What was the Church of England like with King Henry VIII in charge?

Henry VIII's religious policy has been described as "Catholicism without the Pope." Though a crude exaggeration, it does contain more than a grain of truth, for Henry was always quite conservative when it came to religion. He distrusted Protestant reformers such as Luther and Calvin, and personally retained many of the old beliefs. At the same time, Henry wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. This put him directly at odds with the Pope. As Henry was unable to get his way, he broke from Rome and declared himself head of the Church of England.
For the remainder of Henry's reign, official church policy veered this way and that, depending on changing circumstances. To a large extent, the necessities of foreign policy dictated developments. If Henry needed to ally with Catholic powers in Europe, then life became harder for English evangelicals, many of whom were executed as heretics. On the other hand, if Henry wanted to develop closer relations with Protestant rulers then it was the turn of Catholics to feel the full, crushing weight of state persecution.
In Henry's time, politics and religion were inextricably linked in a manner unthinkable today. With the monarch as its head, the Church of England became an even more overtly political institution than previously, an instrument used by a tyrannical ruler to increase and consolidate his power.