reformers, Henry did not have serious disagreements with the Catholics in terms of dogma and teachings; his issues were of of personal and political nature. Simply put, he did not like having to yield his royal authority to the Vatican in matters concerning how he maintained the religious institutions of his own kingdom.

After splitting from the Catholic Church in 1533, King Henry seized the property of Catholic institutions in his realm. He instituted his own church hierarchy with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the top bishop in the kingdom. Henry even placed himself as the head of the Church of England, essentially taking on the role of the Anglican equivalent of a pope.

Even though the Church of England did not differ much in its beliefs from the Catholic Church, Henry VIII did make some changes. This had much to do with the influence of other Protestant reformers in Europe at the time. Henry eliminated five of the seven Catholic sacraments, leaving just the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist.

Henry also placed more importance on justification by faith for salvation. Like the Lutherans, Anglicans simply had to have faith in God and repent their sins to receive salvation. This was a sharp departure from Catholic teachings, which say that good works are also required.

The reign of Henry VIII was a time of great change in the relationship between the English state and the Church. In a bid to divorce his wife, Catherine, for example, Henry broke away from the Church in Rome in 1533 and established the Church of England. The passing of the Act of Supremacy (issued in 1534) declared Henry (and subsequent monarchs) as the head of this new Church which enabled him to obtain the divorce he so desperately wanted.

Between 1536 and 1540, Henry dissolved all of the monasteries and religious houses in England. The buildings were stripped of their valuables and the land (which formerly belonged to the Church) was sold off. All profits were returned to Henry. 

In addition, in 1538, Henry had the Bible translated into English for the first time. He also passed a law requiring every Church in England to purchase a copy of this English Bible and to display it in a place of prominence. (See the reference link provided). 

Prior to the reign of King Henry VIII, England had been a Roman Catholic nation which held the Pope, in Rome, to be their religious leader. When King Henry sought a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon, he had to request permission to do so from the Pope. Because the Roman Catholic church does not recognize divorces or grant annulments unless in exceptional circumstances, the Pope turned him down. Henry so badly wanted a divorce that he declared himself to be the supreme religious authority in England, establishing the Church of England or the Anglican Communion. 

King Henry made changes to the constitution stating that the monarch of England is granted their right to rule by God and so they wield religious authority in addition to the political or governmental power. By separating from the greater Roman Catholic Church, Henry brought the Reformation which had begun with Martin Luther to England. Since Henry's founding of the Anglican Communion, England has seen great conflict between Protestants and Catholics.

There are at least two very major impacts that Henry VIII had on the church in England.

First, it was Henry who caused the break between the English church and the Roman Catholic Church.  He caused this break largely because he wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon and the Church would not let him (largely because the Pope was at that time being pressured heavily against it by Catherine's nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor).

Second, Henry was behind the dissolution of all the monasteries in England.  Monasteries in those days were very rich and powerful.  Henry dissolved them in part because they were Catholic and in part because he wanted their riches.

Thus, Henry had two major impacts on the church.  He broke the English church away from Rome, making the Church of England and he dissolved all the monasteries in England, destroying what had once been the backbone of the Catholic Church in England.

Henry had been given the title 'defender of the faith' by the Pope and he had been a devout Catholic. However when he was blocked in his efforts to marry Anne Boleyn and therefore try to have a legitimate male heir, he turned on the Catholic Church and split from Rome in the Act of Supremacy of 1534.

This act was very significant as it established the monarch as Head of the English Church and ended the Pope's authority in England. As part of this process Henry attacked the monastries sending investigators in to them in order to find evidence of their misdeeds. This gave him the excuse to close them and seize their wealth for himself and his supporters. It was a massive act of cultural vandalism as the centuries old monasteries were left as ruins, as they stand today. With these changes Henry set in place a process that was never reverted, even though his daughter Mary tried for a short period to do so - the Reformation of the Church was fully cemented in the creation of the Church of England under the long reign of his daughter Elizabeth.