A new study from Professor Paulina Kewes , Faculty of English , and Dr Frederick Smith , Faculty of History , of the University of Oxford, argues that the Pope’s fatal hesitation in excommunicating Henry VIII not only failed to prevent England’s break from Rome – it may have helped to cause it. Published in History Today ahead of the 487th anniversary of the excommunication on 17 December, the research offers the first ever account of how an event that might have changed the course of England's