The 1530 Letter to Pope Clement VII

The 1530 Letter to Pope Clement VII

King Henry VIII (1491-1547) is probably the most famous monarch in English history, mostly due to his infamous personal life. The “Great Matter” is the term given to the issue of the King’s desire to be divorced from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), so that he might marry Anne Boleyn (ca. 1501-36), whom the King expected to produce a male heir for the English throne. A letter dated July 13th, 1530 and affixed with 81 wax seals from English noblemen representing 70% of the House of Lords was addressed to Pope Clement VII (1478-1534), who was pressured to grant the King’s request by ominous threats of a similar divorce of the English church from Rome. It took two months for the letter to reach Rome, but when it did the Pope did not acquiesce to these demands and the rest, as they say, is history. First rediscovered in the 1920’s, this letter is an incredibly precious witness to the politics and attitudes of the English court during the 16th century and the creation of a national identity defined by opposition to papal power and influences from the continent in general, an attitude that persists today.

An Improbable Reformation

The break with Rome was less of a reflection of pro-Protestant attitudes in England than a political decision based upon the fact that Catherine of Aragon, through no fault of her own, had failed to produce a son after numerous miscarriages and the King was now determined to pursue other options. In fact, Henry VIII wrote and published a repudiation of Martin Luther (1483-1546) that earned him the name Fidei Defensor or “Defender of the Faith” from Pope Leo X (1475-1521) only nine years earlier. Even after the split from the papacy, the Anglican Church was essentially unchanged save for the replacement of the pope with the monarch. Incredibly, the 1530 letter that resulted in this split was hidden in a chest built under a chair until it was discovered in 1926 by the Prefect of the Vatican Archives, Angelo Mercati (1870-1955).