Changes in the World

You have probably heard of Martin Luther King and the changes he made in society. He helped the African-American black people gain their rights. You might also have heard of Martin Luther. He is not quite so recent, but he made a lot of important changes in the world that affect you whether you have heard of him or not. And in England, King Henry the 8th was building on those changes, building to his own advantage. In the early middle ages, Catholics were basically the only kinds of Christians, and the pope was the head of the church. This meant that because most people were Catholic, the pope had a lot of power. He could even tell kings what to do! The Catholic church frightened many people into giving them a lot of money, by saying that God would forgive all their sins if they gave a certain amount. That was called "indulgence". Martin Luther read the Bible carefully and he found out that God does not save us if we do good deeds, or if we give a lot of money to the church. God has already saved us, if we will believe in him. Martin Luther wrote a long list of things that were wrong about the Catholic church and indulgences. People began to think about what he was saying, and many of them started to disagree with the Catholics, too.The Catholic church did not like this, but the king of England did.

          The King of England at this time was a man named Henry the eighth. He did not want a war to start after he died over who would become the next king. He wanted his son to get immediate access to the royal throne. But his current wife did not bear him any sons, only a daughter named Mary. Henry wanted to get rid of his wife, and so he had to ask the pope if he was allowed to. But the pope said no, and so Henry got angry. He liked Martin Luther's ideas, that the pope should not always be the one in charge. He quickly told his kingdom that he was the all supreme ruler, and he got to make his own decisions. Now he could divorce his wife, Catherine.

Henry the eighth married again. His new wife, Anne Boleyn, had her head cut off because she did not give him a son either. Just another daughter named Elizabeth.

His third wife was a little luckier. Jane Seymour bore him a son named Edward, but she died in the process.

 Anne of Cleves was next, but Henry didn't like how she looked, so he sent her back to Germany, where she came from. Anne was happy, too. The king was getting old and did not look all that great either.

 Catherine Howard's head was cut off, not to long after she became the fifth wife of the king.

Catherine Parr, the king's 6th and last wife did a good job of taking care of him in his old age. She was also a good nurse to the children. This third Catherine died after Henry the eighth's death.

Susan Wise Bauer has a rhyme to help you remember all Henry King of England's wives.

Divorced, beheaded, died,

Divorced, Beheaded, survived

Martin Luther was not the only one who was changing things. All over Europe, people were settling down, because there was not much war going on, and so they had more time to make art and read. People began to read the manuscripts from the Romans and the Greeks, and so they were able to make science discoveries based on what they learned from the papers. They tried making Roman-style sculptures and painting Greek-style pictures. Architects began to build in the styles that had developed hundreds of years ago. And people began to "relearn" how to read.

 How many books are in your church, your house, your library? Probably more that five, at least, that is what I am guessing. But that is about how many were found in a church, because libraries had not been invented yet, and books were only found in the houses that had very rich owners, because they were very, very expensive.. The books were chained to the wall, so that no one would steal them. A book might take a lifetime to finish. Books were very valuable and very rare, even when the discovery of paper was made by the Egyptians. But one day, a guy called Johannes Gutenberg made a discovery. He learned how to make a printing press. And what is more, he made it out of an old wine press! Because of Gutenberg, books became much easier to make, and so more people were able to have them. They became less expensive, and more people learned to read. I can not now imagine a life without books.