History of the Church of England
This article is an expansion of a section entitled History from within the main article: Church of EnglandThe specifically
English church originates primarily from events in the late
6th century in the
Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Kent, and the mission of
Saint Augustine. The
Church of England traditionally looks to these early events for its origins, rather than to
Henry VIII's first political
schism with the
Roman Catholic Church, the excommunication of
Elisabeth I or to the wider
Reformation in
mainland Europe. (See also
Anglicanism)
Christianity had first arrived in the
British Isles around
200 during the
Roman Empire, developing roots in
Wales and
Ireland, and spreading to
Scotland and north England, which endured after the
Romans departed. But subsequent invaders and conquerors — the
Saxons, Angles and Jutes — had followed Nordic
pagan religions, which still leave traces in English Christian traditions to the present day. Recent reinterpretation of Christian remains at Lullingstone Villa and Richborough Roman fortress now open the possibility that Christian practice continued in Kent far later than previously understood, there is a remote possibility of continuity from Roman to Augustinian Christianity in the county.
Ethelbert of Kent's wife
Bertha, daughter of
Charibert, one of the
Merovingian kings of the
Franks, had brought a chaplain (Liudhard) with her. Bertha had restored a church from Roman times to the east of Canterbury and dedicated it to
Saint Martin of Tours, the patronal saint for the Merovingian royal family. Ethelbert himself, though a pagan, allowed his wife to worship God her own way.Probably under influence of his wife, Ethelbert asked
Pope Gregory I to send missionaries, and in
596 the Pope dispatched
Augustine, together with a party of monks.
Augustine had served as
praepositus (prior) of the monastery of
Saint Andrew in
Rome, founded by Gregory.His party lost heart on the way and Augustine went back to Rome from
Provence and asked his superiors to abandon the mission project. The pope, however, commanded and encouraged continuation, and Augustine and his followers landed on the Island of
Thanet in the spring of
597.
Ethelbert permitted the missionaries to settle and preach in his town of
Canterbury. By the end of the year he himself had converted, and Augustine received consecration as a bishop at
Arles. At Christmas 10,000 of the king's subjects underwent baptism.
Augustine sent a report of his success to Gregory with certain questions concerning his work. In 601
Mellitus,
Justus and others brought the pope's replies, with the
pallium for Augustine and a present of sacred vessels, vestments, relics, books, and the like. Gregory directed the new archbishop to ordain as soon as possible twelve suffragan bishops and to send a bishop to
York, who should also have twelve suffragans. Augustine did not carry out this papal plan, nor did he establish the primatial see at
London as Gregory intended, as the Londoners remained heathen. Augustine did consecrate
Mellitus as bishop of London and Justus as bishop of
Rochester.
Pope Gregory issued more practicable mandates concerning heathen temples and usages: he desired that temples becomeconsecrated to Christian service and asked Augustine to transform pagan practices, so far as possible, into dedication ceremonies or feasts of martyrs, since "he who would climb to a lofty height must go up by steps, not leaps" (letter of Gregory to Mellitus, in
Bede, i, 30).
Augustine re-consecrated and rebuilt an old church at Canterbury as his cathedral and founded a monastery in connection with it. He also restored a church and founded the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul outside the walls. He died before completing the monastery, but now lies buried in the
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.
In
616 Ethelbert of Kent died. The kingdom of Kent and the associated Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which Kent had had influence over relapsed into heathenism for several decades.
The
Synod of Whitby in
664 forms a significant watershed in that King
Oswiu of Northumbria decided to follow Roman rather than Celtic practices.
As in other parts of medieval Europe, tension existed between the local monarch and the Pope about civil judicial authority over clerics, taxes and the wealth of the Church, and appointments of bishops, notably during the reigns of
Henry II and
John.
The questioning of Papal Authority by the English has its roots in the theologian John Wycliffe (about 1377 - 1384). He was associated with statements indicating that the Church in Rome is not the head of all churches, nor did Peter have any more powers given to him than other disciples. Statements of this ilk related his call for a reformation of its wealth, corruption and abuses. Wycliffe was an Oxford scholar attacked the Roman Catholic Church on grounds so far as to state that "...The Gospel by itself is a rule sufficient to rule the life of every Christian person on the earth, without any other rule." His followers were called Lollards who continued his pronouncements from pulpits even under the persecution that followed with Henry IV unto and including the intial rule of Henry VIII.
However, a politically supported split with Rome occurred when Henry VIII's requested annulment to his current wife was refused. A similar annulment had been granted to Henry VIII's forebear, Henry II of England. Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine on 18 May 1152. Eleanor had children with Louis VII of France.
Henry VIII used the political crown and the unsuccessful persecution to sustain his break with Rome. The first
break with Rome (subsequently reversed) came when
Pope Clement VII refused, over a period of years, to
annul Henry's marriage to
Catherine of Aragon, not purely as a matter of principle, but also because the Pope lived in fear of Catherine's nephew,
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as a result of events in the
Italian Wars.
Henry first asked for an annulment in
1527. After various failed initiatives he stepped up the pressure on Rome, in the summer of
1529, by compiling a manuscript from ancient sources proving in law that spiritual supremacy rested with the monarch, and demonstrating the illegality of Papal authority. In
1531 Henry first challenged the Pope when he demanded 100,000
pounds from the clergy in exchange for a royal pardon for their illegal jurisdiction. He also demanded that the clergy should recognise him as their sole protector and supreme head. The church in England recognised Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England on
February 11,
1531, however in
1532 he still continued to attempt to seek a compromise with the Pope.
In May
1532 the Church of England agreed to surrender its legislative independence and
canon law to the authority of the
monarch. In
1533 the
Statute in Restraint of Appeals removed the right of the English clergy and laity to appeal to Rome on matters of matrimony, tithes and oblations, and gave authority over such matters to the Archbishops of
Canterbury and
York. This finally allowed
Thomas Cranmer, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, to issue Henry's
annulment; and upon procuring it, Henry married
Anne Boleyn.
Pope Clement VII excommunicated Henry VIII in
1533.
In
1534 the
Act of Submission of the Clergy removed the right of all appeals to
Rome, effectively ending the Pope's influence. The first
Act of Supremacy confirmed Henry by statute as the
Supreme Head of the Church of England in
1536. (Due to clergy objections the contentious term 'Supreme Head' for the monarch later became 'Supreme Governor' - hence one cannot technically refer to the reigning monarch as the so-called 'head' of the Church of England.)
Such constitutional changes made it not only possible for Henry to divorce but also gave him access to the considerable wealth that the Church had amassed, and
Thomas Cromwell, as Vicar General, launched a commission of enquiry into the nature and value of all ecclesiastical property in
1535, which culminated in the
Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536 - 1540).
Despite separation from Rome, the Church of England under Henry VIII remained essentially Catholic rather than
Protestant in nature.
Pope Leo X had earlier awarded to Henry himself the title of
fidei defensor (defender of the faith), partly on account of Henry's attack on
Lutheranism. Some Protestant-influenced changes under Henry included a limited
iconoclasm, the abolition of
pilgrimages, and pilgrimage shrines, and the extinction of many saints' days. However only minor changes in liturgy occurred during Henry's reign, and he carried through the
Six Articles of
1539 which reaffirmed the
Catholic nature of the church.
All this took place, however, at a time of major religious upheaval in Western
Europe associated with the
Reformation; and once the schism had occurred, some reform probably became inevitable.
Only under Henry's son
Edward VI (reigned 1547 - 1553), did the first major changes in parish activity take place, including translation and thorough revision of the liturgy along more Protestant lines. The resulting
Book of Common Prayer, issued in
1549 and revised in
1552, came into use by the authority of
Parliament.
Following the death of Edward, the Roman Catholic
Mary I (reigned 1553 - 1558) came to the throne. She renounced the Henrician and Edwardian changes, first by repealing her brother's reforms then by re-establishing unity with Rome. She gained the common sobriquet of "Bloody Mary" because of the widespread torture and execution of many of those opposed to Roman Catholicism.
The second schism, from which the present Church of England originates, came later. Upon Mary's death in 1558, her half-sister
Elizabeth I (reigned 1558 - 1603) came to power. Elizabeth became a determined opponent of papal control and re-introduced separatist ideas. Elizabeth was finally excommunicated on
February 25,
1570 by
Pope Pius V. The Church of England officially broke with Rome again in
1559, when
Parliament recognised Elizabeth as the Church's supreme governor, with a new
Act of Supremacy that also repealed the remaining anti-Protestant legislation. A new Book of Common Prayer appeared in the same year. Elizabeth presided over the
"Elizabethan Settlement", an attempt to satisfy the Puritan and Catholic forces in England within a single national Church.
During the
Commonwealth and
Protectorate (1649 - 1660), the ascendant
Puritans replaced the
Episcopalian government of the Church with a
Presbyterian form, but retained the principle of ultimate state control of religious matters. After
Charles II came to power in 1660, his
Restoration government re-established the
Episcopalian structures, and issued a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer in
1662. The Church of England played a part in rebuffing
James II's policy of indulgence towards Catholics and Protestant dissenters (1685 - 1688) and became a prop of the
Tory Party and the social
status quo.
The
Wesleyan reformation ended in schism with the birth of
Methodism.
The
Plymouth Brethren seceded from the established church in the 1820s.From the 1830s the
Oxford Movement became influential and occasioned the revival of
Anglo-Catholicism.
On
12 March,
1994 the Church of England ordained its first female priests. A vote was passed by the Church of England's
General Synod in
York to allow women bishops on
11 July 2005. The first black archbishop of the Church of England,
John Sentamu formerly of
Uganda, took his throne on
30 November 2005.
*
Church of England*
Religion in the United Kingdom*
Anglican Communion*
Wikipedia:WikiProject Anglicanism* William Hunt,
The English Church: From Its Foundation to the Norman Conquest (597-1066), Volume I of a 7 volume set by various authors, AMS Press, reprint, originally published in 1899, hardcover, 444 pages
