Henry VIII + the Bible

Short clip on the English Bible in the reign of Henry VIII.

Despite the image of the King distributing Bibles to his people, Henry was sceptical about allowing the common man to read the Bible. He objected strongly fearing that the Bible would be read in salacious palaces like alehouses. The Act for the Advancement of True Religion of May 1543 restricted Bible reading to the well off and educated in society like the nobility and merchants. Only women from high ranks in society could read the Bible but they had to do so in private. The official reason behind the restriction on the lower classes was that it was argued that the Bible was prone to abuse in their hands.

BTW -- the end of the video is of course a reference to the English Civil War, the influence of Puritanism and the death of Charles II. All this is later discussed by Starkey in the documentary on Monarchy.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Henry
• VIII
• Bible
• English
• Reformation
• Tudor
• dynasty
• sixteenth
• century
• David
• Starkey

[Hkepfer]

Henry VII sounds like an ante, anti-Christ to me.

[SirJimmi]

thanks for helping me with homework