succ( ss during the reign of Henry, hut obtained a ma- jority in the regency which ruled England during the minority of Edward VI. I'eter Mart] r, < techino, Buo r. and Fagius were .ailed to England to aid Cranmer in carrying through the Reformation. The basis was laid in the Hook of Homilies (1547), the new English liturgy (the Book of Common Prayer, 1548), and the Forty-two Articles (1552); hut the labors ol Cranmer were inter- rupted by the death of Edward V I (1553). His suc- cessor, queen .Mary, the daughter of Henry and Catha- rine of Aragon, was a devoted partisan of the Church ot Rome, during who-.- reign Cranmer and from three
hundred to four hundred other per>on> were •
on account of their religion. A papal nuncio appeared in England, and an obsequious parliament sanctioned
the reunion with Rome; hut the all'ectioiis of the peo- ple were not regained, and the early death of Mary (1558) put an end to the official restoration of the Pa- pal church. Queen Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, whose birth, in consequence of the papal decision, was regarded by the Roman Catholics as illegitimate, resumed the work of her father, and
npleted the English Reformation, as distinct both
from the Church of Rome and the Reformations of Germany and Switzerland. The Hook of Common Prayer which had been adopted under Edward was so i hanged as to he less oll'eiisive to Catholics, and by the Act of Uniformity, June, 1559, it was made bind- ing on all the churches of the kingdom. Most of the ( a i holies conformed; of 9400 clergy, their bem Bet - were only lost by fourteen bishops, fifteen heads of ecclesias- tical corporations, fifty canons, and about eighty prie-ls. Matthew Parker, the former teacher of the queen, was appointed archbishop of Canterbury. The validity of his ordination, which was not sanctioned by the pope. nor made according to the Roman rite, was at once dis- puted in numerous < at holic writings, hut has also found s ■ Catholic defenders, as Le Cuurayer. The Confes- sion of Faith which had been drawn up under Edward in forty-two articles was reduced to thirty-nine articles. and in this form it was adopted by a convocation of the clergy at London in 1562, and by Parliament made, in 1571, the ride of faith for all the clergy. According to the Thirty-nine Articles, the Scriptures contain every- thing necessary to salvation ; justification is through faith alone, hut works acceptable to (hid are the neces- sary fruit of this faith; in the Lord'.- supper tie re is ;l communion of the body of Christ, which is spiritually received by faith; ami predestination is apprehended only as it is a source of consolation. Supreme power over the Church is vested in tin' English crown, hut it is limited by the statutes. Bishops continued to he the highest ecclesiastical officers and the tir-t barons of the realm. Subscription to the articles was made binding only on the clergy: to the laity freedom of conscience was allowed. The adoption oi' the Thirty- nine Articles completed, in the main, the constitution of the Episcopal Church of England. Some parts of the Church government and the liturgy, especially the retaining of sacerdotal vestments, gave ureal offence to a number of zealous friends of a radical religious refor- mation who had suffered persecution during the reign
Of Mary. and. w Idle exiles, had Income strongly attached to the principles of strict Calvinism. The)- demanded a great* r purity of the < 'liurch t hence their name Puri- tans), a simple, spiritual form of worship, a Btricl church discipline, and a Presbyterian form of government. The Act of Uniformity (1559) threatened all Nonconform- ists wilh line- and imprisonment, and their ministers with deposition and banishment. When the provisions of the ad began to he enforced, a number of the Non- conformist clergy formed separate congregations in con- nection with presbyteries (since 1572), and a consider- able portion of i he clergy and laity of the Established i hutch bj mpatbized with them. The rupture between t he part ies was w idened in 1592 by an act of Parliament that all who obstinately refused to attend public wor-
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ship, or led others to do so, should be imprisoned and submit, or after three months be banished; and again in 1595, when the Presbyterians applied the Mosaic Sab- bath laws to the Christian Sunday, and when Calvin's doctrines respecting predestination excited animated disputes.
A much more uncompromising opposition than that by the Puritans was made to the Established Church by Robert Brown, who embraced (from 1580) Calvinism in its strictest form, denounced the English Church as a false Church, and demanded that, in accordance with the apostolic example, every congregation should be an independent Church. His adherents, who were vari- ously designated as Brownists, Independents, and Con- gregationalists, renounced all fellowship with the Church of England, and met with great success, though Brown himself returned to the Church of England. In 1593 there were about 20,000 Independents in England : those who fled to Holland founded a number of churches there, and from Holland the Pilgrim fathers brought this branch of the English Reformation over to the New World.
The Stuarts entertained immoderate opinions as to the royal authority in Church and State. James I. the son of Mary Queen of Scots, remained, in spite of the Gunpowder Plot (1005), mild towards the Catholics, but bitterly opposed to Puritanism. The Catholic element in the Established Church was greatly strengthened, and an attempt was even made to restore episcopacy in Scotland. A bond of union was, however, given to all parties by an excellent new translation of the Bible into English, with which king James's name is honor- ably connected. Charles I followed in the footsteps of his father; and as the bishops sided with him in his conflicts with Parliament and his endeavors to enforce the divine right of kings, the king's overthrow, which ended in his execution (1649), involved the overthrow of the supremacy of the Episcopal Church. The Par- liament summoned an assembly of divines at West- minster— the Westminster Assembly (1043-49) — and, in accordance with the proposition of this assembly, introduced a Presbyterian form of government and a Puritanic form of worship. Soon after the death of Cromwell, however, the Stuarts were recalled (1000) and the Episcopal Church re-established. The Test Act (1673) prohibited every one from holding any public office unless he had acknowledged the king's ecclesi- astical supremacy and had received the sacrament of the Lord's supper in an Episcopal church. In conse- quence of the adherence of James II to the Church of Rome, there arose one more conflict between the Eng- lish king and the Episcopal Established Church; but when William III of Orange became king the consti- tution of the Church was definitely settled (1G89). The Church of England retained the Episcopal form of gov- ernment, and Ireland was placed under the jurisdiction of the Church of England. This connection between the Established Church of England and the Established Church of Ireland remained until 1870, when the latter was disestablished and its official connection with the Church of England severed. The " Church of Ireland" since then forms an independent, self-governing body; while the Scotch Episcopal Church and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States agree with the religious creed of the Church of England, but frame their Church laws with entire independence.