Anglicanism

At a glance

Anglicanism begins with Henry VIII’s break with Rome in 1534, grows more Protestant under Edward VI, and takes lasting shape in Elizabeth I’s Settlement of 1559.

The Anglican Communion keeps bishops, liturgy, and a wide internal range—from Anglo-Catholic to evangelical to liberal—without a single teaching office that can bind the whole Communion.

Origin and history

Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547), denied an annulment by Rome, had himself declared Supreme Head of the Church of England (Act of Supremacy, 1534). This was first a jurisdictional schism more than a Lutheran dogmatic conversion—though monasteries were dissolved and papal authority rejected.

Under Edward VI (1547–1553), Thomas Cranmer advanced Protestant theology: Book of Common Prayer (1549; more Reformed 1552) and the Forty-Two Articles. Mary I restored Catholicism (1553–1558). Elizabeth I’s Settlement (1559) reimposed royal supremacy with a via media: bishops and liturgy, Reformed-leaning Articles. The Thirty-Nine Articles were agreed in 1563 and given legal force in 1571.

The Episcopal Church became the American expression after the Revolution (organization 1785–1789) when oaths to the king became impossible. The Oxford Movement (1833–) and Anglo-Catholicism recovered patristic and sacramental emphases. Modern Anglican realignment—Lambeth tensions, GAFCON, splits over women’s ordination and same-sex rites—shows a Communion without a universal magisterium.

• 1534 — Act of Supremacy (Henry VIII)
• 1549 / 1552 — Cranmer’s Prayer Books
• 1559 — Elizabethan Settlement
• 1571 — Thirty-Nine Articles enforced
• 1785–1789 — Protestant Episcopal Church organized (U.S.)
• 1833– — Oxford Movement / Anglo-Catholic revival
• 1896 — Apostolicae Curae (Leo XIII): Anglican orders invalid

Key figures

Henry VIII created the schism; Cranmer gave it Protestant liturgy and theology; Elizabeth and her bishops stabilized the Settlement. Richard Hooker defended Anglican polity against Puritans. Newman, Pusey, and Keble led the Oxford Movement—Newman entered the Catholic Church in 1845. Modern Anglicanism’s “instruments of communion” lack the teeth of a pope and ecumenical council.

• Henry VIII (1491–1547) — schism for succession/supremacy
• Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) — Prayer Book; Protestantizing
• Elizabeth I (1533–1603) — Settlement
• Richard Hooker (1554–1600) — Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
• John Henry Newman (1801–1890) — Oxford Movement → Catholic

Theology and beliefs

Classical Anglican formularies (Articles, Prayer Book, ordinal) mix Catholic remnants with Reformed denials: Scripture’s sufficiency, rejection of purgatory and “Romish” practices as then caricatured, a low view of the Mass as sacrifice in the Articles, yet episcopal order and liturgical prayer.

In practice Anglican theology is a spectrum: evangelical low church, broad liberal, and Anglo-Catholic high church. Anglicans often call that range comprehensiveness. The Communion has no single office that can bind every province to one ruling.

• Thirty-Nine Articles as historic doctrinal baseline
• Baptism and Eucharist emphasized; other sacraments debated
• Episcopal polity retained (in most provinces)
• Wide present diversity on morals and doctrine

• Thirty-Nine Articles

  Article VI, Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures

  Article XXVIII, Of the Lord’s Supper

  “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”

  Scripture

  Suggest a correction

  “The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ’s death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ.”

  The Supper

  Suggest a correction

Practices and worship

The Book of Common Prayer shaped English-speaking Christianity’s cadence: morning and evening prayer, collects, eucharistic rites. High-church parishes may look nearly Catholic; low-church services resemble evangelical Protestantism. Ordination of women to priesthood and episcopate is accepted in many provinces and rejected in others.

• Liturgical prayer; choir/tradition in many cathedrals
• Baptism of infants standard
• Holy Communion frequency varies by parish party
• Provincial autonomy within Anglican Communion

Scripture they cite

Classical Anglican writing cites the sufficiency of Scripture (Article 6 of the Thirty-Nine Articles) and the two sacraments “ordained of Christ” in the Gospel, Baptism and the Supper (Article 25). High-church writers also cite the pastoral charge to the apostles and the pattern of elders and bishops in Acts and the pastoral letters.

The branch theory, associated with the Oxford Movement, claims that Rome, the Orthodox churches, and Canterbury are three branches of one Church. That theory is an Anglican account from the nineteenth century. It is not a sentence in the Thirty-Nine Articles.

• Article 6 — Scripture
• Article 25 — the sacraments
• Acts 20:28
• 1 Timothy 3

  “This is a faithful saying: if a man seeks the office of an overseer, he desires a good work.”

• John 21:15–17

  “Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” … He said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

Where Catholic teaching differs

In 1896 Pope Leo XIII ruled, in Apostolicae Curae, that Anglican orders are invalid, citing defects of form and of intention in the Edwardian ordinal. Rome’s claim was that the rite no longer meant a sacrificing priesthood. Anglicans disputed the ruling at the time and still dispute it. Later Catholic documents have not withdrawn it. Individual Anglican clergy who enter the Catholic Church are ordained again.

The Catholic Church teaches that the bishop of Rome has ordinary jurisdiction over the whole Church. Anglican provinces are self-governing. The instruments of the Communion, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lambeth Conference, can advise. They cannot bind a province that refuses.

In conversation

Ask which parish, not only which province. A low-church evangelical parish, a broad liberal one, and an Anglo-Catholic one can share a Prayer Book and teach different doctrines about the Supper, Mary, and marriage.

The story in order is the Act of Supremacy (1534), Cranmer’s Prayer Books (1549 and 1552), Mary’s restoration, the Elizabethan Settlement (1559), the Articles (1563, enforced 1571), the American Episcopal Church (1784–1789), and the Oxford Movement (from 1833). Henry sought an annulment, not a Lutheran church. The Protestant theology came chiefly under Edward and Elizabeth.

• High, broad, and low are the usual party names.
• The Episcopal Church is the American province.
• Apostolicae Curae (1896) is Rome’s judgment on orders, and Anglicans reject it.

Common misconceptions

Sources

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