RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Eng-elhardt England, Church of
full professor in the following year, holding this position until his death. From 1845 to 1848 he represented his university in the House of Deputies. Engelhardt's early plan of preparing a history of mystical theology was never carried out, although he made thorough preliminary studies of Plotinus, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Richard of St. Victor. He also devoted himself to Irenaeus, Tertullian, the entire field of patristics, and to ecclesiastical and dogmatic history. In addition to numerous programs and studies in the ZHT, his principal works were as follows: Dissertatio de
Dionysio plotinizante (Erlangen, 1820); Die angeblichen Schriften des Areopagiten Dionysius (2 parts, 1823); Leitfaden zuV orlesungen ilber Patristik (1823); Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen (1832); Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte (4 vols., 1833-34); Richard von St. Viktor und J ohann Ruysbroek (1838); Auslegung des spekulativen Teils des Evangeliums Johannis durch einen deutschen mystischen Theologen des vierzehnten J ahrhunderts , aus einer deutschen Handschrift der koniglichen Bibliothek in Miinchen (Neustadt-ander-Aisch, 1839); and Dogmengeschichte (2 vols., 1839).
(J. J. HERZOGf.)
ENGLAND, CHURCH OF.
I. Pre-Reformation Period.
British and Saxon Periods (§ 1). The Norman Period (§2). Pre-Reformation Resistance Rome (§ 3). II. History From the Reformation. Henry VIII. (§ 1). Edward VI. and Mary (§ 2).
Elizabeth (§ 3).
Struggle Between Anglicanism and Puritanism (§ 4). to Triumph of High-church Principles
Under Stuarts (§ 5)
The Commonwealth, the Restoration, the House of Hanover (§ 6).
Deism, Rise of Methodism (§ 7).
The Church of England, the national Church of England as by law established, may be regarded as a product of the Protestant Reformation; and from this point of view its history is held to begin with the refusal of Henry VIII. to own further allegiance to the pope, and the resultant declaration that the king was the head of the Church in his dominions. In theology it is in general harmony with Protestantism, but in government it claims to have retained in unbroken succession from the Apostles, and hence from Christ himself, the three major orders of bishop, priest, and deacon. In ritual and worship it maintains a uniform order of church service, parts of which are derived immediately from ancient and medieval rituals. It occupies an intermediate position between the Latin communion and the churches of the Reformation. Many Anglican writers regard the Reformation as merely an incident in the history of the Church of England, which did not interrupt its historic continuity, which is held to date from Augustine, and even from the old Celtic Church. A considerable number, particularly in the High-church party, look upon the Reformation as a serious mistake, if not as a crime.
I. Pre-Reformation Period: The first reliable information regarding the introduction of Christianity into Britain comes from Ter-
i. British tullian, who, early in the third century, and Saxon wrote (Adv. Jud., vii.; ANF, iii. 158)
Periods, that Christianity had penetrated into regions of Britain inaccessible to the Romans. The history of the British Church was thenceforth that of early Christianity everywhere. It furnished victims to persecution, one of whom, Alban of Verulam (q.v.), was early canonized; it sent representatives to councils, for example, that of Aries (314); and it produced the heretic Pelagius (q.v.; for this entire period see Celtic Church). The Saxon period dates from the arrival, in 597, of the monk Augustine, who had been despatched by Gregory I. (see Anglo-Saxons, Conversion of the; and Augustine, Saint, of Canterbury). As archbishop of Canterbury Augustine came into conflict with the bishops of the old British, or Celtic, Church; but the Roman type of Christianity pre-
Later History (§8). III. Theology, Liturgy, Clergy, Government. Theology (§ 1). Liturgy (§2). The Clergy (§3). Government (§ 4). Relation of Church and State (§5).
vailed over the Celtic, and crowded it out. The differences concerned the date of Easter, the mode of the tonsure, and allegiance to Rome, the Britons being determined to remain independent of the Roman rule. Augustine called the British bishops to a colloquy on the Severn, but they refused to acknowledge his authority and Augustine invoked and predicted judgment upon them. Christianity spread rapidly in southern England, and was introduced into Northumbria by Paulinus, and made the permanent religion by the labors of St. Aidan of Ireland. Under Theodore of Tarsus (consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in 668) the English episcopate was more fully organized, and the dioceses were grouped around Canterbury as the central and superior see. Theodore held synods and treated the British Christians in a high-handed way. During this period monasteries were founded; and here and there a solitary form, like Cffidmon, the monk of Whitby; or Bede, " the father of learning "; or Alcuin the scholar, called to the Court of Charlemagne; or Alfred, the Christian king and patron of letters, stands out prominently. The Danish invaders of the eighth and ninth centuries interrupted the services, and devastated the property of churches and monastic orders. But the judicious wisdom and enlightened zeal of Dunstan (959-988), the first of many English ecclesiastical statesmen, repaired their ravages and effected a severer discipline and a more compact organization of the clergy. He guided the State during the nine years' reign of the invalid Elclred. During the Anglo-Saxon period papal rule won acknowledgment in increasing measure. Members of the royal family went to Rome, and Peter's pence was paid to the Roman treasury. Under the later Saxon kings the Church sank into ignorance and corruption. There were no synods; the priests were married or lived in concubinage; and simony was freely practised.
The Norman period dates from the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066 under a banner blessed by Alexander II. It is distinguished by the complete vassalage into which the Church went to the papal see, the subjection of
England, Church of