The English Reformation was a period of time in England’s history when people changed the way they practiced their religion. It started in the 1500s and lasted for about 200 years.
In the beginning of the 1500s, King Henry VIII and his people followed a religion called Roman Catholicism. This meant they believed in and followed the teachings of the Pope in Rome, who was the highest leader of the Catholic Church.
But things changed when King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife. He asked the Pope to approve his divorce but the Pope refused. So, in 1534, King Henry VIII declared himself the leader of the Church of England, instead of following the Pope. This was called the Act of Supremacy and it started the English Reformation.
After that, more and more people started to switch from Roman Catholicism to the Church of England. This included their beliefs and the way they practiced their religion. In the 1550s, Queen Mary tried to bring back people to the Roman Catholic Church, but it didn’t last long because her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth, succeeded her and made the Church of England the official religion of England.
By the early 1600s, people were getting tired of the Church of England and wanted something different. This is when a group of people known as the Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England and cleanse it of what they saw as pagan traditions.
Then in 1611, King James I authorized the King James Bible, which became the standard for the Church of England. This is also when people started following different religious groups like Presbyterians and Baptists.
Finally, in the 1700s, the Church of England was again challenged by people who believed in religious freedom, such as the Quakers and the Methodists. By the end of the 1700s, the Church of England had become more tolerant and allowed more religious groups to be part of it.
So, to sum it up, the English Reformation started in the 1500s when King Henry VIII declared himself the leader of the Church of England instead of following the Pope. Then, over the next couple of centuries, more and more people followed different religious beliefs and the Church of England changed and became more tolerant.