Hi! Can you help me understand the Anglican Church?

[GKMotley]

In the US, some Anglicans have no connection at all with TEC.

 

[ltwin]

so was the Catholic church known as the Church of England before the king separated from Rome?

It was simply “the church” in England. There was only one officially sanctioned church throughout medieval western Europe–the one controlled by the Papacy. While it was known as the Catholic Church, in everyday speech it was not really necessary to distinguish the Catholic Church from other churches.

If, however, you were comparing the Catholic Church in one country with that in another country, you might have said the English Church or the Spanish Church or the French Church, etc.

 

[Bradskii]

catholic1seeks:

Why would someone choose to be Anglican over Catholic?

I suppose most Anglicans are Anglicans for the same reason that most Catholics are Catholics .

They are born into an Anglican family and see no reason to change . What they have been brought up with suits them fine .

Exactly right. That was the case with me. I refer to it as Catholic Lite. Just think Mrs Marples, old English churches going back to Saxon times, doddery old vicars, church fetes on the village green and tea and cucumber sandwiches.

 

[ltwin]

Interesting bit in Magna Carta. Was Henry III giving up his power over Church that he had as head of state? Or guaranteeing freedom Church already had by right?

The church’s liberty (understood as it being free under the pope from royal or secular interference) was part of English common law and was already recognized in the coronation oath by 1100. This scholarly article provides background:

Why did Magna Carta come about in the first place? A major reason is that King John overstepped his authority in a number of areas in English society and culture, including religious affairs. When Pope Innocent III duly appointed Stephen Langton as the Archbishop of Canterbury, King John refused to recognize the appointment.

King John came to recognize the Archbishop only after a protracted struggle between Church and State. Archbishop Langton, of course, became one of the leading bishops among the barons who negotiated the concessions made by King John to which he affixed his seal at Runnymede.

A key event in the prelude to Magna Carta was Pope Innocent III’s placing the English Church under interdict until King John recognized Langton as duly-appointed archbishop of Canterbury. As the newly-published work on Magna Carta by Nicholas Vincent explains:

Hoping to end the interdict, in 1213 John issued letters declaring his intention to quash all measures taken against “the custom of the realm or ecclesiastical liberty.” This pre-empts the phrasing of Magna Carta by a full two years.

 

[anon10271182]

#2 wouldn’t apply to the “Continuing Anglicans” who, though their theology and worship styles vary widely, are united in opposition to unholy matrimony and to ordination of women.

 

[PickyPicky]

I would argue that the fact that the king had regularly to declare the Church’s independence was precisely because that independence was regularly compromised by the king. In Saxon times, indeed, the idea that the king should keep his hands off the Church would have been regarded as ridiculous, and the appointment (and indeed dismissal) of bishops and abbots was a normal part of the king’s role.

The boundary between the Pope’s power and the king’s power was disputed for centuries in mainland Europe as well as in England.

 

[GKMotley]

I think of all that, sure. I collect Golden Age mysteries, Lady Agatha’s included.

Along with Lewis, Sayers, Williams, Eliot inter alia.

 

[Dca2018]

As someone who chose to be Anglican after decades as a Roman Catholic, the short answer is there are many good reasons. However, there is no “Anglican Church”. There is an Anglican Communion of churches, but all of the member churches are completely self-governing. One of the appeals of Anglicanism to me is that my church, diocese, and parish are all self governing and noone in Rome or London has any say in it.

 

[BartholomewB]

The boundary between the Pope’s power and the king’s power was disputed for centuries in mainland Europe as well as in England.

And in China today.

 

[GKMotley]

And there are Anglicans who are quite outside the Communion.

 

[GKMotley]

In England, in the day, the question was rather more reciprocal. What limit to the role of the Church over the developing national structure, more so than what role would the Throne have over the conduct of the Church, but still a reciprocal argument.