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Ecclesiastical History Of England

The first religion of the Celts of England was Druidism. It has been conjectured that Christianity may have reached Britain by way of France (Gaul) before the conclusion of the 1st, or not long after the commencement of the 2nd century, but the period and manner of its introduction are uncertain. It had, however, made considerable progress in the island previous to the time of Constantine the Great (306 - 337). Several bishops from Britain sat in the Councils of Nice (325), Sardica (347), and Ariminum, in Italy (359); and in 519 an ecclesiastical synod of all the British clergy was held by David (St.), archbishop of Caerleon and uncle of King Arthur, for extirpating the remains of the Pelagian heresy.

A period of almost total eclipse followed the inroad of the pagan Saxons, and it was not till A.D. 570 that signs of change showed themselves in the new nationality. On the coming of Austin, or Augustine (St.) sent over in 596 by Gregory the Great, a residence at Canterbury was assigned to him, and Ethelberht, king of Kent, and most of his subjects, adopted Christianity. Other missionaries followed; East Saxons were soon after converted by Mellitus ; and a bishop's see was established at London, their capital, early in the 7th century. The Northumbrians were next converted, an event accelerated by the marriage of their king, Edwin, with a daughter of Ethelberht, and by the labours of the missionary Paulinus. The influence of Edwin and Paulinus also secured the conversion of Carpwald, king of the East Angles; and as a reward to Paulinus, Edwin erected a see at York, and obtained an archbishops pall for him from Pope Honorius I., who sent one at the same time to Canterbury. The conversion of the other kingdoms followed in the course of the 7th century.

As Kent and Wessex received Christianity from Roman and Frankish missionaries, and Mercia and Northumbria, through the Scottish Culdees ( for Northhumbria had apostatized after the death of its first Christian king, and received Christianity anew from a Scottish source), there were certain differences between the churches, especially concerning the time of keeping Easter. To promote the union of the churches thus founded in England with the Church of Rome, a grand council was summoned by Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury, at Hertford, A.D. 673, when uniformity was secured among all the English churches, and the see of Canterbury made supreme.

The clergy in course of time attained, particularly after the Norman conquest, to such a height of domination as to form an imperium in imperio. Under Anselm ( 1093 - 109 ) the church was practically emancipated from the control of the state, and the power of the pope became supreme. The result was a considerable increase of monasticism in England, and the prevalence of the greatest abuses under the cloak of church privilege. Several monarchs showed themselves restive under the papal control, but without shaking off the yoke; and though Henry II. succeeded in abating some evils, yet the severity of the penance exacted from him for the murder of Becket is a striking proof of the power that the church then had in punishing offences committed against itself. The reaction set in during the reign of Henry III., when the vigorous independence of Robert Grosseteste did much to stimulate the individual life of the English church. With the reign of Edward I. the new system of parliaments came as an effective rival of the church synods, and various acts restrained the power of the clergy. In the 14th century the teaching of Wickliffe promised to produce a thorough revolt from Rome; but the difficulties of the house of Lancaster, which drove its members to propitiate the church, and the Wars of the Roses, prevented matters coming to a head.

A steady decay of vital power set in, however, and when Henry VIII resolved to recast the English church there was no effective protest. In 1531 the convocation of the clergy addressed a petition to Henry VIII. as the chief protector and only and supreme lord of the English Church. Not very long after the parliament abolished appeals to the see of Rome, dispensations, licenses, bulls of institution for bishoprics and archbishoprics, the payment of Peter's-pence, and the annates. In 1534 the papal authority was set aside by act of parliament, and by another act of parliament, passed in 1535, Henry assumed the title of supreme head of the Church of England. These acts, although they severed the connection between the English Church and the holy see, did not alter the religious faith of the church.

But under Edward VI the Duke of Somerset, the protector of the realm during the minority of the king, caused a more thorough reform of the doctrines and ceremonies of the church to be made. At his instigation parliament in 1547 repealed the statute of the six articles promulgated by Henry VIII, and in 1551 a new confession of faith was embodied in forty-two articles, denying the infallibility of councils, keeping only two sacraments, baptism and the Lords supper, and rejecting the real presence, the invocation of saints, prayer for the dead, purgatory, and the celibacy of the clergy. At the same time a new liturgy was composed, in which English was substituted for Latin.

With the reign of Mary the old religion was re-established; and it was not till that of Elizabeth that the Church of England was finally instituted in its present form. The doctrines of the church were again modified, and the forty - two articles were reduced to thirty-nine by the convocation of the clergy In 1563. As no change was made in the Episcopal form of government, and some rites and ceremonies were retained which may of the reformed considered as superstitious, this circumstance. gave rise to many future dissensions. In 1559, before the close of the first year of Elizabeth's reign, the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity were passed with the object of bringing about the entire subjection of the church and the people in religious matters to the royal authority.

From James I. some relief was anticipated by Puritans and nonconformists, but they were disappointed. Under Charles I. the attempt was made, through the instrumentality of Laud, to reduce all the churches of Great Britain under the jurisdiction of bishops. But after the death of laud the parliament abolished the Episcopal government, and condemned everything contrary to the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the Church of Geneva. As soon as Charles II. was restored the ancient fours of ecclesiastical government and public worship were re-established and three severe measures were passed against nonconformity, namely, the Corporation Act of 1661, the Act of Uniformity, passed in 1662, and the Test Act, passed in 1673.

In the reign of William III, and particularly in 1689 the divisions among the friends of Episcopacy gave rise to the two parties called the high-churchmen or non-jurors, and low churchmen. The former maintained the doctrine of passive obedience to the sovereign; that the hereditary succession to the throne is of divine institution; that the church is subject to the jurisdiction of God alone; The gradual progress of civil and religions liberty since that time has settled practically many such controversies. The great increase of the Dissenters in recent times (they are not much less numerous than the members of the Established Church) has led to new concessions in their favour, and especially to the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts (in 1828), the Catholic emancipation (in 1829), and the opening of the universities in England to Dissenters (1871) .

As at present constituted the established religion of England is Episcopacy. The sovereign is the supreme head. The church is governed by two archbishops and thirty-two bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury is styled the primate of all England, and to him belongs the privilege of crowning the kings and queens of England. The province of Canterbury comprehends 25 bishoprics; in the province of the Archbishop of York, who is styled primate of England , there are 10 bishoprics, the province comprising Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the other northern counties. Archbishops and bishops are appointed by the sovereign by what is called a congé d' élire, or leave to elect, naming the person to be chosen and sent to the dean and chapter. The archbishops and bishops, to the number of 24, have seats in the House of Lords, and are styled spiritual lords. The following are the bishops' sees:

London, Durham, Winchester, Bangor, Bath and Wells, Carlisle, Chester, Chichester, Gloucester, Bristol, Hereford, Lichfield, Liverpool, Llandaff, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford, Peterborough, Rochester, St. Albans, St. Asaph, St. David's, Southwell, Truro, Worcester, Sodor and Man, Ripon, Exeter, Lincoln, Salisbury, Ely, Manchester, Wakefield.

To every cathedral belong several prebendaries and a dean; these together, spoken of as 'the dean and chapter,' form the council of the bishop. Subordinate to the bishops are a certain number of archdeacons. The most numerous and laborious of the clergy are the priests whether curates, vicars or rectors. A parson is a priest in full precession of all the rights of a parish church; if the great tithes are impropriated the priest is called a vicar; if not, a rector; a curate is one who exercises the spiritual office under a rector or vicar. The doctrines of the Church of England are contained in the Thirty-nine Articles; the form of worship is directed by the liturgy contained in the Book of Common Prayer..