In 1534, the Church of England renounced the authority of the Papacy under the direction of King Henry VIII pursuant to laws passed by the Parliament, beginning the English Reformation. The guiding theologian that shaped Anglican doctrine was the reforming Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who developed the Church of England's liturgical text, the Book of Common Prayer. Papal authority was briefly restored under Mary I, before her successor Elizabeth I renewed the breach. The Elizabethan Settlement (implemented 1559–1563) concluded the English Reformation, charting a course for the English church to describe itself as a via media between two branches of Protestantism—Lutheranism and Calvinism—and later, a denomination that is both Reformed and Catholic.
In spite of having many enemies, Thomas Wolsey retained Henry VIII’s confidence until Henry decided to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey’s failure to secure the annulment directly caused his downfall and arrest. It was rumored that Anne Boleyn and her faction convinced Henry that Wolsey was deliberately slowing proceedings; as a result, he was arrested in 1529, and the Pope decided that the official decision should be made in Rome, not England.
In 1529, Wolsey was stripped of his government office and property, including his magnificently expanded residence of Palace of Whitehall, which Henry took to replace the Palace of Westminster as his own main London residence. Wolsey was permitted to remain Archbishop of York. He travelled to Yorkshire for the first time in his career, but when he was staying at one of the archbishop’s residences, Cawood in north Yorkshire, he was accused of treason and ordered to London by Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland.
