Mid- Term DBQ

Upon not being allowed to divorce his wife, king Henry VIII launched his own Protestant Reformation in England, breaking away from the Catholic Church and becoming the Church of England. Those who opposed him suffered terrible fates, anywhere from imprisonment, to execution. Those who supported the king used tactics to "encourage" those who resisted the king's authority to submit. Those tactics included looting Churches, destroying monasteries, and raising taxes on Catholics. Soon, Catholics were up in arms protesting the king. They called themselves the Pilgrimage of Grace. Concerned with their lives and beliefs after the king and his regime desecrated the Catholic lands, the Pilgrimage of Grace set out to stand up for themselves, continue practicing their beliefs, and defend their spiritual leaders.
The Pilgrimage of Grace's goal with these armed protests, and open riot was to stand up for themselves. They could not sit back and watch their land get desecrated, and their people suffer simply for being Catholic (doc 2). Many thought that resistance was the right thing to do, because they felt that the king had gone mad with power, and broke away from the Church for selfish reasons. Each member had to swear an oath to enter, they swore that they only entered because they thought it was the right thing to do (doc 1). These Catholics wanted to stick together, for fear of being locked in tho tower of London or worse. They also knew if the king got his way, they would not be permitted to stay Catholics.
Another goal of the Pilgrimage of Grace was to defend their spiritual leaders. The clergy was under constant attack from looters, and the king's men. Monasteries were destroyed, Churches were desecrated, and the clergy were imprisoned in the Tower of London (doc 11)Th. The Pilgrimage again, could not sit by and watch their spiritual leaders become imprisoned, and their spiritual icons get stolen, leading them to more protests (doc 4). They believed that these protests did not defy the king, but instead were in his favor. They were under the impression they were being good English citizens until their trials, and executions (doc 8).
The king had other goals besides his own personal gain from the Reformation in England. He wanted to have everyone live under one single religion to unify his country, and was willing to have that happen by any means necessary. He appointed Thomas Cromwell to "encourage" these rebellious Catholics to become Protestant (doc 7). The king did not care how it was done, as long as his goals were accomplished.
Both sides of this conflict have reasonable goals. On one side, the Catholics want to continue their way of life, and on the other side, the king wants to unify his country under one religion. The problem is, the Catholics saw themselves as the king's servants, and the king saw them as rebels. Most Catholics converted or they were killed. Henry accomplished his goal, but his daughter Mary tried to undo the Reformation and go back to Catholicism, bring much unrest. This conflicted until Elizabeth I unified England under a Protestant monarchy.