Henry broke with Rome for many different reasons, to begin with was that the Pope wouldn’t let him annul his marriage with Catherine. He only wanted this because he was in love with Anne Boleyn. Another reason was that he was greedy for money because he had lead an extravagant lifestyle and didn’t want to give that up. He was convinced that if he were head of the church he would get incomes from tithes and taxes. He also broke with Rome because he didn’t like the thought of anyone being above him, he wanted to be the one and only king. To solve this he made himself head of the church so he would have power over the church.
Lust was an important factor in the Act of Supremacy because Henry had was no longer in love with Catherine of Aragon and was now lusting after Anne Boleyn. Henry was only going after Anne because Catherine could not produce him a boy, as well as the fact that she was getting old and not so pretty. Anne refused to sleep with Henry until she was married to him; consequently Henry tried to annul his marriage with Catherine but the Pope refused. The Pope wouldn’t let Henry annul his marriage since Emperor Charles V was Catherine’s nephew. Henry thought if he made himself supreme head of the church, he could allow himself to pronounce his marriage with Catherine of Aragon sinful in the eyes of God and his child with Anne Boleyn would be legitimate. For Anne had fallen pregnant with Henry’s child after being persuaded into a love affair with Henry VIII.
Greed may have affected Henrys decision to overpower the church as Henry was slowly, but surely running out of money,. If Henry controlled the church he would control the amount of taxes and tithes people had to pay, and if he controlled the church Henry could shut down all the monasteries (which he did in a period called `The Dissolution of the Monasteries 1535’) and take all the money and goods from them. Greed was very