ANGLICANISM. — By "Anglicanism" is meant the doctrine and ecclesiastical system of the Church of England.
1. _Anglicanism and the Anglican Communion._ — The Church of England comprises only the two ecclesiastical provinces of Canterbury and York. The provinces and dioceses established outside England, such as the Episcopal Church of Scotland, the Churches of Wales and Ireland (formerly united and now separated from the Church of England), the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States (v. EPISCOPAL, PROTESTANT CHURCH), and the dioceses of the Dominions and British colonies, do indeed form part of the "Anglican Communion" or "Anglican-Episcopal Communion," but either they do not recognize the King of England as head of the Church, or the tribunals through which the King exercises his ecclesiastical jurisdiction do not extend their authority to them (v. COLENSO); so that, strictly speaking, Anglicanism applies only to the two archbishops of England, Canterbury and York. The common bonds of the Anglican Communion are: Book of Common Prayer (v.), the 39 Articles of Religion (v.), both, however, with some modifications, and the Lambeth Conferences (v.).
2. _Characteristics of Anglicanism._ — Anglicanism, which from Henry VIII (1506–47) and Edward VI (1547–53) to Elizabeth (1558–1603), with the brief interruption of the reign of Mary Tudor (1553–58), had passed through the phases of schismatic, Lutheran-Calvinist, and Calvinist-Zwinglian, took on its definitive features in the time of Elizabeth.
Among these features we may note: a) the ambiguity of language in the formulas of the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of Religion, which gave rise to various interpretations; from this remote principle derive the three present divisions among Anglicans: High Church, Low Church, and Broad Church or modernist (v. COMPREHENSIVENESS), and, unfortunately, the incomprehensible "comprehensiveness" of Anglicanism; b) the retention of episcopacy, by which Anglicanism distinguished itself from the continental sects, and the retention of some ceremonies and usages of the Catholic Church; c) the supremacy of the King or Queen of England in ecclesiastical matters, which converted Anglicanism into the state religion, so that adherents of any other religion were considered traitors, and hence the persecutions against Catholics, Puritans, Congregationalists, etc.
3. _Anglicanism up to the 19th Century._ — The fortunes of Anglicanism in its early days are intertwined with those of the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of Religion. Many English Protestants, who during the reign of Mary Tudor had taken refuge on the Continent and there imbibed Calvinist doctrines, refused to conform to the retention of episcopacy or to the ceremonies of the Anglican Church. They wished for a Church purified of all these "papist" elements, hence their name of Puritans (v.). These men, though in reality Calvinists, at first partly accepted the supremacy of the Queen, but partly refused to recognize this supremacy, seeking instead to introduce a presbyterian system without bishops. Others taught that every group of the faithful or "congregation" was independent of every authority and hierarchy: hence the name "Independents" or "Congregationalists" (v. CONGREGATIONALISTS; ROBINSON). These, together with some others of lesser importance, e.g., the Baptists, are known in history by the name of "Nonconformists" (v.). Their opposition to Anglicanism manifested itself clearly in the so-called "Marprelate Controversy" (v.).
During the reign of Elizabeth’s successor, James I (1603–25), at the Hampton Court Conference (1604), the Nonconformists presented their doctrines and grievances, but obtained nothing beyond the translation of the Bible (v. AUTHORIZED VERSION). To the King, though educated in Scottish Calvinism, it was more expedient to maintain the Anglican Church, of which he was head and master, than the others in which he would have been merely a layman. In the time of James I’s successor, Charles I (1625–49), the Anglican Church, attacked in its doctrine and system by the Nonconformists, produced a series of able Anglican theologians, such as L. BEL, ANDREW (v.), W. LAUDA (v.), R. Hooker (v.), J. TAYLORISMO (v.), etc., who were known as the "Caroline Divines," though not all wrote precisely during this reign. Having achieved nothing from the King or his ministers, the Nonconformists took up arms and, uniting with the discontented Scottish Presbyterians (who resented the King’s attempt to impose Anglicanism on Scotland), began the Civil War, which ended in the execution of Archbishop Laud and the King himself (1649). Anglicanism was suppressed and persecuted, and the Calvinist Westminster Confession (v. CONFESSIONS OF FAITH) was published. In the midst of such doctrinal confusion, G. Fox founded the sect of the Quakers, and the Calvinist and Independent doctrines of Oliver Cromwell dominated England (1649–60). With the restoration of Charles II (1660–85), Anglicanism was officially re-established; the Edwardian form of the consecration of bishops and priests was corrected (v. ANGLICAN ORDINATIONS), and in 1673 the Test Act was promulgated, by which all government employees—including ministers of religion—were required to accept the Book of Common Prayer, many Nonconformist ministers thus being deprived of office, and the doctrine of transubstantiation was condemned, an oath to which the Kings of England were bound until the beginning of the 20th century. Charles II was succeeded by his brother James II (1685–88), a Catholic, who in 1687 issued the "Declaration of Indulgence," by which all Englishmen were declared equal before the law, without distinction of religious belief, and the oath against transubstantiation was suspended. The fury of the Anglicans, the treachery of prominent men, both ecclesiastical and lay, some imprudent acts of the King, and the calculated duplicity of his son-in-law William of Orange, led to the Revolution of 1688, in which the King lost his crown.
James II was succeeded on the throne of England by the Calvinist William III (1688–1702). Calvinism came to the fore again; Parliament imposed an oath of allegiance to the new King, some Anglican bishops refused to take it, and the Nonjurors’ party was formed (v. NONJURORS). The Toleration Act was proclaimed, but Catholics, Unitarians (v. ANTITRINITARIANS), and Jews were excluded. On William’s death, he was succeeded by Anne (1702–14), the second Protestant daughter of James II, who fully re-established Anglicanism in England.
At the time of his death, three tendencies were already clearly evident, which still persist today: Anglicans, adherents to the doctrines and system of the Anglican Church, who later formed the nucleus of the present-day “High Church”; Evangelicals, fundamentally Calvinist and intransigently Protestant, from which the present-day “Low Church” derives; and between these two extremes, the latitudinarians, of rationalist tendency, who took neither the doctrines nor the laws of the official Church seriously, from which the present-day “Broad Church” or Modernist movement emerged. After the death of Anne, the throne of England—from which Parliament had excluded the Catholic line of the Stuarts—was occupied by the Protestant House of Hanover. During the 18th century, the Anglican Church fell into a deep slumber. First, the Bangor Controversy (q.v.) threatened to undermine the entire structure of Anglicanism; then came the suppression of the “convocations,” which had maintained a modicum of life among Anglican clergy; and finally, the rationalist doctrines of Locke (1632–1702), debated in lecture halls and meetings, the anti-Trinitarian views of Clarke (1675–1729), and the deist theories of Toland (1669–1722), Tindal (1657–1733), and others wreaked havoc within Anglican ranks. In vain did the Methodists, rejected by the Anglican Church, attempt to infuse new life into it; after Wesley’s death, they formed a separate sect.
4. **The State of Catholics.** — The apathy of Anglicanism in this period did nothing to diminish the anti-Catholic spirit, that No-Popery which lay at the heart of all Anglican tradition. With the exception of the death penalty, Catholics in the 18th century remained subject to all the vexations of previous centuries.
They were excluded from universities, public offices, military and naval ranks, and Parliament; they could not vote, nor bear arms, nor own property worth more than five pounds sterling. A Protestant who saw a Catholic riding a fine horse could seize it, paying only the aforementioned sum. They were the “pariahs” of English society, their condition far worse than that of any Protestant in Catholic countries. Only in 1778 was the first law passed in their favor (the Catholic Relief Act), which allowed them to inherit and own real estate, among other rights. The danger of a charge of high treason still remained, though it was largely theoretical, as Catholics were no longer “hanged, drawn, and quartered” as the law prescribed. In 1791, another law (the Relief Bill) was published, permitting Catholics to hold magistracies, celebrate their worship in churches and chapels—provided no bell towers were erected nor bells rung—and freeing them from the obligation to take either the oath of the king’s spiritual supremacy or that against transubstantiation.
In 1829, through the Emancipation Bill, they were granted almost complete equality with Protestants. Yet the systematic and relentless oppression of three centuries had reduced Irish Catholics to a deplorable state and English Catholics to such a state of inferiority that it took nearly a century for them to reclaim their rightful place in society, even as mere citizens.
5. **Anglicanism in the 19th and 20th Centuries.** — The history of Anglicanism in these two centuries, following the secession of the Darbyites or Plymouth Brethren (q.V. DARBY, JOHN NELSON), is almost entirely reducible to three movements: the “Tractarian,” the “Ritualist,” and the “Anglo-Catholic,” collectively known as the “Oxford Movement” (q.v.).
Among the various effects—good or bad—attributed to the Oxford Movement, the following may be noted:
1) The revision of the *Book of Common Prayer* (q.v.), prepared over many years and approved by bishops and the House of Lords, was twice rejected (December 1927 and June 1928) by the House of Commons, thereby revealing to the world the lamentable subjection of the Anglican Church to civil authority, even in matters purely spiritual.
2) Efforts to unite with other Churches—Eastern, Old Catholic, Catholic (q.V. MALINES, CONVERSATIONS OF), nonconformists, and all “chosen” Protestants—through conferences such as those of Lausanne (1927) and Edinburgh (1937) either failed outright or achieved at most a *communicatio in divinis* and the recognition of Anglican ordinations by some schismatic Eastern Churches.
3) The claim to the validity of Anglican orders, which, after meticulous examination by the Holy See, led to the publication of Leo XIII’s bull *Apostolicae curae* (September 13, 1896), declaring them null and void (q.V. ANGLICAN ORDINATIONS).
4) A vigorous development of spiritual life through societies and even religious communities. The *Official Year-Book of the Church of England* for 1939 lists, under the heading “Religious Life,” no fewer than eight religious communities of men—some with the three religious vows and following the rules of St. Francis and St. Benedict—and numerous congregations of women dedicated to contemplative life, spiritual retreats, charitable works, missionary activity, parish ministry, and so on. Some, like the Canonesses Regular of Our Lady of Victory, have choirs, while others, such as the Community of Reparation to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, are devoted to the worship of the Blessed Sacrament.
5) The Anglo-Catholics helped to dispel some long-standing prejudices against the Catholic Church, yet the very name “Anglo-Catholic,” and even the term “Catholic” as they appropriated it, along with the use of Mass rubrics, images and statues in churches, and confessionals, caused considerable confusion.
6) From the Oxford Movement stemmed the conversions of eminent figures such as Newman, Manning, Faber, and Vernon Johnson.
7) The introduction of numerous ceremonial practices into Anglican worship, contrary to the doctrines of the *39 Articles* and the rubrics of the *Book of Common Prayer*, led to serious disputes and legal proceedings for Anglo-Catholic ministers against some Anglican bishops, and stirred up in certain Protestant English presses the fanaticism of bygone days. One need only cite the pamphlets of the Protestant Truth Society and the Wickliffe Press.
8) From the Oxford Movement also arose the theory of the three branches of the Church of Christ, which holds that the true Church of Christ consists of the three Churches that have preserved the episcopate: the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Eastern Church. These Churches, it is claimed, are divided only in matters of discipline and secondary points of doctrine, yet all three together constitute the true Church of Jesus Christ. The bull *Apostolicae curae*, by denying the validity of Anglican orders and thus the existence of Anglicanism as a Church, condemned this theory as well as that of “continuity,” by which Anglo-Catholics claim that Anglican bishops are the successors of the apostles.
6. **Doctrine and Governance.** — The doctrine and ecclesiastical governance of Anglicanism are set forth in the two sole confessional documents: the *Book of Common Prayer*, commonly called the *Prayer Book*, and the *39 Articles of Religion*. These contain doctrines orthodox in common with Catholics alongside many heterodox ones. Newman, in *Tract 90*, sought to interpret them in a Catholic sense; his explanations were rejected by the Anglican Church. This rejection led him to a deeper study of the Catholic Church, from which his conversion ultimately followed (q.V. NEWMAN).
Regarding ecclesiastical governance, the fundamental article is the XXXVIIth, which recognizes the king (or queen) of England as the supreme head of the Church. The Crown has not been stripped of all legislative power, but its decrees are without effect unless they receive the *placet* of both Parliament and the monarch. Aside from parish meetings or councils, synods, and conferences
In the diocesan structure, the two most important institutions are the "Convocation" (Convocationis), equivalent to provincial synods, and the "Assembly of the Church" (Assembly of the Church), equivalent to a national synod.
There are only two "Convocations," since there exist only two ecclesiastical provinces: Canterbury and York. In them, the bishops of the province participate (Upper House) along with the priests (Lower House). Henry VIII preserved them but subjected them entirely to the State by decree in 1534, so that they cannot meet without the king's permission, nor promulgate decrees or canons without his approval. In 1717, during the Bangor controversy, they were suspended by the king and were not resumed until 1852, largely due to the religious revival brought about by the Oxford Movement. They may deliberate on all matters concerning the religious welfare of the province, but their decrees must be approved by the State.
The "Assembly of the Church" (Church Assembly) is a new institution, established with State authorization in 1919. It consists of three houses: in the first (House of Bishops) or house of bishops, the two archbishops of Canterbury and York sit, along with all the bishops of the two provinces, for a total of 43; in the second (House of Clergy) or house of clergy, those dignitaries and ministers who have the right to participate in the Convocations sit, numbering 341, plus 5 delegates from the universities; in the third (House of Laity) or house of laity, lay persons elected for this purpose sit, numbering 342. For the decrees of the Assembly to have legal force, they must be approved by Parliament and the king.
If to all this is added the fact that the State is the one that elects the archbishops, bishops, and principal ecclesiastical dignitaries, it must be acknowledged that the dependence of the Anglican Church on the State is nearly total, and only the administration of the sacraments escapes State control.
Cannillo Crivelli
ANGLICANI, ARTICLES OF RELIGION:
V. ARTICOLI DI RELIGIONE ANGLICANI.