Almost 500 years ago England broke from Europe and dispensed with Papal authority. There was as much opposition then as there is today. So why, nearly five hundred years later, is history repeating itself?
Until recently, the story of England’s break with Rome has been told from a primarily ‘top down’ perspective. In other words, it was all bound up with Henry VIII’s desire to have a son at any cost, which led to its break with Rome. Today, however, historians are realising the need to retell this story from the bottom up, focusing on the part that ordinary people played in England’s divorce from Europe.
Reformation swept across the whole of Europe, not just England, and it wasn’t just religion that drove it, but also a popular rejection of the political hierarchy of the Church. Ordinary men and women wanted reform within the Church. The Church and its judicial system, Canon Law, had a far-reaching effect on people’s lives. Its laws and authority came from Rome. Ordinary people had begun to question the corruption and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and the clergy. To begin with both sides wanted reform but, like today, neither could agree on what those reforms should be or how far they should go.
There are some striking parallels between Tudor England and our world today. The most obvious is the advancement in information technology. Printing, introduced into England by William Caxton, made it possible for ordinary people to go in search of answers for themselves. Like today, this fuelled a surge in nationalism. Today, the Internet fulfils the same role, although to a much greater extent. People no longer believe or accept everything they are told by the establishment and want to make their own decisions about what is best for them in their everyday lives. They interpret, question and challenge what they see and read and now, as then, thinking can quickly become binary, which can result in sudden, dramatic change. That is why ‘heresy’, a word that simply meant ‘choice’, came to mean ‘the wrong choice’, and was so closely aligned with treason. The Church didn’t want people to think for themselves because thinking for oneself threatens the social order and what one has been taught to believe and accept.
Another striking parallel is the need of the establishment to punish those advocating for change. We have seen this split before: Catholics and Protestants, Roundheads and Cavaliers, Redcoats and Jacobites. Now we are seeing history repeat itself amongst Leavers and Remainers. Throughout history, there has been a lack of willingness to compromise that is associated with change. So, where does it end or are we doomed to go on repeating forever the same mistakes? Certainly, the current Brexit negotiations would seem to confirm the old adage: a man convinced beyond his will is of the same opinion still.
Should we fear the change that is upon us now? My instinct says no, that change is not a bad thing in and of itself. No one knows what the future holds. Politicians in Brussels and Westminster do not have crystal balls. The only certainty right now is that things will change, and we should not fear change for change’s sake. If everything always remains the same, we wouldn’t learn and grow, and this is one of the most important lessons of history.