In November 1534 the Act of Supremacy finalised the English break with Rome and confirmed that Henry VIII was the supreme head of the English church, not the Pope. The exact reason for this are not know, be it desire for divorce, the wish for wealth or a real concern from the King about the state of the Church at the time which was rife with corruption both financial and moral. But whatever the reason it was a historic event and whilst it did not mean a break with Catholicism directly it caused a greater accpetance of reformist ideas and eventually England would become a protestant country. All of this would cause many wars and ill-feeling from the continent and it would ultimately shape the face of Britain as it is today, we can clearly see how British culture differs from those found on mainland Europe. So my question is this: was the break from Rome and ultimately the reformationa positive thing leading to more tolerance and possibly even democracy in the long term or was it a negative thing as shown by the immediate religious intolerance created and the warring involved?

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Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

I have to say negative. I don't want to be offensive to anyone, not being religous myself, but what kind of church has a king or queen as its head ? Even the idea of a church of "insert any country" seems to be a strange notion. It almost creates an idea that God has some connection to that country and that may even be God's special country or that Jesus was English (in this case). Though nothing ive said really addresses the OP, i just find such a church a rather perverse notion.

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Viva Fidel

"If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism"

"North Americans don't understand... that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity"

I think it had both positive and negative effects. It began (or can be seen as part of a larger Protestant process) a slow decline in the power of the Vatican throughout Europe that led to a less centralised power structure.

However, it was also part of a larger problem within Protestantism, that is the proclivity to split into many smaller congregations 'fighting' amongst themselves (sometimes literally, but not usually). One positive thing that can be said about the Catholic church, even with all its many problems, is that they've 'stuck together' through centuries of turmoil. Like a family, you may not always agree or get along, but you stick together. Protestants never really got that.

As far as its effects on England, Joe certainly has a good point about kings versus Pontifs. Also, while it may have led to or helped foment democracy it did not lead to any greater religious tolerance. As an example see the treatment of the Puritans or the Hugenots. The 'state' wasn't too kind to those and many other groups.

And as for the 'why'? I think above all Henry wanted a son, and the Catholic church wasn't helping him out with that goal.

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"Yes. That's correct. Making a statement that's 100% true can't be bigoted."

It was positive because England got itself out from under the control of a foreign power (the Roman Catholic Church). It was negative because it was still government-run religion.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

What kind of country allows itself to be ruled by a religious figure in a foreign country?

One of the reasons why the American founding fathers made sure there wouldn't be a Church of the United States when they put forth the Constitution.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

I think one positive aspect was that, strangely, it brought the state out of religion a little bit more, eventually after some turmoil there was some religious tolerance and an exceptance of different christian faiths and religion became a matter of personal choice. It also as Chan says got rid of foreign influence on Britain and allowed it to rule itself, ultimately, it can be argued, allowing democracy to form. During the process of the break with Rome we can already see some positive changes being made, like More, a layman, becoming Lord Chacellor in replace of the corrupt Wolsey.

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Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Ask the Nonconformists about how much "tolerance" there was in Anglican England.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Yes, I agree there was a lot of persecution, hence the influx of non-conformists into what is now the United States, but compare this to the continent and it was not as bad.

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Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Like saying that one form of torture isn't quite as bad as another.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Yes, by no means am I defending the religious persecution, I'm a quaker myself so I know what things happened.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg