The story of the Reformation needs reforming
The destruction of most of the libraries, music and art of England was not a religious breakthrough but a cultural calamity.
By Eamon Duffy | The Telegraph | June 23, 2012
For five centuries England has been in denial about the role of Roman Catholicism in shaping it. The coin in your pocket declares the monarch to be Defender of the Faith. Since 1558 that has meant the Protestant faith, but Henry VIII actually got the title from the Pope for defending Catholicism against Luther. Henry eventually broke with Rome because the Pope refused him a divorce, and along with the papacy went saints, pilgrimage, the monastic life, eventually even the Mass itself – the pillars of medieval Christianity.