God's Sovereign Hand in Reforming England

Pictures from Left: Henry VIII (with six wives); Queen Ezliabeth 1; Boy King Edward VI. Cardinal Thomas Cranmer last.

The story of the Reformation of England is one where we can see the hidden hand of God's sovereignty at work in the lives of people. King Henry VIII in the 16th century was a thorough Roman Catholic and married the Catherine of Aragon of Spain, a Catholic princess. She produced no male heir for him, and he was forced to contrive marrying a second wife: here's where God's sovereign hand moved - working on the DNA of Henry and Catherine so that they could have no male son. This isn't the first time that the Lord God sovereignly works in the marriage lives of people. Think of Abraham and Sarah and the conception of children leading to the producing of Ishmael and then Isaac, making for the unending conflict down to our day and generation in the Middle East between the Arabs and the Jews.

Henry VIII defied the Pope in order to divorce Catherine and marry a succession of wives in the search for a male heir. He made himself the head of the Church of England, but remained at heart and in doctrine Roman Catholic to his death. He persecuted non-Catholics all his life even though he made England independent of the Papal control. But his act of separating from Rome was the trigger of the English Reformation.

Edward VI was the son of Henry VIII succeeding to the English throne at the tender ago of 10 and ruling for only 6 years. In God's overruling sovereignty, Edward had been under the tutellage of Protestant nobles; hence on his accession to the throne he allowed the progress of the Protestant faith. The Protestant Thomas Cranmer became the Cardinal of the Church of England.

Queen Elizabeth I succeeded Edward VI and had to ward off the designs of Mary Queen of Scots as the Catholic contender for the English crown. The Spanish King also wanted to put a Catholic ruler on the throne of England and sent the Spanish Armada, a gigantic fleet, against England. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 was another landmark of God's sovereign control of the wind and the waves to the detriment of the Spanish galleons. Actually Elizabeth I had been brought up a Catholic by her father and she remained at heart very much Catholic all her life, but the Protestant faith grew in strength under her long reign.

Andrew Loh