He wanted to ensure at least one son to succeed him. His training was to become Archbishop of Canturbury, but his elder brother died in his teens, so he wound up religiously educated but the secular ruler. When he was denied an annulment, he took over the English church, being better qualified to lead it than the Medici pope.
Of course, piety and atrocities go hand in hand regardless.
“piety and atrocities go hand in hand”
I take it you mean that sarcastically?
Yes, I know why he did it but that doesn’t excuse it. Nor does it make it right. He was ruthless. He had one person boiled to death. He was a horror.
The Pope in Rome may not have been perfect or anywhere near it but the qualifications for those positions is you are supposed to be quite pure, saint like, and approved because of by God.
No way did Henry fit that role. He just appointed himself.