The history of Anglican Church

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The history of rise of Anglican Church

Выполнила  ученица 11 «А» класса

Захарова Наталья

Руководитель  Белова Н. В.

2011 г.

Contents

Preface

1. The early history of Anglican Church

2.  Discontent with Roman administration of the church

3.  King Henry VIII

     3.1 Henry the VIII Wives

     3.2 The reasons of polygamy of Henry VIII

               3.3 Henry VIII as head of the Church

      3.4 The main reforms during Henry’s reign

4.  Anglican Church after Henry

5.  19th century

6. Doctrine and practice

Conclusion

The list of the literature

Preface

Recently I found out that the national church in Great Britain is called Anglican. I was interested in the history of it’s rise.  At the word stem of Anglicanism underlie the ancient word Anglican, which in literal translation from Medieval Latin means “English Church”. So, I thought, that reasons of it’s rise should be looked for in the history of the country. Before studying the historical events I set up a hypothesis about it. My hypothesis consists in thought that Anglican Church generated after some revolution or may be civil war, which had happened in England ages ago.

I have been learning English for eleven years.  I am sure that it is very important to study the history of English speaking country and exactly the history of Great Britain, it’s culture. And I see the actuality of my research work in it.

I began to study the history of the Church, and understood that its foundation was connecting with rule of Henry the 8th. I was also interested in his life story. That’s why I have read a lot of books about him and get a lot of information.  

So, the aim of my work is find out the reason of the rise of Anglican Church. And I also have some objectives in my work:

1) Learn the history of the country in the first half of XVI century march of historical events of English reform.

2) Account for the reason of so interesting and unusual position which taken by Anglican Church.

I have carried out the research and now would like to produce results of it.

The early history of Anglican Church

The name "Anglican" means "of England", but the Anglican Church exists worldwide. It began in the sixth century in England, when Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine to Britain to bring a more disciplined apostolic succession to the Celtic Christians. The Anglican Church developed as part of the Roman church, but the Celtic influence was folded back into the Roman portion of the church in many ways; perhaps most notably by Charlemagne's tutor Aidan. The Anglican Church was spread worldwide first by English colonization and then by English-speaking missionaries.

The Anglican Church separated from the Roman church. The history of Christianity has produced numerous notable separations. In 1054 came the first major split from Roman administration of the church, when the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman split apart.

The conflict of authority in England between church and state certainly dates back to the arrival of Augustine, and has simmered for many centuries. The murder of Thomas a Becket was one of the more famous episodes of this conflict. The Magna Carta, signed by King John in 1215, contains 63 points. The very first point is a declaration of the fact that the English church is independent of its government...

Discontent with Roman administration of the church

The beginning of the sixteenth century showed significant discontent with the Roman church. Martin Luther's famous 95 Theses were nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517. News of this challenge had certainly reached England when, 20 years later, the Anglican branch of the church formally challenged the authority of Rome. Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and abbeys in 1536.

King Henry VIII

            Born as Henry Tudor, 24th June 1491 as second son of Henry VII, became the king of England on June 24th 1509. His married elder brother the first choice to be king died before he could become king. As per tradition Henry VIII married the widow Lady Katherine of Aragon of his elder brother's widow; Katherine is the first wife of Henry VIII.

        Henry the VIII is known as a king, which had 6 wives. And if you’ll ask any English pupil, who is Henry VIII, you will hear that he was a king, which had 6 wives. Everyone knows about it, but only the third of them knows, that he was the founder of Anglican Church.

Henry the VIII Wives

         ‘Henry the VIII Wives' had made a history in England as well as in the world. Multiple marriages and separation of England church from Rome are important historical events. Birth of Church of England headed by king of England and separation from Pope and Rome had been established. Henry VIII had a long history of marriage and romantic life; some say history of lunatic marriages and romances. He did everything to fulfill the desire to have a son to succeed him. That was the story of Henry the VIII wives.

        And now some words about every of them.

 Katherine of Aragon – Spanish princess the first wife of Henry VIII, married on June11th 1509 at Greyfriars church.  Though many children were born, only one daughter survived. Henry VIII divorced her because she could not give birth to a son, but Henry wanted a boy to succeed him. There is a public perception, especially in the United States, that Henry VIII created the Anglican church in anger over the Pope's refusal to grant his divorce, but the historical record indicates that Henry spent most of his reign challenging the authority of Rome, and that the divorce issue was just one of a series of acts that collectively split the English church from the Roman church in much the same way that the Orthodox church had split off five hundred years before. This had resulted conflict with the Pope of Rome. Katherine died naturally in 1536.

            Anne Boleyn – the second wife of Henry married on January 25th 1533 at Westminster Abbey church. She also had many children, but only one girl survived, Henry had conflicts with Anne and decided to behead her in tower on May 19th1536.

            Jane Seymour – the third wife of Henry married on 20th 1536 at York Place church. It is said that Henry really loved her. But she died at childbirth on October 27th 1537. She and Henry had a boy named Edward.

            Anne of Cleves – the fourth wife of Henry married on January 6th 1540 at Greyfriars church after three years of Jane Seymour's death. She was divorced in 1540 on being not the royal standard. She died of natural causes in 1557.

 Katherine Howard – a court lady, the fifth wife of Henry married on July 28th 1540 at Hampton court palace. She was beheaded because of accusation in unfaithfulness on February 13th 1542.

            Catherine Parr – the sixth wife of Henry married on July 12th 1543 at Hampton Court Palace, she has no children with Henry. Henry died in January 1547. She was the King's widow and left the court.

The reasons of polygamy of Henry VIII

        After reading about Henry’s wives I thought about reasons of his polygamy. Monarchs in the Tudor times rarely married for love. Often they married to link up families to other rich and powerful families both from England and from other important countries.

         I’ve read a lot about it and decided that reasons are the next:

1)  He had the first wife Katherine of Aragon because he was betrothed to her by his father.

2) He had the second wife Anne Boleyn because he fell in love and also needed a legitimate male heir.

3) He had the third wife Jane Seymour because he still needed a male heir.

4) He had the fourth wife Anne of Cleves because of diplomatic reasons.

5) He had the fifth wife Katherine Howard because he fell in love again.

6) He had the sixth wife Catherine Parr because he was old and sick and needed a companion and nurse who wouldn't give him too much trouble.

Henry's main aim was to make sure that the Tudors would keep on ruling England after his death. Henry believed that only a boy could inherit his kingdom. But his son Edward ruled only for six years.

These are just the facts and I agree with it. But I also think that there are other reasons. The first one is that Henry, in my opinion, was a man, who felt in love a lot of times. He liked to attain women’s favor. And he was loved by them.

The second reason encloses in absence of the woman, he wanted to see beside of him. All his life he had been looking for perfect woman, which will deserve to be with him.

What’s the real reason? I don’t know, and think, that no one does. Was he a man, which felt in love a lot of times? Or maybe he wanted to find the woman of his dream? Or maybe he was just cruel, guileful ruler, which got accustomed to get everything he wanted irrespective of methods?

This is secret of England history, which is impossible to be descovered.

Henry VIII as head of the Church

One of the ideas the scholars had was that the King should be the supreme head of the Church in England and not the Pope. Before this time Henry had been loyal to the Church of Rome. In 1521 he had published an essay against Luther about the Seven Sacraments.  Because of this the Pope gave him the title “Defender of the Faith”.

 In 1533 Thomas Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. The same year Parliament passed an Act that prevented English people from appealing to the Pope for a legal or church decision.  This was made to stop Catherine of Aragon appealing against her divorce. In May the marriage was annulled by Archbishop Cranmer. The King had already married Anne Boleyn who was pregnant at the time.  She was crowned as a Queen at the end of May 1533.

In 1534 Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy which declared that the King was the supreme head of the Church of England.

 From then on the King and the Archbishop began to reform the church.  For the next seven years they were helped by Thomas Cromwell, who became the most powerful man in the kingdom after the King. The King did not want too much theological reform and always tried to balance the evangelical and traditionalist forces.

The main reforms during Henry’s reign

My research work would not be full without describing all the main reforms during Henry’s reign.

         The main reforms during Henry’s reign were:

Service in English. In 1544 the Litany was the first service to use English.  Before that all services were in Latin, which most people didn’t understand. Later all the other services also used English.

Bible in English. In 1537 the government ordered that there should be a Latin Bible and an English Bible in every parish church. In 1539 the Great Bible was published in English. It was probably edited by Miles Coverdale and based on earlier translations including that of William Tyndale.

 Removal of images. Orders were given in Henry’s time for the destruction of all images and shrines in churches.  This was connected to a new way of numbering the 10 commandments. Before the Reformation the commandment about images was part of the first commandment and was not considered very important. Now it was seen as a commandment on its own.

Monasteries. In the mid 1530s the monasteries were closed and their property was taken by the government.

Theological.  The main theological change concerned justification by faith. Unfortunately Henry did not follow Cranmer and the other reformers. He thought that the idea of faith alone undermined morality. He thought it removed the value of good works and so endangered the peace of the kingdom.

Communion. The other big theological debate was about the Mass. The Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation taught that during the Mass the substance of the bread and wine was changed into the actual flesh and blood of Christ.  During Henry’s reign Cranmer said this was not so. He was opposed to the idea that Christ was sacrificed again each time there was a mass. He was also against the idea that these sacrifices could help people who had died. Instead Cranmer believed in the real presence of Christ in the Communion, a view similar to Luther’s.  (He meant that the body and blood of Christ was truly present in the Lord’s Supper but that the bread and wine were not changed). Later he changed his mind again and taught that Christ’s body is in heaven and that Christ is received and eaten only in the heart by faith.

         Henry died in 1547.

Church after Henry

Henry maintained a strong preference for traditional Catholic practices and, during his reign, Protestant reformers were unable to make many changes to the practices of the Church of England. Indeed, this part of Henry's reign saw the trial for heresy of Protestants as well as Roman Catholics.

Under his son, Edward VI, more Protestant-influenced forms of worship were adopted. Under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, a more radical reformation proceeded. A new pattern of worship was set out in the Book of Common Prayer (1549 and 1552). These were based on the older liturgy but influenced by Protestant principles. The confession of the reformed Church of England was set out in the Forty-two Articles (later revised to thirty-nine). The reformation however was cut short by the death of the king.

Queen Mary I, who succeeded him, returned England again to the authority of the Pope, thereby ending the first attempt at an independent Church of England. During Mary's reign, many leaders and common people were burnt for their refusal to recant of their reformed faith. These are known as the Marian martyrs and the persecution has led to her nickname of "Bloody Mary".

Mary also died childless and so it was left to the new regime of her half-sister Elizabeth to resolve the direction of the church. The settlement under Elizabeth I (from 1558), known as the Elizabethan, developed the via media (middle way) character of the Church of England, a church moderately Reformed in doctrine, as expressed in the Thirty-nine Articles, but also emphasising continuity with the Catholic and Apostolic traditions of the Church Fathers. It was also an established church (constitutionally established by the state with the head of state as its supreme governor). The exact nature of the relationship between church and state would be a source of continued friction into the next century.

19th century

By the Fifth Article of the Union with Ireland 1800, the Church of England and Church of Ireland were united into "one Protestant Episcopal Church, to be called, The United Church of England and Ireland". Although this union was declared "an essential and fundamental Part of the Union", nevertheless the Irish Church Act 1869 separated the Irish part of the Church again and disestablished it, the Act coming into effect on 1 January 1871.

Doctrine and practice

Church of England doctrine can be summarized in its canon law as follows:

Canon A 5 Of the doctrine of the Church of England: "The doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the Holy Scriptures, and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal." 

As the Church of England bases its teachings on the Holy Scriptures, the ancient Catholic teachings of the Church Fathers and some of the doctrinal principles of the Protestant Reformation (as expressed in the 39 Articles and other documents such as the Book of Homilies), Anglicanism can therefore be described as 'Reformed Catholic' in character rather than Protestant. In practice, however, it is more mixed, with Anglicans who emphasize the Catholic tradition and others the Reformed tradition. There is also a long history of more liberal or latitudinarian views. These three 'parties' in the Church of England are sometimes called high church (or Anglo-Catholic), low church (or Evangelical) and broad church (or Liberal). In terms of church government, unlike many of the Protestant denominations it has retained Episcopal (bishop) leadership.

In many people's eyes today the Church of England has, as one of its distinguishing marks, a breadth and "open-mindedness". This range of belief and practice includes those of the Anglo-Catholics, who emphasize liturgy and sacraments, to the far more preaching-centered and less ritual-based services of Evangelicals and gatherings of the Charismatic. But this "broad church" faces various contentious doctrinal and social questions.

Conclusion

After the research of the history of England and Anglican Church I understood, that my hypothesis was wrong. In fact there are a lot of reasons of separation of England Church from Rome and I found out all of them.

The most interesting of them, in my opinion, was divorce between King Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.

I had known, that in the Middle Ages divorces were forbidden. People got married only once. And it was impossible to get divorces.

I have never thought that the ruler of the state would change political system, the Church just to study his own interests.

I have also found out about the changes which had happened with Anglican after Henry’s death. About innovations, which issue brought in English Church.

So I think that Anglican is a very important part of English history and even of the world’s history. That’s why I think that everyone should know about it. May be just a little part, but should know. Because I believe that history of every country and every nation is very interesting and necessary thing to know.

The list of the literature

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/

2. http://wiki.answers.com

3. http://www.luminarium.org

4. http://monarchy.nm.ru/

5. http://www.allsaintsjakarta.org/

6. http://www.anglican.org

7. The Catholic Encyclopedia: Henry VIII

8. Константин Рыжов. Все монархи мира: Западная Европа