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Church Reform by 1552 Until he entered his middle years Henry VIII (b.1491) was a faithful Catholic. However the long years in which spiritual and temporal power hand lain in the hands of Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England, Archbishop of York, and Papal Legate had taught him the advantages of bringing the wealth and power of the Church under national control. It was therefore not surprising that when the Papacy rejected Henry's claims for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon he should being to see 'nationalising' the Church as a quick way of not only resolving his marital difficulties, but of increasing his power and the security of the monarchy. However, Henry was no Protestant. Even after he ended the Church of England's links to the Papacy he remained a convinced Catholic to almost the end of his life. His break with Rome secured for the monarchy the sort of relationship with the Church that the Kings of Spain and of France had achieved by less dramatic actions. Henry's reformation did not materially alter the way in which people worshipped, but it provide a breathing space for the principles of the English Reformation to evolve. Henry VIII's first overt act against the Papacy came in 1532 w