The Reformation has been sold to the English and it looked like nothing could challenge it. In , when Charles I came to the throne, church and kingdom were in good working order; loyalty to King meant loyalty to the Reformation. There was a Catholic minority but it was cowed and reduced to worshipping in secret. The only danger to the Protestant order was from the other end of the spectrum: the Puritans, Protestant extremists who wanted the Reformation to go much further.
People seemed happy to overlook the king's marriage to a Catholic, but within a short time Charles got into trouble with the Protestants. He appointed a bishop known to be sympathetic to a more Catholic interpretation of doctrine. Not content with this grave miscalculation, Charles then appeared to start looking for real trouble. The Reformation in Scotland had been different. Scots Protestantism was more extreme and far reaching than Protestantism south of the border. When, in , Charles insisted that the New Anglican Prayer Book should be extended to Scotland he sent a signal to the Scots that their Reformation was to be brought into line with the English.
Charles had deeply underestimated the passion with which religious doctrine was held and had at a stroke made himself an enemy of his Scottish people. To prove his point the king opted for a show of force, but parliament was only prepared to help him raise an army under certain conditions. Charles' response was staggeringly tactless. He turned to Catholic Ireland in search of men for his army.
The very idea of Catholic Irish against Protestant Scots was dynamite. The image of the antichrist, Catholics in arms, had suddenly appeared - and they claimed to be acting on the king's orders. Suddenly to fear the Popish antichrist seemed not paranoid but reasonable. Protestantism was based in prophecy. They believed the battle between good and evil was always close at hand, and now Puritans saw the moment as fulfilling the most dramatic prophecy: the Day of Judgement was upon them.
The religious battle lines had never been so clearly defined and parliament took up the Puritan cause. The vast majority of moderate Britons had no alternative but to take sides; back their Catholic-leaning King, or Puritan-leaning Parliament. It took 7 years for the king to be defeated and executed, opening the way for the first and only 'religious' government.
The general who had emerged triumphant, Oliver Cromwell, was determined to install nothing less than an Assembly of Saints on earth. They were to be chosen according to the intensity with which they experienced God. Their task was to institute a programme of moral regeneration and education.
Oliver's army of saints were fighting God's battle on earth. Any traces of Popish idolatry were removed once and for all. Now only the utmost simplicity would be tolerated. A New Order was indeed being established: God's order.
It was not long before this New Order resembled exactly what it had fought to replace: the monarchy. The Assembly of Saints had decided that religious radicalism needed social conservatism; it was not society that needed to be reformed but the sinners within it.
But by the time Cromwell died, the sinners had not reformed. When new elections were called people finally rejected the New Order Cromwell had established and Charles II was recalled. Cromwell had failed. With the accession of Charles II the Puritan way of life ended.
Festivities resumed, theatres reopened, Maypoles went back up and Christmas reappeared on the calendar. The Church of England was re-established, Bishops and all. Then came the Plague, the Fire and the Dutch War and euphoria turned to depression. Augustine, along with other monks, traveled through the Frankish territory of Gaul. The party had to turn back after they encountered the fierce tribes who lived beyond Italy. After he saw that he had no choice but to obey, Augustine and his companions crossed the English channel in AD and docked on the Isle of Thanet on the eastern coast of Kent.
The place was ruled by Saxon King Ethelbert who initially viewed the monks with suspicion and superstition and told them to stay on the island in the meantime. Ethelbert married a Christian Frankish princess named Bertha years before, and he allowed her to practice Christianity freely in England; a situation that was agreeable to Augustine and the monks.
The king was not enthusiastic about the arrival of the monks, but neither did he persecute them. According to the Venerable Bede, Ethelbert told the monks that,.
But because you are come from far as strangers into my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous to impart to us those things which you believe to be true, and most beneficial, we desire not to harm you, but will give you favourable entertainment, and take care to supply you with all things necessary to your sustenance; nor do we forbid you to preach and gain as many as you can to your religion. Christianity was established in AD as the official religion of the empire — which included Britannia.
In AD Abbot Ealnoth referred to a major ecclesia greater church at St Albans as established by Offa which provides the implication there was a minor ecclesia lesser church as far as dimensions were concerned. In other words, there must have been a church in existence at St Albans close to the present abbey prior to Offa. Charles Thomas in his book of Christianity in Britain until AQD is pretty confident the church survived into the 5th and 6th centuries.
Rodwell and Bentley have written a lot on the survival of the church in lowland England and note the Mithraic Temple was ritually closed down and reconsecrated as a Christian church.
They also say many churches were built in Roman Forums and Basilicas. However, this is a bit of a trot from the Abbey church and monastery. Southwark cathedral was built on the site of a pagan structure of some kind and many other examples exist at Leicester, Silchester, Bath, Dorchester, Winchester, Exeter etc.
There were 3 pagan temples in the Forum at Verulamium. At the opposite end and sited centrally across the Basilica is the church of St Michael. They are likely to have existed right through the Gap between Germanus and Augustine. These tend to dominate on the western side of Britain and in Ireland.
Little is recorded of what happened in lowland England. It has always been assumed a mass immigration of Germanic people arrived in the Gap and wiped out the church — or it was heretic Pelagianism. There is no evidence Pelagianism survived in Britain any longer than it did on the continent.
It was a short lived heresy. The establishment of Canterbury as the centre of Christianity in lowland England probably replaced the church that had survived elsewhere possibly in a muted form. Bede wished to propagate this view and makes Canterbury the pre-eminent Christian establishment. Both Gildas and Bede mention the shrine of Saint Alban and Bede infers there was a church to house the shrine presumably somewhere close to the present Abbey church or cathedral.
Many new churches and monasteries were built during his time. Women played a significant part in the 10th century revival. Christianity in England in the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages religion was a vital part of everyday life. All children were baptized unless they were Jewish and everyone attended mass on Sunday. Mass was in Latin, a language that ordinary people did not understand.
Bishops ruled over groups of parishes called dioceses. They usually came from rich families. Bishops lived in palaces and often took part in government. Things were very different for parish priests. They were poor and often had little education. Parish priests had their own land called the glebe where they grew their own food. They lived and worked alongside their parishioners.
In the Middle Ages, monks and nuns gave food to the poor. They also ran the only hospitals where they tried to help the sick as best they could. They also provided hospitality for pilgrims and other travelers although as time went by there were an increasing number of inns where you could pay to stay the night.
In a medieval monastery, there was an almonry where food or money was given to the poor, the refectory where the monks ate, the dormitory, infirmary, and the cloisters where the monks could take exercise. An almoner looked after the poor, an infirmarian looked after the sick and a hospitaller looked after visitors.
As well as the monks from the 13th century there were also friars. They took vows like but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach. Franciscan friars were called grey friars because of their grey costumes. Dominican friars were called Blackfriars. In the Middle Ages merchants and groups of craftsmen were organised into guilds, which protected their interests. Guilds also put on plays called mystery play. The word mystery is a corruption of the French word metier, meaning job or trade.
The plays were based on Bible stories and were meant to instruct the people. However, there was nothing solemn about these plays. They contained lots of jokes. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Virgin Mary and the saints were given much more prominence in religion. Far more devotion was shown to them. Furthermore, the Bronze Age people continued to build barrows, although cremation was practiced.
The dead were buried with useful artifacts. Presumably, the living believed the dead would need these in the afterlife. Unfortunately, since they had no written records nothing is known about the Bronze Age religion.
A famous Christian of the 14th century was John Wycliffe. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation the belief that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ during mass. His followers translated the Bible into English. Wycliffe died of natural causes but his followers were persecuted. They were known as Lollards a word that meant mutterers because they said long prayers.
In a law was passed which allowed heretics to be burned to death. Nevertheless, the Lollards continued to meet during the 15th century. Christianity in 16th Century England. One of the great Christians of the early 16th century was William Tyndale. In Tyndale translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale also translated part of the Old Testament. However, Tyndale was burned in Meanwhile, Protestant ideas were spreading in England despite persecution by the state.
However, Arthur died in His brother Henry now became heir to the throne. Normally such a marriage would not have been allowed but the Pope gave a special dispensation. Catherine had four miscarriages and only one of her children lived — a girl named Mary. Henry was desperate to have a son and heir and Catherine could not give him one.
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