The English Reformation and its impact on liturgy and music

A brief discussion on the impact of religious change in sixteenth century England on church music and liturgy, from a layman's 21st Century perspective!

The Reformation is a hugely misunderstood and underestimated period of flux in Europe and beyond over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I have long been intrigued by the way religion not only underpinned society at every level during the Early Modern period, but how those influences are still relevant today. Having studied this period of history in depth at university I believe there are two significant themes of the English Reformation and its impact on liturgy and music:-

1) The Reformation was not an event which occurred at a single point in time.

The Reformation was not an event, it was more an evolutionary phase which spread out from Henry's break with Rome in 1530 like a mycelium which infiltrated every aspect of English life - and then re-wove itself through again and again creating a vast web of differing experiences, opinions and outcomes. It was the all and everything for the English people for almost 200 years, whether they participated religiously or not. In religious life it encompassed "English Catholics" with their highly latinised services, and Quakers who worshipped in words and silences only.

Henry VIII lived and died a Catholic, his break with Rome was a matter of convenience only. Whilst the establishment of the Church of England was hugely significant nationally and internationally, the average parishioner would have noticed very little difference in daily worship during Henry's reign. For the common people, the dissolution of the monasteries would have had a far greater impact on their lives, since these institutions helped the poor and sick and were paid to sing masses for the souls of the dead. (i-see below)

Henry VIII

Whilst Henry VIII did indeed break with Rome in 1530 and become Head of the Church of England via the Act of Supremacy in 1534; Henry he remained a Catholic, taking the last rites on his deathbed. Indeed, on 11 October 1521 Pope Leo X granted Henry and his descendants the title "Defender of the Faith" in recognition of Henry's book "Assertio Septem Sacramentorum" (Defense of the Seven Sacraments), which defended the sacramental nature of marriage and the supremacy of the pope in defence of the ideas of Martin Luther. (ii)

Music and Liturgy after the dissolution
Most parish churches had been endowed with chantries, each maintaining a stipended priest to say Mass for the souls of their donors, and these continued unaffected under Henry. In addition there remained over a hundred collegiate churches in England, whose endowments maintained regular choral worship through a body of canons, prebends or priests. All these survived the reign of Henry VIII largely intact, only to be dissolved under the Chantries Act 1547, by Henry's son Edward VI.

Edward, Mary and Elizabeth
After the death of Henry VIII in 1547, the new king Edward VI advanced the Reformation in England, introducing major changes to the liturgy of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer had significantly greater freedom under Edward and in 1549, Cranmer's new Book of Common Prayer swept away the old Latin liturgy and replaced it with prayers in English. Church choirs began singing some songs in English, eg Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s.  This brand new liturgy suddenly demanded that new music should be written for the church in English, and musicians of the Chapel Royal such as Thomas Tallis, John Sheppard, and Robert Parsons were called upon to demonstrate that the new Protestantism was no less splendid than the old Catholic religion. Some composers also began writing in a more chordal style because it was argued that the words were easier to hear and understand that way.