Henry VIII (1491–1547) and the Reformation
Ironically, when King Henry VIII publicly refuted Martin Luther’s reforming theological ideas in 1521, the Pope rewarded him with the title Fidei Defensor — Defender of the Faith, a title still used by the monarch as head of the Church of England.
Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, ordained priest and a Doctor of Divinity, once said  “Wenn je ein Mönch durch das Mönchtum in den Himmel gekommen wäre, würde ich dorthin kommen.”—“If ever a monk got to heaven by monkery, I would have got there.” Had he foreseen the separation of the Church, he would have shrunk from it in horror. He was more a product of his age than its producer — the times moulded him before he moulded the times.
The Reformation began with a protest against the traffic in indulgences which profaned and degraded the Christian religion but that was the spark that lit the fuse.
In England the Reformation was begun more by the lack of an heir than any deep desire for theological change.
Henry VIII had never expected to become King of England, his older brother, Arthur, was heir to the throne but died young.  Henry married Catherine of Aragon, his dead brother’s widow. This marriage made sure that the strong links with Spain were retained. Problems for Henry began when it became clear to him that his wife, Catherine of Aragon, was not going to produce a male heir to the throne.
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Henry, who was deeply pious and a student of theology, now took a closer look at his marriage to Catharine. In particular, he looked at the text in Leviticus which seemed to directly reference his own life:
“If a man shall take his brother’s wife it is an unclean thing... they shall be childless” (Leviticus, XX, 21)
Of course, they were not childless, Catherine had given birth to several children but only one of them, Mary, live beyond infancy and a daughter was not the heir he needed. Henry now firmly believed that his “incestuous” marriage had been doomed from the start. Henry had fallen in love with a young Englishwoman, Anne Boleyn.  She was not willing to be the king’s mistress, she would be Queen or nothing. In 1527 he sort an annulment from Pope Clement VII. But the Pope was controlled by Emperor Charles V of Spain, Catherine’s nephew. Clement had no wish to antagonize the loyal and devoted king of England, but was unable to grant a divorce.
 Finally, in 1533, Henry took the matter into his own hands — he rejected the authority of the Holy See and declared himself Supreme Head of a new Church of England. His archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, issued the long-awaited decree of nullity.
Henry went on to have six wives but he was never a Protestant. He saw himself as a Catholic, attending Mass every day. 
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Thomas Cromwell was appointed by Henry VIII, in 1534, as the vicar-general in spirituals, with special authority to visit the monastic houses. It seems highly likely that the monasteries were doomed even before these visitations. Preachers were commissioned in early autumn 1535 to systematic blacken the name of monks and nuns. They tried to gain the hearts and minds of the general populace, convincing them into accepting the pretext for the suppression and confiscation of monastic property. The people were told that “if the abbeys went down, the king would never want any taxes again.”
Parliament met on 4 February, 1536, to debate the Act Suppressing the smaller religious houses. All monastic establishments with an income of less than 200 pounds sterling a year were to be given to the king to be dealt with at his pleasure “...to the honour of God and the wealth of the realm.”
An appeal had been made by local people that Quarr Abbey might be spared. The plea was that it was situated by the sea and was “of great refuge and comfort to all the inhabitants of the Island and to strangers travelling on the seas”. There were then ten monks in residence, “all beinge preeste by reporte of good religious conversacon”.
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The appeal had no effect.
It  must have been an emotional day in July 1536 when the last abbot, William Rippon, left Quarr — the abbey had been in existance for just over 400 years.
Accompanied by one of his monks, and only permitted to take such personal items as bedding, William Rippon crossed the Solent for the final time to resume his religious life at Beaulieu. He was not happy at there. He soon left Beaulieu to return to his native Yorkshire where he died shortly after in 1538.
Two other monks went to one of Quarr’s daughter-house at Buckland, also just over the Solent. One stayed on locally at Binstead for a short time but of the others little is known.
The abbey remained empty for a while but stone from Quarr Abbey was used to build a number of Henry VIII’s defences against foreign invaders.
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