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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.
Origins
Christianity, introduced by the Romans, was fairly well
established in Britain by the 4th cent., but was almost
destroyed by the Anglo-Saxon invasions beginning in
the 5th cent. Surviving in isolation, the Celtic Church
developed practices at variance with those on the Continent.
This led to conflict when St. Augustine of Canterbury
arrived (597) to reconvert England. Roman usages were
eventually adopted in preference to Celtic ones (see
Whitby, Synod of), but the English Church remained somewhat
isolated until the Norman Conquest, when Continental
churchmen undertook its reform.
Creation of the Church
During the Middle Ages the church in England was affected
by the same clashes that bedevilled the relationship
between church and state elsewhere in Europe. A modus
vivendi was finally achieved in the matter of investiture,
but quarrels over the taxes demanded by Rome and appeals
going from English courts to Rome were not resolved
until Henry VIII broke the union of the English church
with Rome. This action, which created the Church of
England, was occasioned by the pope's refusal to grant
Henry's request for an annulment of his marriage to
Katharine of Aragón. The Act of Supremacy (1534)
acknowledged the king as “the only supreme head
on earth of the Church of England.” Thus the Reformation
in England under Henry was at first a matter of policy,
not doctrine.
The theology of the new national church as shown in
the Six Articles (1539) and the King's Book (1543) was
largely unchanged, although some Lutheran influence
may be detected. Henry authorized the Great Bible (1539),
a revision of the English translations of William Tyndale
and Miles Coverdale, and some slight alterations in
service. The monasteries were suppressed, chiefly at
the hands of Thomas Cromwell. Under Edward VI changes
came rapidly, and Protestantism gained ground. The first
and second Book of Common Prayer, produced by Thomas
Cranmer, were adopted in 1549 and 1552, respectively,
and a statement of doctrine, the Forty-two Articles,
was drawn up.
Under Mary I all the measures that had separated the
Church of England from Rome were reversed; the Roman
ritual was brought back, and the nation was received
again into the communion of Rome. Elizabeth I restored
independence. The Elizabethan Settlement steered the
English church upon a middle course between Roman Catholicism
and Calvinism. The prayer book of 1552 was restored,
and the Forty-two Articles, revised toward a more Catholic
position and reduced to Thirty-nine, were adopted as
a doctrinal standard. The national church maintained
the historical episcopate and retained its continuity
with the early church of Britain and much of the ritualism
sanctioned by the older rubrics. By the Act of Supremacy
(1559) ecclesiastical jurisdiction was restored to the
crown to be exercised by a court of high commission.
The classical statement of the peculiar Anglican position
was made by Richard Hooker.
Under James I the steadily rising tide of Puritanism
made necessary the Hampton Court Conference (1604).
At that conference, James gave his decision for the
existing doctrine. The great achievement of the conference
was the King James, or Authorized, Version of the English
Bible (1611).
The English Civil War and the Restoration
Under Charles I the extreme measures of the party headed
by Archbishop William Laud, in maintaining the discipline
and worship of the church against the Calvinists, had
much to do with bringing on (1642) the English civil
war. The Long Parliament, after excluding the bishops,
substituted Presbyterianism for the episcopacy in 1646,
in accordance with the Solemn League and Covenant (see
Covenanters). Under Oliver Cromwell, Independent rather
than Presbyterian doctrines triumphed; it was a penal
offense to use the Book of Common Prayer. Many bishops
were imprisoned, and many churches were pillaged.
With the Restoration (1660) the episcopacy was reestablished.
After failure of the Savoy Conference (1661) to create
a compromise with the Puritans, the prayer book was
revised in a Catholic direction (1662) and made the
only legal service book by an Act of Uniformity, which
required the episcopal ordination of all ministers.
About 2,000 nonconformist clergymen, instead of complying,
resigned and with their adherents established their
own worship in Protestant nonconformist chapels, in
spite of severe acts passed against them by Parliament
(see nonconformists).
The Glorious Revolution
The Roman Catholic James II attempted to move the church
toward Rome, but in 1688 William Sancroft, archbishop
of Canterbury, and six other bishops refused the king's
order to read his declaration of toleration in all churches.
They were imprisoned but acquitted by trial. After the
overthrow of James in the Glorious Revolution (1688),
the Bill of Rights (1689) declared that the monarch
must be Protestant and the Act of Settlement (1701)
required that he or she be a member of the Church of
England. Some of the clergy, however, including Sancroft,
refused to swear allegiance to William and Mary and
therefore lost their positions
The Eighteenth Century
In the 18th cent. latitudinarians held control in the
church; dogma, liturgy, and ecclesiastical organization
were subordinated to the appeal to reason, abhorrence
of religious enthusiasm, and Erastianism. In 1701 the
first Anglican missionary society, the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), was founded for work
overseas, and much of its early work was done in America.
In George I's reign the Bangorian Controversy led to
the prorogation of convocation in 1717; the next council
of the church was not reconvened until 1852. The revival
of religious fervor in the late 18th cent. resulted
both in the rise of the evangelical movement within
the Church of England and in the Methodist schism. The
Church Missionary Society, founded in 1799, grew out
of the evangelical movement.
The Oxford Movement to the Present
In the first half of the 19th cent., the Catholic and
apostolic character of the Church of England was strongly
reaffirmed by the Oxford movement, which was led by
John Keble and Edward Bouverie Pusey and also by John
Henry Newman until he converted to Roman Catholicism.
The Oxford movement—with its emphasis on ritual
and its belief in the doctrines of apostolic succession
and the Real Presence—gave new life and direction
to the High Church tradition, which became known also
as Anglo-Catholicism. At the same time the Broad Church
movement was developing. It advocated liberal views
in theology and biblical studies. Both of these movements
challenged the position of the Evangelical, or Low Church,
party, which emphasized the Bible and preaching and
was the leading party of the church through the 19th
cent.
In the 20th cent. the Church of England became involved
in revision of canon law and the prayer book, in church
building, in attempts to minister to the world of industry
(e.g., the Sheffield Industrial Mission), and in the
ecumenical movement. The traditional divisions within
the church remain, but the lines are less sharply drawn.
The issue of homosexuality among the clergy has been
divisive, however, and the selection of a celibate gay
priest as a candidate for bishop of Reading in 2003
led to a sometimes bitter public fight over the choice
that was only resolved when the candidate decided to
withdraw his name. The current archbishop of Canterbury
is Rowan Williams.
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