Church of England

The official church of England and a Protestant denomination. The Head of Church (official title: Supreme Governor of the Church of England) always is the currently reigning king or queen of England. While the monarch is just representing the CoE, the Archbishop of Canterbury is its religious leader.

Establishment

The Church of England was established in 1534 by the Act of Supremacy. With this Henry VIII separated the English church from Roman Catholicism. The reason for this was a dispute between Henry VIII and Pope Julius II who refused to annull the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The Church of England aligned itself with Protestantism after that, but not radically and completely. In the 17th century, there was a constant conflict between Anglicanism, Catholicism and Puritanism.

Civil War and Commonwealth

One of the main reasons for the Puritans to raise their voices again during the reign of Charles I was his marriage in 1625 with Henrietta-Marie de Bourbon, a French, Roman Catholic princess. The Puritans feared a major impact of Catholic influence on the English court and especially on possible future heirs of the crown. Another danger in the Puritans' eyes was the king's aim to embellish and ceremonialise church rituals with the support of Archbishop William Laud. The Puritan discontent with this was one of the many reasons for the civil war.

During the Commonwealth the Church of England was puritanised, the churches were stripped of all ornaments and images; mass was freed from all - supposedly - unnecessary pomp. The Church of England became separated from the state and the Book of Common Prayer was replaced by the Westminster Confession of Faith, a Calvinist doctrine.

The CoE in the Restoration

During the Restoration Anglicanism was restored as the religious norm in England. The Act of Uniformity 1662 secured that all rites and services from the Book of Common Prayer were used in the Church of England. The Test Acts of 1673 and 1678 were used to exclude Catholics and Nonconformists from public offices. Only the Toleration Act (1689) changed the situation. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent reign of William of Orange and Mary II all dissenters, that is Protestants not involved in the Church of England, were allowed to worship on their own terms.

The CoE in the 19th Century

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References and Further Reading

• Watson, Edward. The Church of England. London: OUP, 1950.
• Moorman, John. A History of the Church in England. New York: Morehouse-Barlow, 1967.
• Michael Maurer. Kleine Geschichte Englands. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2007.
• Hutton, Ronald. The Restoration. A Political and Religious History of England and Wales, 1658-1667. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985.
• Coward, Barry, ed. A Companion to Stuart Britain. Malden: Blackwell, 2003.