英國國教歷史(in english)

The Church of England traces its formal corporate history from the 597 Augustinian mission, stresses its continuity and identity with the primitive universal Western church, and notes the consolidation of its particular independent and national character in the post-Reformation events of Tudor England.

Christianity arrived in Britain in the first or second century (probably via the tin trade route through Ireland and Spain), and existed independently of the Church of Rome, as did many other Christian communities of that era. Records note British bishops, such as Restitutus in attendance at the Council of Arles in 314, and, even more significantly, Britain was the home of Pelagius, who nearly defeated Augustine of Hippo's doctrine of original sin. The Pope sent Saint Augustine from Rome in the 6th century to evangelise the Angles in 597. With the help of Christians already residing in Kent he established his church in Canterbury, the former capital of Kent (it is now Maidstone), and became the first in the series of Archbishops of Canterbury. A later archbishop, the Greek Theodore of Tarsus, also contributed to the organisation of English Christianity.

Simultaneously, the Celtic Church of St Columba continued to evangelise Scotland. The Celtic Church of North Britain submitted in some sense to the 'authority' of Rome at the Synod of Whitby in 664. Over the next few centuries, the Roman system introduced by Augustine gradually absorbed the pre-existing Celtic Christian churches.

The English Church was under papal authority for nearly a thousand years, before separating from Rome in 1534 during the reign of King Henry VIII. A theological separation had been foreshadowed by various movements within the English Church such as the Lollards, but the English Reformation gained political support when Henry VIII wanted an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn. Under pressure from Catherine's nephew, the Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Pope Clement VII refused the annulment, and, eventually, Henry, although theologically a doctrinal Catholic, took the position of Supreme Head of the Church of England to ensure the annulment of his marriage. He was excommunicated by Pope Paul III[2]. Henry maintained a strong preference for the traditional Catholic practices and, during his reign, Protestant reformers were unable to make many changes to the practices of the Church of England. Indeed, this part of Henry's reign saw the trial for heresy of Protestants as well as Roman Catholics.

Under his son, Edward VI, however, the Church became theologically more radical, before legislatively rejoining the Roman church during the reign of Queen Mary I, in 1555. The settlement under Elizabeth I (from 1558) of a mildly reformed, Catholic, apostolic, and established church (i.e., subject to and part of the state) led to great civil strife in the following century.