England, located in the very west of Europe, was subject to Rome in matters of faith after the collapse of the Roman Empire. However, the popes had strict rules regarding the conclusion and dissolution of marriage. The English Church owes its separation from Rome to the loving monarch Henry VIII.
King Henry VIII of England was married six times. He divorced two spouses, and sent two to the scaffold. In the days when he lived, the Catholic Church did not give divorce even to kings. And Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon, who for 24 years of marriage was never able to provide the kingdom with a male heir.
All because of women
In 1529, Henry VIII asked the pope for permission to annul the failed marriage. The wife of Henry VIII was a devout Catholic, much to his displeasure, she also raised her daughter Mary in this faith. The king began the divorce proceedings, justifying his desire for freedom by the fact that all children born to the queen (with the exception of Mary) die - therefore, the marriage is cursed. But the judge announced that the charge was too dubious, and transferred the divorce case to Rome.
Catherine asked for protection from the pope, and he answered unequivocally: no divorce, no heir - no reason to break the sacred bonds of marriage. Now, if the queen were a heretic … But she was not. Furthermore.
Henry VIII was in the habit of getting married many times. And this led England to a complete break with the Vatican, the king's marriage itself was once concluded with the special permission of the Holy See, since Catherine, who managed to marry his brother Arthur, who soon died of illness, was considered the closest relative. Since the Pope made concessions in that case, he was not going to break the law a second time.
Refused, Henry VIII became furious. He did not tolerate refusals. In addition, the monastery lands have long attracted him with special grooming and high profitability. So, when negotiations with Rome finally reached a dead end, Henry VIII made a decision that radically changed the English church. In 1532, the king announced the end of the pope's power throughout England. In the winter of 1533, he secretly married a new passion, Anne Boleyn; in the spring, his marriage to Catherine was officially terminated. In 1534, parliament passed the Suprematism Act, that is, Henry VIII himself became the supreme head of the English church. This is how Anglicanism was born.
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Royal Reformation
Having done away with the hated marriage, the king set about destroying the hotbeds of papism. So he called churches and monasteries. Henry VIII issued a law on the secularization of monastic lands, but being a far-sighted person and caring about replenishing the treasury, he first allocated inseparable lands in each monastic household that were not subject to sale. The rest was auctioned off. He drove monks and priests out into the streets, and sent many to trial and to the scaffold. Among those executed were bishops, theologians, intellectuals, even one Lord Chancellor.
During the years of the reform, many church books were destroyed, monastery reliquaries were robbed, relics and relics were thrown into cesspools. England seemed to be moving towards a complete revision of church doctrine, but soon Henry VIII became disillusioned with Protestant advisers and wives who did not fulfill their destiny, and made a curtsey towards Catholicism. He adopted the Six Articles Act, restoring the obligatory participation in Mass, communion only with bread and not with wine, celibacy of priests, confession and the immutability of monastic vows. For the refusal to implement the innovations, the violators faced the death penalty. But soon he became disillusioned with his new Catholic wife, so he canceled some of the Catholic rituals. His hatred of Catholics in the last year of his life was so strong that on his deathbed he gnashed his teeth and shouted: "Monks, monks, monks!"
The work of Henry VIII was continued by his daughter Elizabeth, who came to power only 12 years after his death. All these years in the country there was a restoration of Catholicism, but Elizabeth put an end to this. It was during her reign that the main documents of the Anglican Church were adopted - the Act of Uniformity, that is, of religious tolerance, and the final version of the Anglican Creed, consisting of 39 articles. In him, as among Protestants, Holy Scripture was recognized as the only source of faith, as among Catholics, the one-saving power of the Church was affirmed. Now the divine service was conducted in English, and not in Latin, the purchase of absolution, the veneration of icons and relics was prohibited, but (as with Catholics) baptism and the Eucharist were recognized as sacraments, the episcopal structure of the church was preserved.as well as the procedure for conducting a liturgy with church music and priests in magnificent vestments.
The Book of Public Worship, a collection of prayers, theological and liturgical texts, has become the handbook of believers. According to the plan of the reformers, such a book should have been available in every Anglican church. The priests of that era needed it, because they were accustomed to rituals in Latin, but here everything was stated in their native language. The first edition of this book appeared two years after the death of Henry VIII, but it became widespread only during the reign of Elizabeth. Under Queen Mary, it was banned, reintroduced by an Act of Parliament of 1559. Some archaic Catholic rites were excluded from it. On the whole, it found a compromise between Catholic and Protestant ideas about the essence of the church. Great contribution to the establishment of Anglicanism as the middle path of Christianity,were introduced by the theologians of the XVI century Cranmer and Hooker, who introduced the concept of the unity of Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition and personal knowledge of God.
Church high and low
The main spiritual event for Anglicans is the Last Supper. The order of worship is built around it. That is why of all the sacraments (and the Anglicans recognize all the sacraments), the Eucharist is considered the main one, and not only bread, but in full bread and wine. The practice that existed in medieval Catholicism to give the sacrament to the laity in a curtailed amount in Anglicanism has been abolished. Fasting before the sacrament is optional. During Mass, Anglicans say prayers, read Bible texts and sing church hymns. They do not have a single canon of the liturgy. It all depends on the church community, the priest and the style that the community has chosen. Worship ranges from very simple in form to very complex, intellectual-oriented. Each Anglican Church is as autonomous as possible, the community itself chooses how to conduct the liturgy. In some churches, high-standard masses are held, in some the Eucharist is celebrated every two weeks or once a month by priests in solemn robes, and in some almost daily and in everyday clothes. The second most important sacrament is baptism. The remaining five sacraments (repentance, wedding, confirmation, priesthood, unction) are considered sacraments in some churches, and sacred rites in others. In some churches there is a choir, and the singing is accompanied by organ music, in some the services are performed without musical accompaniment. The remaining five sacraments (repentance, wedding, confirmation, priesthood, unction) are considered sacraments in some churches, and sacred rites in others. In some churches there is a choir, and the singing is accompanied by organ music, in some the services are performed without musical accompaniment. The remaining five sacraments (repentance, wedding, confirmation, priesthood, unction) are considered sacraments in some churches, and sacred rites in others. In some churches there is a choir, and the singing is accompanied by organ music, in some the services are performed without musical accompaniment.
But in general, Anglican churches are famous for their choirs. The tradition of choral singing in them has not been interrupted since the 16th-17th centuries. Anglican high churches conduct services very similar to the Catholic, low church is more simple and dislike for excesses. The parishioners usually sit on chairs or benches, only occasionally do they kneel down to read prayers. In some churches, women can become vicars and are allowed to marry.
The Anglican Church is run by bishops. The English Holy See is located in the main cathedral of the city of Canterbury. And although the king is still considered the head of the church, he has very limited functions - he appoints bishops, including the archbishop of Canterbury. But not at his own discretion, but he chooses from a list of candidates that the church presents to him. The archbishop himself, although he is considered the first among equals, does not have any power over the bishops located outside England.
Nikolay KOTOMKIN