From what I understand, Eamon Duffy has done research on the faith of the English people prior to the English Reformation and wrote a book about it titled The Stripping of the Altars. Sadly, I can't say that I've read it.
Thanks! I knew there was book out there, I just couldn’t remember.
The English people were strongly attached to the Catholic faith and liturgy. So was Henry VIII. It is not insignificant that he enforced the Six Articles (Latin liturgy, celebate priests, lay Communion in one kind, private Mass, confession/penance, relics) in an effort to quash the Protestant movement. When Archbishop Cranmer was finally able to publish an English liturgy (BCP 1549), the result was essentially an English translation of the Old Sarum Rite liturgies.
The fiecely independant English people were not fans of the Pope. They saw him not as the spirtual leader of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, but as a pawn of foreign rulers who did not exactly have England’s best interests in mind (considering that Emperor Charles V held Pope Clement VII captive, the English had a very strong reason to be leery).
When Henry VIII ended Papal authority, nobody really resisted him. He met only small half hearted resistance when he closed the monasteries (the Pilgrimage of Grace). It would not be until after his death, when the nation swung way over to the Protestant side that the people began to object.