‘Despite the break with Rome, Henry VIII never seriously abandoned the Catholic faith in the years 1529 to 1547.’ Assess the validity of this view.

Despite breaking with Rome in the 1530s, Henry was still personally and theologically a Catholic, evidenced by the Act of Six Articles (1539), which made the Act of Ten Articles (1536) null and void. Henry only broke with Rome in his quest to ensure a male heir to continue his dynasty. This was of paramount importance. Another factor to consider is that Anne Boleyn refused to just be Henry’s mistress, and pressured him to make her queen and give up Catherine. Henry and Anne were secretly married in 1533 because Anne had fallen pregnant with Elizabeth.

However, Henry was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church (1538) by the pope and therefore, in the eyes of the papacy and Catholic Europe, Henry was damned to eternal punishment. Henry was no longer a Roman Catholic, since he had repudiated the authority of the pope through the Act of Supremacy (1534) which made him Head of the Church of England, but he was still theologically a Catholic. As mentioned above, this is evidenced by the confirmation of Catholic sacraments in the Act of Six Articles which repudiated some of the Protestant reforms made in the Act of Ten Articles. Some historians have suggested, however, that the Act of Six Articles was only passed in order to appease Catholic Europe, as France was planning an invasion of England.