading of the Bible because he thought this would strengthen the movement away from Rome, not realizing that the study of the Bible would bring independence and diversity of be lief amongst his people. There was a strict understanding that all the people should walk in the ecclesiastical path which Henry had marked for them. Those who refused to do so were subjected to the king's displeasure and in a few instances were executed for refusing to acknowledge him as supreme head of the Church in England or for declining to follow him in his doctrinal changes. One of his most drastic changes was the dissolution of the monasteries. A royal commission was ap pointed to investigate their condition and this commission brought in an adverse report so that they were dissolved, the smaller ones at first and the larger ones later in his reign. The
property of the monasteries was used in part for educational and religious purposes but the larger part was used to enrich the king and the landed gentry. Henry's reign closed in 1547, and he was succeeded by his 10 year-old son, Edward VI, who because of his youth was under control of regents. The movement to ward a Reformation of the Continental type was i rapid in his reign under the leadership of Crawler. Theologians from the Continent were brought in to assist in the movement. The first Prayer Book of Edward VI was published largely through the influence of Crammer. This is the basis of the present Book of Common Prayer. Forty-two articles of Faith, afterward reduced to Thirty-nine, formed the doctrinal basis of the Church.
In 1553 Mary the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine became queen and attempted to undo all that had been done in the direction of Protestantism in the preceding reigns. She tried to have the men who had been enriched abbey lands give back these lands to their former owners, but in this she did not succeed. The nation returned to allegiance to the Pope with an ease that made it clear that England was not yet ready for the change to Protestantism. Mary enforced the heresy laws, especially against those who had been promi nent in the overthrow of Roman Catholicism, some of the leading Churchmen of England being included in the list of her victims. The fortitude V these unfortunate ones as they Were burned at the stake did much to tarn the minds of England to a study of the Reforma tion. More and more in the reign of Mary, England was becoming Protestant and the queen had the consciousness in her closing years that her efforts to turn the nation to the Old Church had been a failure. When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in 1558 she found conditions which required the exercise of great wisdom to keep the nation from civil war. She was herself a Protestant by taste if not by conviction. The changes introduced by Mary were quickly abolished. A new Act of Supremacy was passed which made her Supreme Governor on Earth of the Church in England. With her accession the Protestant leaders who had fled to the Continent when Mary began her prose cutions came back and brought with them ideas which were in conflict with the thoughts of Elizabeth in regard to the royal supremacy. These Puritans as they came to be called were not opposed to the idea of Episcopacy but they did object to what they considered the remnants of popery in the system which still retained forms and customs suggestive of Roman Cath olicism. They desired a State Church purified from all that had suggestion of popery and one in which there was a large degree of freedom in the way of forms and ceremonies. In the later years of Elizabeth there was a party believing in Presbyterianism as the only proper form of Church government and they desired to have one established State Church but of the Pres. byterian type. There also appeared the vari ous independent movements out of which the Congregationalists and Baptists later arose.