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Also known as Church of England/ Episcopalian |
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Today | the world Anglican communion is an association of independent Anglican churches from 38 regions.
It is the third-largest Christian body in the world, with 80 million members, after the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox churches. |
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History:
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c.580 | Bishop Liudhard moves to Kent from Gaul with (Frankish Christian) princess Bertha on her marriage to Anglo-Saxon King Aethelbert, and conducts services in the Romano-British church of St Martin in Canterbury. |
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597 | Italian Abbot Augustine arrives in Kent with a party of nearly 40 (to establish papal Christianity), is allowed to settle at Canterbury by its King Aethelbert, and is subsequently consecrated bishop by the bishops of Gaul. (Later, Augustine's demand that the British churches conform, to the Roman rite of the mass and of the dating of Easter, is met with scorn by them). |
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601 | 22 June: Pope Gregory authorises Augustine to use the pallium for the celebration of mass, to ordain twelve bishops, to exercise authority over omnes Brittaniae sacerdotes, and to ultimately create London and York as Metropolitan Sees. |
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625 | Italian Paulinus is consecrated bishop (July 21) and moves with Bertha and Aethelbert's (Christian) daughter Aethelberg to Northumbria on her marriage to its King Edwin. |
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669 | Chad establishes an episcopal organization in the kingdom of Mercia. |
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673 | Archbishop Theodore organizes the Church in England into dioceses with settled boundaries, and parishes. |
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10th cent. | 'Peter's Pence' paid to the papacy for the upkeep of St Mary's in Rome now becomes an obligatory tax on the people. |
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1002 | November 13: King Aethelred authorizes the massacre of all Danish settlers on St. Bride's Day in an attempt to exterminate them from his kingdom. |
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1066 | The Church in England is brought under Papal jurisdiction. King William I (The Conqueror) allows Church courts to be established for the first time in England. |
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1070 | Lanfranc as archbishop of Canterbury establishes the priority of his see over that of York. |
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12th cent. | 'Peter's Pence' tax to the Pope is now set at 299 silver marks per year. |
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1144 | Norwich monk, Thomas of Monmouth, accuses Jews of the ritual murder of a child (William of Norwich), encouraged by monks of monasteries heavily indebted to Jewish money-lenders. This causes anti-Jewish riots and murders. Thomas' book on the subject launches the 'blood libel' against Jews across Europe. |
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1166 | A group of twenty non-conformist evangelists arrive in England from the Continent. They are publicly branded by the Church, chained and left to die, for denying infant baptism and the Mass. |
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1179 | The Leper Proscription ritual is instituted, in which the leper stands at an open grave with a black cloth upon the head to the words of –
except with lepers.' |
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1186 | September: The Archbishop of Canterbury calls a three day fast throughout Britain to prepare, as the 'Toledo Letter' prophecy spreads through Europe setting the year 1186 as the apocalyptic coming of the Millennium. |
See
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1196 | Archbishop of Canterbury, Hubert Walter, as the king's justiciar, sends officers to arrest 'champion of the poor' William FitzOsbert (known as Longbeard), London citizen and leader of a protest against unfair distribution of taxation and oppression of the poor. An officer is killed and William seeks refuge with friends in St Mary-le-Bow church. The Archbishop's troops set fire to the church to force him out, and William and nine of his supporters are tied to horses tails, dragged to Tyburn and hanged. William's gibbet is secretly removed and cherished as a martyr's relic and the place of his execution is treated as sacred until the Archbishop spreads a story that William had defiled the church and was in league with Satan. |
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13-14th cent | The church's taxing of the poor by death-duties ('mortuaries') is increasingly resented. Nevertheless, the practice continues, as in the Vicar of Morstow's claim to –
"the best day-garment of each parishioner that dieth in the said parish"
and the Rector of Silverton's requirement of – "the second-best possession or best" of the deceased: effectively, it is a church tax of the bereaved. |
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1209 | The Pope excommunicates king John. |
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1210 | More non-conformist 'heretics' arriving in England are burned at the stake. |
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1215 | Archbishop Langton assists in engineering the Magna Carta and helps insert three anti-Jewish clauses. |
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1222 | The Synod of Oxford, at the request of Archbishop Stephen Langton, prescribes that all Jews must wear a distinctive woolen patch on their clothing. |
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1238 | The papal legate flees for his life from Oxford as its student-clerks shout –
"Where is that usurer, that simoniac, robber of revenues and insatiate of money who, perverting our king and subverting our kingdom, plunders us to fill strangers' coffers?" |
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1327 | January 13: The Bishop of Hereford preaches against the imprisoned King Edward II. January 14: The Bishop of Winchester preaches against the imprisoned King Edward II. January 15: The Archbishop of Canterbury preaches against the imprisoned King Edward II and announces that the king is now deposed, on the basis that 'the voice of the people is the voice of God'. September 21: ('homosexual') Edward II is executed. Hereafter, Gloucester abbey accepts revenue from devotees in veneration of King Edward II as an unofficial saint. |
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1353 | The Statute of Praemunire places restraints on papal intervention in England. |
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1366 | The Church forbids anyone listening to the preaching of revolutionary priest John Ball, who dares to preach at Blackheath –
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1377 | Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury, and the Bishop of London, William Courtenay, arraign John Wycliffe. Wycliffe's secular supporters, including Earl Marshal of England (Lord Henry Percy), provide protection. The session breaks up over argument between Percy and Courtenay as to whether Wycliffe should be allowed to sit down or not, to answer charges. |
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1382 | May 17: Archbishop of Canterbury, William Courtenay, convokes a church council at Blackfriars which condemns John Wycliffe (Master of Balliol College, Oxford) and Nicholas Hereford (Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford). Hereford flees the country in fear of being burnt as a heretic, Wycliffe is forbidden to teach at Oxford and forced to retire to his rectory at Lutterworth. (See 1428). |
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1401 | March: A special parliamentary sanction is granted to Archbishop Arundel for the execution of William Sawtrey, a priest from Lynn in Norfolk, for preaching Wycliffe's doctrines, as legislation allowing it had not yet been passed. Sawtrey is burnt alive in public, at Smithfield in London.
Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury pressures the king and parliament to pass an act forbidding the owning or producing of a translation of the Bible and punishing heretics with burning at the stake, entitled – De Haeretico Comburendo. Hereby all English bishops are now empowered to arrest and try people for heresy, but this must be done in open court within three months of arrest. Those found guilty may be imprisoned indefinitely at the discretion of the church or 'relaxed' (released from protection of the church) and so handed to the secular authority for execution which would – 'cause [them] to be burnt that such punishment may strike fear to the minds of others'. |
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1408 | Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury creates the Constitutions of Oxford to condemn and prevent any translations of the Bible into English or any other language and to prevent reading or use of the same, upon pain of greater excommunication. Those guilty are
Relapsed persons are to be publicly burnt alive.
Arundel writes to the Pope describing Wycliffe's worst sin as being to devise – 'the expedient of a new translation of Scripture into the mother tongue'
– and that Wycliffe is therefore the 'son of the Serpent, herald and child of Antichrist'. (See 1382). |
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1428 | Bishop Richard Fleming of Lincoln and his clergy (on instruction of the Pope Martin V) supervise the disinterment of John Wycliffe's remains (died December 1384 while rector of Lutterworth), the formal defrocking of his corpse and its public burning at the stake for heresy, after which his ashes are cast into the river Swift. |
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1514 | Saturday, December 2: Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, imprisons Richard Hunne for continued defiance of canon law in refusing surrender to the church the sheet in which his now deceased son (aged five weeks), Stephen, had been christened. Sunday December 3: Richard Hunne is strangled to death by two church employees (church jailer C.Joseph and church bell-ringer J.Spalding) on instruction of William Horsey, chancellor to Bishop Fritzjames, making it appear as a suicide. December 16: Bishop Tunstall convenes a trial of the deceased on charges of heresy for assumed 'Lollard' sympathies. Hunne is condemned and his estate confiscated to the church leaving his family penniless. December 20: Hunne's corpse is publicly burnt at the stake at Smithfield. |
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1521 | Cardinal Wolsey presides over the public burning of Lutheran books at St Paul's Cross, London. Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, issues a violently anti-Lutheran polemic Assertionis Lutheranae Confutatio. |
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1524 | Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, summons London's printers to warn of the penalties for handling heretical books, and issues the first licensing order for imported books, without which (episcopal permission) no book may be brought into the realm. No new books may be published without consent of a board of censors. |
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1526 | February 11: Another penitential procession of recanting 'heretics' (for reading Luther) rides backward on donkeys to St Paul's with faggots tied to their backs for a mass by Cardinal Wolsey and polemic by the Bishop of Rochester, after which a public burning of 'heretical' books is held.
August: A conclave of bishops recommends punishment to the king of those who possess or read the New Testament in English (translated by Tyndale) –
October 23: Bishop Tunstall issues a proclamation warning against the 'craftily' translated New Testament into English by 'maintainers of Luther's sect'. October 28: Many copies of the New Testament in English by William Tyndale are publicly burnt at St Paul's Cross after Bishop of London, Tunstall, declares Tyndale's Testament as doctrinam peregrinam (strange doctrine). |
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1527 | Bishop Tunstall condemns the gentle Thomas Bilney (evangelical priest ministering to lepers) for preaching justification by faith. He recants under threat of burning and is imprisoned in the Tower. (See March 1531). |
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1528 | February: Bishop of London (Tunstall) begins a six-month campaign to arrest 'Lollards', Lutherans, and readers of Tyndale's Bible.
March: Church prisons are now full and suspects are being kept in criminal prisons. John Hig of Cheshunt is found guilty and sentenced to public penance (which he completes) and to wear an embroidered faggot on his sleeve for the rest of his life. He pleads that no one will employ him and he would be reduced to beggary –
Anne Boleyn (later married to King Henry VIII) writes to Cardinal Wolsey to plead for mercy for an Oxford priest imprisoned for buying English New Testaments –
October 2: Tyndale's 'The Obedience of a Christian Man' is published by Martin Lempereur in Antwerp and finds its way via Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. |
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1530 | February 23: Reverend Thomas Hitton is publicly burnt alive at Maidstone after condemnation as a heretic by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
May 24: Archbishop Warham issues a denunciation, at a meeting of 'divines', of Tyndale's 'corrupted' translation of the Old Testament 'as in the New', and a Public Instrument for the 'abolishing of the Scripture and other Books to be read in English'.
The Bishop of London demonstrates this ban by a great public burning of New Testaments and other books in St Paul's churchyard. July: The bishops and abbots of the House of Lords petition the pope to agree to Henry VIII's divorce. |
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1531 | January 21: The Convocation of clergy is threatened by the king for support of Wolsey and asks his pardon and the restoration of their judicial authority.
February 7: King Henry VIII addresses parliament with the demand that he be recognised as the – 'sole protector and supreme head of the English Church and clergy'.
Bishop John Fisher of Rochester argues that royal supremacy of the Church is
'a tearing of the seamless coat of Christ in sunder ...
We renounce the unity of the Christian world and so leap out of Peter's ship, to be drowned in the waves of all heresies, sects, schisms and divisions.' February 11: The bishops insist on the addition of a clause to the king's supremacy over the Church – 'quantum per legem Dei licet' (as far as God's law allows).
By order of the bishop of Worcester's chancellor (Thomas Parker), the corpse of William Tracey, squire of Toddington (Gloucestershire), is dug up and publicly burnt as a heretic, for instructing in his Will that no money should be paid to the church to pray for his soul after death. March: Thomas Bilney is condemned for heresy by Bishop Nix of Norwich and 'relaxed' to the secular power for burning. James Bainham is locked in irons and stocks in the Bishop Stokesley's coal cellar at Fulham Palace. After several weeks of whippings in the Tower he is handed to the sheriff for burning. April 30: James Bainham testifies of his evangelical faith to a supportive London crowd as he stands chained to a stake upon a barrel of pitch. He prays God's forgiveness upon his judge, Thomas More, before the fire 'took his bowels and his head'. The following week his executioner attempts suicide. August 19: Reverend Thomas Bilney is publicly burnt alive at Norwich. December 4: Thomas More writes of Richard Bayfield's martyrdom at Smithfield – 'the monk and apostata' was 'well and worthely burned in Smythfelde' |
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1532 | January: Parliament passes an act restraining the payment of 'first fruits' (annata) to the pope (the first year's revenues from an ecclesiastical benefice), to the benefit of the crown. March: A petition (Supplication of the Commons Against the Ordinaries) delivered to the king complains of the 'cruel demeanoure' of the clergy toward the 'bodyes and goodes' of his subjects and appealing for an end to clerical (judicial) privilege. May 8: A deputation of bishops implores the king to defend their powers. May 11: The king addresses parliament and among other makes it clear that he wishes bishops not to have the power to arrest persons accused of heresy. May 15: The Convocation of Bishops commits to the 'Submission of the Clergy' by which no new canon law may be made without royal agreement and a bishop is no longer the final judge of heresy in his diocese. Thomas More resigns in protest. August 22: Archbishop Warham dies and the king arranges, at Anne Boleyn's request, for Thomas Cranmer to be elected as successor. |
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1533 | Thomas Cranmer becomes archbishop of Canterbury and declares Henry VIII's marriage to his brother's widow invalid, thus clearing the way for his remarriage. June 1: Anne Boleyn is crowned queen of England by Archbishop Cranmer. June 17: Archbishop Cranmer hands John Frith to notorious Bishop Stokesley in whose diocese he had been arrested for evangelical views. June 23: Bishop Stokesley 'relaxes' Frith to the secular power for public burning, and he is held at Newgate prison with his neck bound to a post by an iron collar. July 4: John Frith and Andrew Hewitt are bound to the stake at Smithfield for burning. The Rector forbids the crowd present to pray for the 'heretics', no more than for a dog, as they burn. |
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1534 | April 17: Thomas More is imprisoned by the abbot of Westminster, after refusing to swear allegiance to the king over the pope before Archbishop Cranmer.
April 20: The nun, Elizabeth Barton, after interrogation by Archbishop Cranmer (probably involving torture), together with five priests is hanged at Tyburn for condemning the king's defiance of the pope. The priests, when half dead, have their penises cut off and thrust in their mouths, before their stomachs are opened and they are eviscerated and decapitated. Their heads are parboiled and set on poles on London bridge. November: Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, confirming the king to be – 'the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia'. |
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1536 | William Tyndale, translator of the New Testament into English, is burnt alive at the stake for heresy. King Henry VIII issues the 'Ten Articles', which show a measure of toleration toward Protestantism. (See 1539). |
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1538 | The Church of England accepts the monarch as its supreme governor and the Pope's jurisdiction is repudiated. November 24: Four 'Anabaptists' are forced to carry faggots in penance to St Paul's Cross, London, on the same day as Bishop Hinsley preaches an exposé of 'feigned relics' by the Catholic Church. December 17: Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII for declaring himself head of the English Church. |
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1539 | King Henry VIII issues the 'Six Articles' (proposed by the Duke of Norfolk, May 16) reaffirming Catholic doctrine (penalties under this church-approved act range from imprisonment and fine to death), which forces the resignation of Bishop Hugh Latimer. (See 1555).
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1547 | January 28, 2AM: King Henry VIII dies and the Protestant party triumphs. |
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1549 | The first Book of Common Prayer is issued under Archbishop Cranmer. |
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1552 | A revised Book of Common Prayer is issued under Archbishop Cranmer. |
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1555 | Bishop Latimer remarks to Bishop Nicholas Ridley (of London) as they burn for heresy at Oxford:
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1559 | April: The 'Act of Uniformity of Common Prayer, and Service in the Church, and Administration of the Sacraments' is passed in Parliament by a majority of three votes, for enforcement from 24 June. December 17: Bishop William Barlow leads the ordination of Matthew Parker, supported by bishops John Scory, Miles Coverdale (all three deprived of this status by Queen Mary), and John Hodgkins, thus beginning the Anglican 'apostolic succession' at Lambeth, London, according to the Edwardine rite. |
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1563 | The Elizabethan Church settlement is defined under Archbishop Matthew Parker by the 'Thirty-nine Articles'. |
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1564 | Bishop John Jewel's book, 'The Apology of the Church of England', is published in Latin and English as a defence of episcopacy. |
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1604 | January: King James I of England arranges the Hampton Court Conference to debate the adoption of Calvinistic articles of faith. The conference also authorizes the King James version of the Bible. |
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1626 | January 17: Bishop William Laud (of Bath and Wells) presses the 'divine right' of episcopacy on king Charles I for its enforcement over foreign religious refugees. (See 1637) |
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1633 | William Laud becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and teaches the 'divine right' of kings. Laud did not make church services more Protestant. Instead, he tells ministers to put the Communion table back at the east end of the church, and to decorate it with cloths, candles and a cross. People are told to bow at the name of Jesus. Laud's religious rules make many people angry.
To the Puritans, they are no better than superstition and idol-worship. |
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1637 | Archbishop William Laud becomes the most powerful figure in England's Privy Council and continues his vicious satisfaction in the cruel public punishments and executions of Puritans which he sponsors over trivial issues. For instance: June: Archbishop Laud presides as judge in sentencing Presbyterian Dr John Bastwick, Puritan divine Dr Henry Burton, and William Prynne to have their ears cut off, their faces branded with a hot iron, fined the massive sum of £5,000 and then thrown into prison for the rest of their lives, for criticism of himself (Burton), his bishops (Bastwick), and the theatre (Prynne). (Robertson 2006, p.47). |
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Laud | tries to make the people of Scotland obey his Church of England rules. The result is the Bishops' Wars. The Scots rebel and invade the north of England. The war against Scotland is not very dangerous, but it is expensive.
In 1640 the king is forced to bring back Parliament to ask them to give him money for the war. |
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1645 | January 10: Archbishop Laud is beheaded, episcopacy abolished and its diocesan framework discarded. |
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1660 | Charles II installed as king. Church persecution of Non-conformists begins. Only nine elderly bishops remain to continue 'apostolic succession' ordination. |
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1661 | January 30: The decomposed bodies of Bradshawe, Cromwell and Ireton are dug up from their graves (on the anniversary of King CHARLES I rightful execution for treason) and hanged at Tyburn before a huge crowd which includes the ladies of CHARLES II's court, on a day marked by 'solemn fasting sermons and prayers at every parish church, singing newly composed psalms to the glory of the king and bishops:
"Angels look down, and joy to see Like that above, a monarchy." |
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1662 | The English "Act of Uniformity" makes it impossible for Anglican bishops to continue in communion with other Christians whose ministers lack 'apostolic succession'. Official Church Prayer Book is issued to the nation as the Act of Uniformity is implemented. Episcopacy is enforced and church ministry limited to those so ordained. |
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1666 | The great fire of London burns. The Bishop of London earns the greatest notoriety of all unjust creditors in the city; such as by forcing booksellers who had stored their book stocks in the basement of St Paul cathedral before it was burnt down, and others who had also lost everything, to continue paying rent to the church for non-existent use. |
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1673 | The Test Act deprives Catholics and Non-conformists of public office. |
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1681 | David Clarkson (ejected from Cambridge University under the Act of Uniformity 1662) publishes his vigorous –
'No Evidence of Diocesan Episcopacy in Primitive Times'. |
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1682-1686 | John Hilton (bully, a liar, a blackmailer and a rapacious fraudster), with his vicious younger brother, George, terrorises London with the connivance of some of the highest figures in the land. Their victims are Protestant Dissenters: the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Quakers who, contrary to the laws for Anglican uniformity, worshipped in illegal conventicles. The gang infiltrates their meetings, lays information against them, secures justices’ warrants, gives evidence in court, and, when fines are not paid, break down their doors and shop hatches and seize and sell their goods. They loudly trumpet their services to Anglican orthodoxy and the King’s government, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, thought them useful, for ‘there must be some crooked timber used in building a ship’. |
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1689 | The Revolution Settlement. |
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1697-1717 | Controversy concerning Royal supremacy over the Church continues. |
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1704 | Queen Anne establishes the 'Queen Anne's Bounty' for the augmentation of the maintenance of poor (Anglican only) clergy. |
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1717 | The Crown stops future Convocations of the Church from doing business. |
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1741 | After incitement by local Anglican clergy, Methodist preacher William Seward is first blinded and then torn to pieces by a mob in the village of Hay. |
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1784 | The Church of England communion in the United States becomes independent as the Protestant Episcopal Church. |
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1828 | The government passes the Test and Corporation Acts. | ||||||||||||||
1829 | The government passes the Catholic Emancipation Act. | ||||||||||||||
1833 | The government attempts to abolish bishoprics in Ireland but fails. |
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1836 | The government passes the Established Church Act and the Tithes Act |
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1838 | The government passes the Church Pluralities Act. W.E. Gladstone's 'The State in its Relation with the Church' presents the case for the continued Royal supremacy and establishment of the Church, including – to acknowledge all denominations equally would be confused and unsatisfactory to 'everyone'. |
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1840 | The government passes the Church Discipline Act and the Sinecures Act. |
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1850 | The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council over-rule the Anglican Court of Arches' 1849 decision in the case of the Reverend Gorham versus the Bishop of Exeter. |
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1858 | July 23: The British Oath of Allegiance is modified to allow Jews to sit in Parliament. |
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1867 | In Natal, South Africa – The heretical teachings of fallibility of Holy Scripture by Bishop Colenso continue to be defended by his church today. At that time, the bishop of Cape Town, South Africa, Bishop Gray, supported by 40 other bishops deposed Colenso for his heresy. Colenso refused to submit. A church court confirmed his deposition but Colenso appealed to a secular court, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain and he was reinstated. This created a schism in the South African church that lasted until Colenso’s death. (These damaging errors of Colenso have never been acknowledged by this diocese, let alone repented of. He is simply described by them as a 'nonconformist'). |
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1889 | Black bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther of West Africa resigns after endless obstructions and unwillingness of the Church's white missionaries to work under him. |
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1936 | Archbishop Lang broadcasts to the nation condemning the abdicating king, Edward VIII, eliciting the lines from his critics:
'My Lord Archbishop, what a scold you are! And when your man is down, how bold you are! Of Christian charity how scant you are! And, auld Lang swine, how full of Cantaur!' |
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1948 | The Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty are amalgamated as the Church Commissioners. |
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1977 | The Crown Appointments Commission is set up for the appointment of bishops, to be served by the Patronage Secretary of the Prime Minister and Archbishops' Patronage Secretary, in a highly confidential manner. |
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1982 | Anglican decline in the United Kingdom since 1960 –
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1987 | December: Revd Gareth Bennet, author of the anonymous Preface to Crockford's Clerical Directory 1987/88, commits suicide under pressure to publicly admit his authorship after his denial of the same. His Preface contains comments such as –
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1992 | The issue of the ordination of women priests threatens the unity of the Anglican world community. November 11: After a five-and-a-half hour debate the General Synod – the Church of England's parliament – passed the controversial legislation allowing the ordination of women as priests by a margin of only two votes. |
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1994 | Women begin to be ordained as priests. |
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1998 | The Lambeth Conference condemns sexual activity outside of marriage. |
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. . . THE BEGINNING OF THE END . . . | |||||||||||||||
2003 | The internationally successful non-denominational evangelical Alpha Course, based at Holy Trinity Brompton, is called into question by senior Anglican clergy for esteeming the Bible too highly and uncritically. |
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A | breakaway conservative US church, the Anglican Church in North America (Acna) is formed, which is not officially part of the Anglican communion. Acna is formed following the rift when the original US Anglican body decides to ordain Gene Robinson, an openly gay/homosexual bishop. |
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2004 | Marian Catholic dogma begins its path of acceptance in the Anglican communion of churches.
The joint Anglican-Catholic statement regarding the so-called Immaculate Conception – “In view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One (Luke 1:35), we can affirm together that Christ's redeeming work reached 'back in Mary to the depths of her being, and to her earliest beginnings. This is not contrary to the teaching of Scripture, and can only be understood in the light of Scripture. Roman Catholics can recognize in this what is affirmed by the dogma – namely 'preserved from all stain of original sin' and 'from the first moment of her conception.'” (Yet Mary herself called God her 'Saviour'! – 'Saved' then from what? Luke 1:47). |
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'Mary' Blasphemy | And of the so-called Assumption of Mary – “we can affirm together the teaching that God has taken the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fullness of her person into his glory as consonant with Scripture and that it can, indeed, only be understood in the light of Scripture. Roman Catholics can recognize that this teaching about Mary is contained in the dogma” (paragraph 58). |
See: Objects of the Society of Mary |
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2007 | February 19: ARCIC issues Growing Together in Unity and Mission, which states – “The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in accordance with Christ’s will for the Church and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth" and that “We urge Anglicans and Roman Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion.” |
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Saturday December 8: In Fresno, California – The entire San Joaquin Episcopal Diocese of of the U.S. Episcopal Church votes to secede over the church's expanding support for homosexual and women's rights. Clergy and lay representatives vote to leave the US Episcopal church, which has been in turmoil since 2003 when U.S. Episcopalians consecrated their first openly homosexual bishop. Delegates vote to align the 8,800-member US diocese with the conservative Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, based in South America. |
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2008 | September 24: Archbishop Rowan Williams praises the Catholic saint (Barnadette Sourbirous) as an inspiration for founding the Lourdes shrine, on a visit to it. At the Lambeth conference, more than 250 bishops out of 800 stay away in protest at the liberal sympathies of then-Archbishop Rowan Williams. |
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2009
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December 5: In Los Angeles, California – Practicing Lesbian, the Rev. Mary Glasspool of Baltimore is elected to be consecrated as assistant bishop in the Los Angeles diocese. Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno, who leads the diocese, urged Episcopal dioceses to approve Glasspool's election and not base their decision on fear of how other Anglicans will react.
December 16: Auckland, New Zealand – Anglican Christmas billboard depicting a downcast Joseph lying beside Mary in bed and the heading "Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow" is defended by the vicar Archdeacon Glynn Cardy as a challenge about the way Jesus was conceived –
Cardy describes his church as having very 'liberal' ideas about Christianity. |
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2015 | British Social Attitudes surveys suggest that the number of Anglicans in the UK has fallen"from 40% of the population in 1983, to 29% in 2004, to 17% last year" (2014). |
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The
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Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Rachel Treweek (the Church’s most senior clergywoman) is introduced to the Upper House today as one of Parliament’s 26 Lords Spiritual. Speaking before the event, the bishop raises the issue of God’s gender, saying: "We’re told that God created human beings in God’s likeness... If I am made in the image of God, then God is not to be seen as male. God is God." Reverend Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, vicar of Belmont and Pittington in Durham, who is a member of the General Synod and also vice-chair of pressure group Watch (Women And The Church), which promotes inclusive language in the Church of England, welcomed the bishop’s comments. |
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2016 January: | At a meeting of primates (chief archbishops from Anglican churches around the world), called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, approves a document which states –
"recent developments in the Episcopal Church with respect to a change in their Canon on marriage represent a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of our Provinces on the doctrine of marriage, ..."The traditional doctrine of the Church in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union. The majority of those gathered reaffirm this teaching." It added that the U.S. Episcopal Church’s decision to recognise 'gay marriage' was – "a departure from the mutual accountability and interdependence implied through being in relationship with each other in the Anglican Communion. ...Such actions further impair our communion and create a deeper mistrust between us".
The Archbishop of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali, walked out of the Canterbury meeting after his request that the U.S. and Canadian churches voluntarily withdraw from the meeting and other Anglican Communion activities until they have repented of their decisions was denied. |
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14: | In the UK – After four days of talks chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Communion suspends its U.S. branch for three years over its support for same-sex 'marriage'. The U.S. Episcopal Church voted in July 2015 to authorize its clergy to perform same-sex weddings and to change the church's definition of 'marriage' to include homosexual relationships. The Primates recommend that the Episcopal Church no longer be allowed to represent the Anglican Communion on interfaith bodies nor be able to vote on matters of Anglican doctrine or practice. |
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15: | In the UK – The Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby states that Easter should be on the same Sunday every year, speaking after a meeting of Anglican primates in Canterbury, Kent, this week. Easter Sunday which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus is on the first day of the week (Sunday) after the Jewish Passover Friday on which He was crucified. The Jewish Passover date varies from year to year as it in a moon-based calender. Easter Sunday falls on 27 March this year, on 16 April next year and on 1 April in 2018. |
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December | 9: In the UK – The Church of England issues a formal alert to almost 500 parishes in London about the activities of the group known as Parachristo linked to a controversial South Korean group known as Shinchonji (SCJ) – or the "New Heaven and New Earth”\" church (NHNE) – whose founder Man-Hee Lee is referred to as God’s "advocate". The organisation, a registered charity, runs Bible study courses at an anonymous industrial unit under a Botox clinic and a personal training company in London Docklands. HTB, as it is commonly known, counts about 4,000 in the pews on a Sunday as well as having “planted” 35 other congregations. The Rev Nicky Gumbel, vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, issued a stark warning to members of his congregation in an email last month calling Parachristo a "cult which has been recruiting from HTB and other churches". |
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2018 February: | Church of England spending on issues relating to sexual abuse has increased fivefold since 2014 and the latest figures show it was dealing with more than 3,300 allegations in 2016. The disclosures come as the church prepares to face intense scrutiny by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), which starts hearing evidence next month. "This will not be an easy couple of years — we will hear deeply painful accounts of abuse, of poor response, of ‘cover-up’. We will … feel a deep sense of shame," Peter Hancock, the bishop of Bath and Wells and the C of E’s lead bishop on safeguarding, told the general synod in London. Professional safeguarding advisers have been appointed to every diocese to deal with disclosures of abuse, but Hancock said the pace of change needed to accelerate. "For too long the church has not responded well to those who allege abuse within our church communities. This is now changing and further change is needed." Many survivors of clerical sexual abuse "remain deeply mistrustful, suspicious and angry towards the church," he said. |
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May 12: | Dame Sarah Mullally has been installed as the 133rd Bishop of London at St Paul's Cathedral - becoming one of the most senior figures in the Church of England and the first woman to hold the post. The former nurse was invested on International Nurses Day – Florence Nightingale's birthday – echoing the new bishop's former career as a nurse.
Bishop Mullally called for a culture that "challenges deference and the abuse of power" and for victims of abuse to be listened to. She added: "We need to speak up for the whole of London, to work to challenge the violence and the crime that have led mothers to clean their own children's blood from our pavements. "Could there be a starker image or a more urgent wake-up call for all who love this city, who believe it can have an even better future?" |
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15: | When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stand before the altar at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, London, a refuge of the British monarch for a thousand years, the Archbishop of Canterbury will tie the knot with vows from the Common Book of Prayer that read "to have and to hold ... until death do us part." Not so very long ago, this wedding — with this service and this officiant at this place – would have been impossible. Not because Markle is an American and a commoner, marrying a prince now sixth in line for the throne. And not because the actress is biracial, raised Episcopalian and attended Catholic school in Los Angeles. No, such a service would have been opposed by the Church of England hierarchy because Markle is divorced and her former husband, Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson, is still alive. "That would have been a no-no," said Andrew Goddard, an Anglican priest at St. James the Less in London and an authority on the history of Christian attitudes toward marriage. Even though the Anglican church was founded by a king wanting to rid himself of his queen, the British royal family and the religion it heads have been struggling with divorce and remarriage for centuries. "It’s not until the last half of the 20th century that divorce becomes common and the stigma begins to falls away," Goddard said, adding that there are still traditionalists in the Church of England who believe that “marriage means forever," full stop. Harry and Markle’s ceremony on Saturday will be the first full-blown royal wedding of a divorced partner to take place with the loving embrace of the fusty English church. |
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