The history of the Anglican Church

The history of the Anglican Church is the story of how English Christianity, after almost a thousand years of union with Rome, became a national church, went through a century of persecution and religious war and finally found an original balance between Catholic tradition and Protestant Reformation. For the church today see the Anglican Church.

From the origins to the Middle Ages

Christianity reached Britain in Roman times, but the Church of England traces its origins to 597, when the monk Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great, landed in Kent, converted King Æthelberht and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the north, meanwhile, the Celtic Christianity of the Irish monks of Iona and Lindisfarne was spreading; at the Synod of Whitby in 664 Roman customs prevailed. In the Middle Ages the English church was rich and powerful, and conflicts with the crown were not lacking: the most famous ended in 1170 with the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in his own cathedral by knights of King Henry II. Becket became a saint and his tomb the country's most famous pilgrimage destination. In the 14th century John Wycliffe criticised the power of the clergy and promoted the first translation of the Bible into English, anticipating themes of the Reformation.

Henry VIII's break with Rome

The break with Rome arose from a dynastic question. Henry VIII, who in 1521 had received from the Pope the title "Defender of the Faith" for a book against Luther, wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who had not given him a male heir. Pope Clement VII, under pressure from Emperor Charles V, Catherine's nephew, refused. Henry, advised by Thomas Cromwell and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, married Anne Boleyn and with the Act of Supremacy of 1534 proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. Those who opposed him, such as Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, were executed. Between 1536 and 1541 the King dissolved the monasteries, more than eight hundred of them, and seized their immense wealth. In doctrine, however, Henry remained largely Catholic.

Reformation, reaction and compromise

Under his son Edward VI the church became decidedly Protestant: Cranmer drew up the Book of Common Prayer of 1549, with the liturgy in English instead of Latin. On Edward's death his Catholic half-sister Mary I returned England to obedience to Rome and had about 280 Protestants burned at the stake, Cranmer among them, earning the nickname Bloody Mary. It was Elizabeth I who found the synthesis: with the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 she restored the supremacy of the crown, with the title of Supreme Governor, and a church Protestant in doctrine, set out in the Thirty-Nine Articles, but traditional in structure, with bishops and a solemn liturgy. This was the via media that still characterises Anglicanism.

Puritans, civil war and toleration

The compromise did not satisfy the Puritans, who wanted a more radically reformed church; many emigrated to America, like the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower in 1620. Religious tensions contributed to the Civil War: after Parliament's victory, bishops and the prayer book were abolished. With the Restoration of 1660 the Church of England returned, and the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 is still the official text today. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Toleration Act of 1689 granted freedom of worship to Protestant dissenters, while Catholics and Jews had to wait until the 19th century for full civil equality.

From the 18th century to today

In the 18th century the brothers John and Charles Wesley, Anglican priests, founded the Methodist movement, which eventually separated from the church. In the 19th century John Henry Newman's Oxford Movement rediscovered the Catholic heritage of Anglicanism; Newman himself converted to Catholicism in 1845 and was canonised in 2019. Meanwhile, with the Empire, Anglicanism spread across the world, and in 1867 the first Lambeth Conference was held. The church was disestablished in Ireland in 1871 and in Wales in 1920. The 20th century brought ecumenical dialogue with Rome, the ordination of women priests in 1994 and women bishops from 2015, up to the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, installed in 2026.

See also the history of the United Kingdom, Thomas Wolsey and Anne of Cleves.