The Ecclesiastical and Political Implications of Royal Supremacy over the Church of England

In October 1993, I had to decide whether it was proper for me, as an unbeliever, to go to Parliament to vote in favour of a Church of England measure. Was it proper that laymen, not members of the church, not involved in the decisions taken, should be allowed to sit in Parliament to decide what the law of the church should be? After some discussion, I was persuaded it was proper, and cast my vote accordingly. In that decision, I recognized the triumph of one version of the Royal Supremacy over another. It is the triumph of Christopher St. German over Bishop Stephen Gardiner, of Sir Francis Knollys over Queen Elizabeth I, of Chief Justice Coke over Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, and of John Pym over Archbishop Laud. That triumph took a century to arrive after Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy, and, like many other triumphs, it threw out a promising baby with its mess of popish bath-water.

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Book Review: Episcopacy and the Royal Supremacy in the Church of England in the Sixteenth Century

Theology ◽

10.1177/0040571x5005336415 ◽

1950 ◽

Vol 53 (364) ◽

pp. 395-397

Author(s):

John Shirley

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Church Of England ◽

Royal Supremacy ◽

The Church

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Reformers and the Church of England under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History ◽

10.1017/s002204690004478x ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 463-482 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Paul Christianson

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Church Of England ◽

Good Deal ◽

Point Of View ◽

Political Implications ◽

New Synthesis ◽

The Social ◽

History Of ◽

Stuart England ◽

The Church

During the past forty years, the religious history of Elizabethan and early Stuart England has received a great deal of attention from intellectual, social and Church historians. Because of the nature of the general interpretation traditionally followed, most scholars have found it fruitful to concentrate their research upon particular groups or individuals and to fit the ensuing studies into either a rather narrow stream labelled ‘Anglican’ or a very broad one named ‘Puritan’. While the number of biographies of English bishops and analyses of ‘Anglican’ divines has increased at a more than respectable rate recently, studies of English ‘Puritans’ and their brethren in New England have grown to almost unmanageable proportions. With all of these riches at hand, however, no recent historian has published an overall synthetic history of the Church of England under Elizabeth and the early Stuarts to match that completed by W. H. Frere more than two-thirds of a century ago. Indeed, a good deal of controversy still ranges over the boundaries and validity of such terms as ‘Anglican’ and—especially— ‘Puritan’. Plunging into that dispute, this paper will examine the nature and historiographical origins of these categories, redefine them so that they better apply to the evidence from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and spell out some of the social and political implications that spring from this modified point of view. While the argument presented here, no doubt, will neither please nor satisfy all historians working in the field, one hopes that it will provide some with a glimpse at the outlines of a new synthesis.

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Legacies

The Puritans ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691151397.003.0011 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 342-354

Author(s):

David D. Hall

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

The State ◽

Book Of Common Prayer ◽

Prayer Book ◽

Royal Supremacy ◽

Charles Ii ◽

Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽

William Iii ◽

Common Prayer ◽

The Church

This epilogue recounts how Puritanism as a movement within the Church of England came to an end in 1662, when some 1,600 ministers who refused to conform were “ejected” and, thereafter, became known as Dissenters (or Dissent). Anyone who accepted the provisions of the Act of Uniformity of May 1662 had to prove that a bishop had ordained him or accept ordination anew. Conformity also required scrupulous adherence to the Book of Common Prayer. Understandably, some of the ejected ministers found their way back into the state church or, because of local circumstances, were able to carry on their ministry for a while. Meanwhile, the situation in Scotland is less easily summarized. There, episcopacy was restored and the royal supremacy reaffirmed, but no English-style prayer book was reimposed. The Scots who thought of themselves as Presbyterians continued to practice their tradition, although they were harshly criticized for compromising with government of Charles II by countrymen who clung to the covenants of 1638 and 1643. On all sides, the personal tragedies were many. Even after William III agreed to replace episcopal governance with Presbyterian, schisms continued to fracture the kirk in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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The Canons of the Church of England

10.1093/oso/9780198807568.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Hill QC

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

Church Of Christ ◽

Book Of Common Prayer ◽

Ecclesiastical Courts ◽

Royal Supremacy ◽

Common Prayer ◽

The Church

This section presents the canons of the Church of England. It begins with a background on the Church of England, focusing on the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer, and the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons, along with the doctrine and government of the Church, the royal supremacy, and schisms within the Church of Christ. The chapter proceeds by discussing the Church's divine service and administration of the sacraments; church ministers, their irdination, functions, and charge; the order of deaconesses; the lay officers of the Church; things appertaining to churches; the ecclesiastical courts; and the synods of the Church. Finally, it explains how any canon to the repealed enactment may be interpreted.

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‘Schismatics be now plain heretics’: debating the royal supremacy over the Church of England

10.1017/cbo9780511496035.003 ◽

2002 ◽

pp. 29-60

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

Royal Supremacy ◽

The Church

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Rendering unto Caesar?: The Politics of Church of England Clergy since 1980

Journal of Anglican Studies ◽

10.1177/1740355307077935 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 89-108 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Clive D. Field

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

Religion And Politics ◽

Party Politics ◽

Moral Issues ◽

Political Implications ◽

Political Views ◽

Degree Of Separation ◽

Analysis And Synthesis ◽

The Church ◽

The Ideal

ABSTRACTThis is the first systematic attempt to chart the evolving political views of contemporary Church of England clergy. The article is based upon a comparative quantitative analysis and synthesis of eighteen national and four local surveys conducted between 1979 and 2004. Ministerial opinions on the state's influence on the Church and the Church's influence on the state are both considered. Ten specific conclusions are drawn. While the clergy generally cling to the concept of an Established Church, they are very critical of some of the traditional manifestations of that establishment. They also mostly think it highly appropriate for the Church to intervene in the world of party politics, and not simply on moral issues. In this they are positioned ahead of the thinking of many of the committed Anglican laity, for whom a degree of separation of religion and politics remains the ideal. The academic, ecclesiastical and political implications of these findings are briefly explored.

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