The Church of England
МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ НЕЗАВИСИМЫЙ
ЭКОЛОГО-ПОЛИТОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
Реферат по страноведению на тему:
«The Church of England»
Москва, 2002
The Church of England
Content:
Introduction ………………………………………………………………..…………3
I. History of the Church of England
1) Status of Church in England up to 1530 ………………………..4
2) Reformation of Church ……………………………………………4
Henry VII…………………………………………………………….4
Edward VI……………………………………………………………6
Mary I………………………………………………………………...6
Elizabeth I……………………………………………………………7
Charles II…………………………………………………….……….8
Victoria ……………………………………………………….………8
II. The Church of England today…………………………………………………..9
1) The essence of being an Anglican………………………………………..9
2) Organisation of the Church of England ………………………………….11
III. Church of England becomes an International Church……………………...12
Conclusions………………………………………………………………………….13
Bibliography.…………………………………………………………………………14
Introduction
Everything in this life has its own history, especially Religion, as it is
a great institution. With the development of history of a particular
country, there will always be development of Religion, since the Church is
an integral part of State System. Heathenism, Orthodoxy, Judaism etc.. They
have been living for centuries. And some of them were changed, penetrated
each other or reformed dramatically.
England was not exception.
The English are not a deeply religious race. Hundreds of years ago they
decided that Roman Catholicism with its teachings about original sin and
the unworthiness of the human race could not really have been meant for
them. So they designed a Church of their own – the Church of England.
The English Reformation was a result of the chain of events that eventually
altered England and Englishness forever. So much in history is a bastard
child of both long-standing, simmering emotion and the opportunistic
seizing of a moment. By its nature unexpected, it is also unpredictable,
and shaped as much by environment and chance as by its progenitors. The
Reformation was no different. It was going on through the ages and reigns.
I. History of the Church of England
1. Status of Church in England up to 1530
Until 1054 there was only one Christian Church - the Catholic Church. Its
leadership was centered in five great Patriarchates -- Jerusalem, Antioch,
Alexandria and Constantinople in the East and Rome in the West. After the
Roman Empire became Christian some bishops increasingly became involved in
political matters, and the bishops of Rome in particular began to claim
power over the whole Church. This led to a tragic division in the Church,
the "Great Schism" of 1054, when it split into the "Orthodox" East and the
"Roman Catholic" West.
Not directly involved in that split was the Church in England, which the
Bishops of Rome were determined to claim - especially after 1061, when a
rival Papacy in Lombardy claimed allegiance from the See of Canterbury. In
1066, the Duke of Normandy (William "the Conqueror"), with the support and
formal blessing of Pope Alexander II, invaded England. After seizing the
English Crown, William replaced all but one of the English bishops with
Norman bishops loyal to Rome. The CHURCH OF ENGLAND was to remain under
Papal jurisdiction for nearly 500 years, until the reign of King Henry
VIII.
2. Reformation of Church
England in the sixteenth century was a land of contrasts. Much less urban
than either Germany or the Netherlands, it nevertheless possessed a
thriving international trade centre in London and in Oxford and Cambridge,
two universities of outstanding reputation. The universities, in fact,
would play a significant role in the early campaigns against Luther. Henry
VIII turned to their finest theologians for arguments allowing him to enter
the lists against the growing threat of Lutheran heresy. This initiative
would earn him from a grateful Pope the coveted title, Defender of the
Faith.
The progress of the Reformation in England was closely bound up with
Henry's personal affairs. His increasing desperation to secure release from
his marriage to Catherine of Aragon forced him to contemplate radical steps
that went very much against the grain of his own instinctive theological
conservatism.
Henry VIII
It was the only Henry’s chance to go outside the boundaries of the
orthodoxy. Until this event, Henry had never questioned the Pope’s
authority or the validity of the Bible passage, it banned the marriage of a
brother- and sister-in-law. It was as early as the end of 1529 that Henry
first considered a complete dissociation from the Roman church.
Henry forced Wolsey to retire, as his entire foreign policy had collapsed
and he was now of no help to the King. In July of 1531, Henry sent
Catherine to Ampthill, never to see her again. He took back her royal
jewels and gave them to Anne. When Parliament reconvened in January, 1532,
Henry ordered that no further funds would be transferred to Rome, but
hinted to the Pope that the money would be restored if the annulment was
passed.
Meanwhile, most of the bishops had been persuaded that they would not lose
any power or income if the English Church were to split from Rome. In
March, the Convocation formally announced their readiness to separate: “May
it please your Highness to ordain in the present Parliament that the
obedience of your Highness and of the people be withdrawn from the See of
Rome.” On May 15, they printed a pledge to submit all its legislation to a
new committee, formed of laymen and clergymen, called the “Reformation
Parliament” and Convocation. This is where the Church of England was born.
On January 15, 1533, Henry and Anne, who was four months pregnant, were
married. However, the King still did not have his first marriage annulled.
He submitted his request for annulment to the new Convocation, led by
Thomas Cranmer. On May 23, Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine’s marriage
to be unlawful and void. Five days later, he pronounced Henry and Anne
legally wed. On May 31, 1533, Anne was coronated as Queen of England.
Although the King and new Queen rejoiced, the silence from the crowd at the
coronation spoke for much of England. Pope Clement excommunicated the King,
stating that the new marriage was null, and that any children would be
illegitimate. On September 7 Elizabeth was born.
Henry swiftly transformed the English Church by passing various Acts
through Parliament. In March of 1534, The Act of Succession declared the
marriage to Catherine invalid, and therefore Mary illegitimate. Elizabeth
was named heir to the throne unless Anne produced a son. Royal
commissioners rode through the countryside, stopping at every house,
castle, monastery, and convent to exact oaths of loyalty to the King from
every man and woman. Only a few refused; those that did were sent to the
Tower of London to be put to death.
On November 11, 1534, the Statute of Supremacy was passed by Parliament.
This Act announced that “… the king, our sovereign lord, his heirs and
successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the
only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicans
Ecclesia”. And the King “…our said sovereign lord, his heirs and
successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority” to do
everything “most to the pleasure of Almighty God”. It was done to “…
increase virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the
peace, unity, and tranquility of this realm” (pp. 97-98, Milton Viorst, The
Great Documents of Western Civilization, NY, Barnes and Noble, 1965)
Innovative from the first, the new Church simplified the liturgy, ensured
it was in English rather than Latin and set it out in a new Book of Common
Prayer which was designed to give the people of England a commonly held
pattern of worship, a sense of oneness of Church and people, with the
Church sanctifying every side of national life, giving society a Godward
purpose and direction. It introduced on Day of Pentecost. It is written in
English, emphasizes the people's participation in the eucharist, and
requires the Bible to be read from cover to cover. Fast days are retained
(supposedly to help fishermen), but saints' days are not.
The political nation was, for the most part, obediently compliant rather
than enthusiastic. There is no evidence of any great hostility towards the
church and its institutions before the Reformation; on the contrary, both
the English episcopate and parish clergy seem to have been, by the
standards of other European lands, both well-trained and living without
scandal. Cardinal Wolsey, who fathered an illegitimate son, was very much
the exception. On the other hand, few were prepared to defy the King to
defend the threatened institutions of the old church. Many benefited from
the windfall of church property that followed the confiscation of monastic
lands.
Edward VI
During Edward's reign (Henry’s son), the Church of England became more
explicitly Protestant - Edward himself was fiercely so. The Book of Common
Prayer was introduced in 1549, aspects of Roman Catholic practices
