Member-only story
Stop Comparing Brexit to the Reformation
Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party (from 2001–2003) and current MP for Chingford and Wood Green, recently published an opinion piece for The Telegraph entitled ‘The Reformation was the making of modern Britain. Brexit is a similar opportunity’. His article is but one part of a larger trend of comparing historical English (and British) events to its departure from the EU. Those in support of Brexit seem, however, to have a particular obsession with the Henrician Reformation of the 1530s and ’40s when it comes to historical comparisons. The problem they face is the incompatibility between the two events, 500 years apart, which they mask using cunning omission and ludicrous vagueness which seeks to reduce the Reformation down to ‘the Papacy was powerful like the EU and we got rid of its power like we should with the EU’. In the course of this argument, the true causes, ongoings, and effects of the Reformation in England are conveniently ignored.
Duncan Smith has rightly been subjected to much ridicule as a result of his silly argument. Many have focused on the violence which surrounded the Reformation under the Tudors as although Mary I is known as ‘Bloody’, it was under Henry VIII that the legislative bedrock was established to justify execution on the grounds of heresy. Whilst it is true that trying to ignore the violence of the Reformation, which made up such a large part of it, is foolish, Duncan Smith and other Brexiteers see the analogy as a bit more nuanced. The core of the argument is that England’s break from Rome under Henry VIII (and his children) is similar to the UK’s current plan to withdraw from the European Union, as both will grant more sovereignty to the country. In this very vague sense, the analogy isn’t actually incorrect. The Pope, Clement VII at the time, did have a significant amount of power as a result of England’s Catholic allegiance. The clergy paid the pope some of their annual revenue through annates and the Pope even had his hand in the law, as various crimes were dealt with in ecclesiastical courts. And, yes, the UK will undoubtedly gain more sovereignty from leaving the EU, which also has a hand in UK law. This is where the similarities end, however, and very quickly we see problems with the comparison.
