Martires de Inglaterra

Henry VIII of England's break with the Pope transformed a reasonable man into a tyrant, even to the point of killing his former chancellor Thomas More, his most faithful man, who did not bow to his demands, betraying his faith and the Catholic Church. How could this change have happened and what consequences did it have for his subjects and for a large part of the world? For some, Henry VIII remained a quasi-Catholic monarch, but he wanted ultimate power over his subjects and their consciences in order not to be judged by them. However, the supremacy of the king over the Church already had the force of law since the Statute of Praemunire of 1393, so his action was not a real novelty imposed in 1534 by Henry VIII. Santiago Mata's historical work asks, among other things, whether it was only the need to guarantee a male succession that led Henry VIII to change sides. The answer remains a mystery, but according to its author, Henry VIII came to the conviction that the Church had to be destroyed and to achieve this, the political power had to be unique and omnipotent. Thus, in 1536, the king commissioned Lutheran theologians to design a religion that would suppress four sacraments (confirmation, anointing of the sick, priesthood and marriage). However, this religion was not imposed due to the popular rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. Santiago Mata demonstrates in his essay how the English Reformation not only moved away from Catholicism, but its main objective was to eliminate the Church. The history of the martyrs of England shows that a pseudo-ecclesial structure dependent on the State ends up disappearing, while the persecuted Church never dies. The martyrs did not seek to impose themselves or to be better than their persecutors. "Those men and women did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives in obedience to the voice of conscience and the will of God, bearing brilliant witness to human dignity and freedom". Paul VI, at the canonization of 40 of those martyrs, May 18, 1970.