July 11: Today is the anniversary when Pope Clement VII excommunicated King Henry VIII of England in 1533.

Portrait of Giulio de''Medici (1478 - 1534) Pope Clement VII

King wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon because they gave him a son. Instead, his mistress Anne Boleyn could itself give England the heir he needed to succeed Enrique and continue the Tudor dynasty.

Portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein The Younger, 1540. 

Pope Clement VII refused to grant a divorce which led to the breakdown of commitment to the Catholic Church. The King of England paid no attention to the Pope and married Anne Boleyn, with the advice of the Bishop of Canterbury, who helped to issue an Act of Parliament annulling marriage.

Meeting of Francis I and Pope Clement VII in Marseilles, 13 October 1533.

That own decision led to the breakdown of the Roman Catholic Church in England than the Anglican Church was born. That schism remains today.

 Catherine of Aragon

The Roman Catholic´s Church power was mainly cultural, and begun being diminished by king whose power derived from their military strength.

Catherine pleading her case against divorce from Henry. Painting by Henry Nelson O´Neil 

Henry VIII had six wives namely: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.

During the reign of Pope Clement VII, who became Pope in 1523 at the age of forty-five, while Lutheranism was spreading in Central Europe. The diminished power of the Catholic Church was evident.

The six wives of Henry VIII

“My tribulations are so great, my life so disturbed by the plans daily invented to further the King's wicked intention, the surprises which the King gives me, with certain persons of his council, are so mortal, and my treatment is what God knows, that it is enough to shorten ten lives, much more mine.” Catherine.