"The Reformation, then, was not the inevitable development of the text-books. Whether it would have come anyway it is idle to speculate; but it came in the 1530's simply because Henry's desire for his divorce was baulked by an international situation which made co-operation with the papacy impossible, and it came as it did because Thomas Cromwell produced a plan which achieved Henry's ends by destroying the papal power and jurisdiction in England and by creating in England an independent sovereign state. This policy was not present from the start; it had to overcome much caution and conservatism as well as fear of the consequences before its bold simplicity was permitted to develop. The Henrician Reformation reflects the ideas—one may say, the political philosophy—of Thomas Cromwell."
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Geoffrey Elton, 'King or Minister? The Man Behind the Henrician Reformation', History, New Series, Vol. 39, No. 137 (October 1954), p. 232
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Cromwell
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Thomas Cromwell
1532 – 1540
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (c. 1485 – July 28, 1540) was an English statesman, King Henry VIII's chief minister 1532–1540.
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