The Church of England claims that its history can be traced back to 597. Specifically, to the Gregorian mission led by Augustine of Canterbury at the behest of Pope Gregory I. This mission instigated the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons, and led to Augustine being created the first Archbishop of Canterbury by Gregory.
Following from the Gregorian mission, England was under the aegis of Chalcedonian Christianity throughout the Mediaeval Period. During the Great Schism of 1054, England retained its identity within the Catholic Church under the jurisdiction of the Pope.
However, the monarchs of England conflicted with the church in England over the amassing of legal privileges and property. Notably, the conflict between Saint Thomas Becket and Henry II over the rights of the church.
These conflicts came to a crescendo during the Henrician Reformation, wherein papal authority was abolished in England so that Henry VIII could get an annulment from Catherine of Aragon. Henry VIII had appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. The resulting Act of Supremacy led to a spate of martyrdoms across England, notably Saint Thomas More and Saint John Fisher. Furthermore, monasteries were dissolved and church assets were stolen.
Subsequent reformations took place, as part of the wider English Reformation. The Edwardian Reformation oriented the nascent Church of England in a more Reformed Protestant direction during the brief reign of Edward VI (). The church was briefly restored to Catholicism during the reign of Mary I (), but the Elizabethan Reformation created a more permanent separation during the reign of Elizabeth I (). The Elizabethan Religious Settlement established the Church of England as a conservative Reformed Protestant church. During this time, the Book of Common Prayer was authorised as the church's official liturgy and the Thirty-nine Articles as a doctrinal statement. These continue to be important expressions of Anglicanism.
The Settlement failed to end religious disputes. While most of the population gradually conformed to the established church, a minority of recusants remained loyal Roman Catholics. Within the Church of England, Puritans pressed to remove what they considered papist abuses from the church's liturgy and to replace bishops with a presbyterian system in which all ministers were equal. After Elizabeth's death, the Puritans were challenged by a high church, Arminian party that gained power during the reign of Charles I (1625–1649). The English Civil War and overthrow of the monarchy allowed the Puritans to pursue their reform agenda and the dismantling of the Elizabethan Settlement. After the Restoration in 1660, Puritans were forced out of the Church of England. Anglicans started defining their church as a via media or middle way between the religious extremes of Lutheranism and Calvinism; Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; Arminianism and Calvinism; and high church and low church.
In the 1700s and 1800s, revival movements contributed to the rise of Evangelical Anglicanism. In the 19th century, the Oxford Movement gave rise to Anglo-Catholicism, a movement that emphasises the Church of England's Catholic heritage. As the British Empire grew, Anglican churches were established in other parts of the world. These churches consider the Church of England to be a mother church, and it maintains a leading role in the Anglican Communion.
For a general history of Christianity in England, see History of Christianity in Britain.
Middle Ages
Anglo-Saxon period (597–1065)
There is evidence for Christianity in Roman Britain as early as the 3rd century. After 380, Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire, and there was some sort of formal church organisation in Britain led by bishops. In the 5th century, the end of Roman rule and invasions by Germanic pagans led to the destruction of any formal church organisation in England. The new inhabitants, the Anglo-Saxons, introduced Anglo-Saxon paganism, and the Christian church was confined to Wales and Cornwall. In Ireland, Celtic Christianity continued to thrive.
The Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons began in 597 when Pope Gregory I dispatched the Gregorian Mission to convert the Kingdom of Kent. The mission's leader, Augustine, became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The conversion of northern England was aided by the Hiberno-Scottish mission, which promoted Celtic Christianity in contrast to the Latin Christianity of the Gregorian Mission.
The Celtic and Roman churches disagreed on several issues. The most important was the date of Easter. There were other differences over baptismal customs and the style of tonsure worn by monks. To settle the matter of which tradition Northumbria would follow, King Oswiu summoned the Synod of Whitby in 664. After hearing arguments from both sides, the king decided in favour of the Roman tradition, as this was followed by the successors of Saint Peter.
In the late 8th century, Viking raids had a devastating impact on the church in northern and eastern England. Monasteries and churches were raided for wealth in the form of golden crosses, altar plate, and jewels decorating relics and illuminated Bibles. Eventually, the raids turned into wars of conquest and the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, and parts of Mercia became the Danelaw, whose rulers were Scandinavian pagans. Alfred the Great of Wessex () and his successors led the Anglo-Saxon resistance and reconquest, culminating in the formation of a single Kingdom of England.
Early organization
Under papal authority, the English church was divided into two ecclesiastical provinces, each led by a metropolitan or archbishop. In the south, the Province of Canterbury was led by the archbishop of Canterbury. It was originally to be based at London, but Augustine and his successors remained at Canterbury instead. In the north, the Province of York was led by the archbishop of York. Theoretically, neither archbishop had precedence over the other. In reality, the south was wealthier than the north, and the result was that Canterbury dominated.
In 668, Theodore of Tarsus became archbishop of Canterbury. He reformed many aspects of the church's administration. At the Synod of Hertford in 672, canons were adopted to promote greater uniformity, among these that the English bishops should hold an annual council at Clovesho.
A major reorganisation of the English church occurred the late 700s. King Offa of Mercia wanted his own kingdom to have an archbishop since the archbishop of Canterbury was also a great Kentish magnate. In 787, a council of the English church attended by two papal legates elevated the Diocese of Lichfield into an archbishopric. There were now three provinces in England: York, Lichfield and Canterbury. However, this arrangement was abandoned in 803, and Lichfield was reabsorbed into the Province of Canterbury.
Initially, the diocese was the only administrative unit in the Anglo-Saxon church. The bishop served the diocese from a cathedral town with the help of a group of priests known as the bishop's familia. These priests would baptise, teach and visit the remoter parts of the diocese. Familiae were placed in other important settlements, and these were called minsters. Most villages would have had a church by 1042, as the parish system developed as an outgrowth of manorialism. The parish church was a private church built and endowed by the lord of the manor, who retained the right to nominate the parish priest. The priest supported himself by farming his glebe and was also entitled to other support from parishioners. The most important was the tithe, the right to collect one-tenth of all produce from land or animals. Originally, the tithe was a voluntary gift, but the church successfully made it a compulsory tax by the 10th century.
In the late 10th century, the Benedictine Reform movement helped to restore monasticism in England after the Viking attacks of the 9th century. The most prominent reformers were Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury (959–988), Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester (963–984), and Archbishop Oswald of York (971–992). The reform movement was supported by King Edgar (). One result of the reforms was the creation of monastic cathedrals at Canterbury, Worcester, Winchester, and Sherborne. These were staffed by cloistered monks, while other cathedrals were staffed by secular clergy called canons. By 1066, there were over 45 monasteries in England, and monks were chosen as bishops more often than in other parts of western Europe.
By 1000, there were eighteen dioceses in England: Canterbury, Rochester, London, Winchester, Dorchester, Ramsbury, Sherborne, Selsey, Lichfield, Hereford, Worcester, Crediton, Cornwall, Elmham, Lindsey, Wells, York and Durham. To assist bishops in supervising the parishes and monasteries within their dioceses, the office of archdeacon was created. Once a year, the bishop would summon parish priests to the cathedral for a synod.
Royal authority and ecclesiastical authority were mutually reinforcing. Through the coronation ritual, the church invested the monarch with sacred authority. In return, the church expected royal protection. In addition, the church was a wealthy institution—owning 25–33% of all land according to the Domesday Book. This meant that bishops and abbots had the same status as secular magnates, and it was vital that king's appointed loyal men to these influential offices.
During the Anglo-Saxon period, kings were able to "govern the church largely unimpeded" by appointing bishops and abbots. Bishops were chosen by the king and tended to be recruited from among royal chaplains or monasteries. The bishop-elect was then presented at a synod where clerical approval was obtained and consecration followed. The appointment of an archbishop was more complicated and required approval from the pope. The archbishop of Canterbury had to travel to Rome to receive the pallium, his symbol of office. These visits to Rome and the payments that accompanied them (such as Peter's Pence) was a point of contention.
Post-Conquest (1066–1500)
In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England claiming he was the rightful heir to Edward the Confessor. He appealed to Pope Alexander II who gave his blessing and ordered English clergy to submit to William's authority. At the time of the Norman Conquest, there were only 15 diocesan bishops in England, increased to 17 in the 12th century with the creation of the sees of Ely and Carlisle. This is far fewer than the numbers in France and Italy. A further four medieval dioceses in Wales came within the Province of Canterbury.
The Norman Conquest led to the replacement of the old Anglo-Saxon elite by a new ruling class of Anglo-Normans in both the secular nobility as well as the episcopate. In 1070, three papal legates arrived to oversee the reform of the English church. At a council held at Winchester, Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, his brother Bishop Æthelmær of Elmham, and the married Bishop Leofwin of Lichfield were deprived of office. At a later council at Windsor, Bishop Æthelric of Selsey was also deprived of his office. Another bishop, Æthelwine of Durham, lost his see when he was declared an outlaw and imprisoned by the king. By the end of the year, there were only two Anglo-Saxon bishops left: Siward of Rochester and Saint Wulfstan of Worcester. Thereafter, William was able to fill the English sees with reformists such as Lanfranc of Bec for Canterbury and Thomas of Bayeux for York. He continued the English custom of recruiting bishops from the royal household and chapel.