(1689)
While the Independents and the Dissenting Brethren of Westminster were effective in developing and spreading a new tolerant attitude toward other faith-groups with their new denominational theory, this view of the church found only limited acceptance in England, where the Church of England still retained a favored position, even after the Act of Toleration in 1689 recognized the rights of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Quakers to worship freely.
[tags]Act-of-Toleration, Baptists, BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Congregationalists, Dissenting-Brethren, history, Presbyterians, Quakers, Westminster[/tags]
(1829-1912)
The most outstanding example of ministry to the dispossessed was the work of a pietistic evangelical William Booth. He started his ministry with the Methodist New Connection but soon withdrew to work with London's poor. His street preaching in London's East End in 1864 met with phenomenal success. Within eleven years he had thirty-two stations promoting evangelism and social service among London's destitute. His workers, organized like a military unit, were soon called the Salvation Army. Evangelist Booth became General Booth.
By 1888 the General had established 1,000 British corps and had dispatched patrols to many other nations. His book In Darkest England and the Way Out appeared in 1890 graphically comparing the social darkness in England to Africa's darkness pictured by David Livingstone. In London, in one year, he reported 2,157 people had been found dead, 2,297 had committed suicide, 30,000 were living in prostitution, 160,000 had been
While other influences contributed to the break with Rome, succession to the throne was the primary constitutional factor in the transformation of the Church in England into the church of England.
For centuries the Church in England had been moving toward independence from Rome. by Luther's time, most patriotic Englishmen had a sense of the distinctive character of the faith in their fatherland.
The schism in the church came over a royal problem — not over theological conflicts. Henry VIII, King of England, revolted against the pope because he passionately desired Anne Boleyn, a lady-in-waiting of the court. Henry and Catherine of Aragon had borne no male children and Pope Clement VII would not issue them an annulment for fear of offending Catherine's nephew, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V. When Henry secretly married Anne, he had an English church court declare his marriage to Catherine
The real architects of the denominational theory of the church were the seventeenth century Independents (Congregationalists) who represented the minority voice at the Westminster Assembly (1642-49). The majority at the Assembly held to Presbyterian principles and expressed these convictions classically in the Westminster Confession of Faith and in The Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
The Independents, however, who held to congregational principles, were keenly aware of the dangers of "dividing the godly Protestant party" in England so they looked for some way to express Christian unity even when Christians did not agree.
These Dissenting Brethren of Westminster articulated the denominational theory of the church in several fundamental truths: First, considering man's inability to always see the truth clearly, differences of opinion about the outward form of the church are inevitable. Second, even though these differences do not involve fundamentals of the faith, they are not matters of indifference.
An adviser to King Henry VIII, and eventually appointed to the post of Archbishop of Canterbury upon the formulation of the Anglican Church. His Book of Common Prayer in English replaced the old Latin service of worship. In 1553 Cranmer also produced the Forty-Two Articles which defined the faith of the Church of England along Protestant lines. When Mary ascended the throne she sent nearly 300 Protestants, including Archbishop Cranmer to the burning stake.
[tags]BlogRodent, Book-of-Common-Prayer, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Forty-Two-Articles, Henry-VIII, history, Thomas-Cranmer[/tags]
After King Henry VIII's break with England he seemed intent on creating an English Catholic Church, for instance the Statute of Six articles upheld many basic Catholic articles. Only two serious changes marked the new way within the Church of England. The first was the suppression of the monasteries; the second was the publication of the English Bible for use in the churches. In the latter years of William Tyndale's life he produced translated portions of the Old Testament (including the Pentateuch) and an improved edition of the New. In 1536 he died, burned at the stake. Yet, during his imprisonment Miles Coverdale published an edition of the Bible which was essentially Tyndale's work, supplemented by Latin and German versions. Then, a year after Tyndale's death, the Matthew Bible appeared. It was the work of another English reformer named John Rogers, it was virtually a well-edited compilation of Tyndale and
(See "Church of England")
In a sense England had two reformations, a constitutional one under King Henry VIII (1509-1547) and a theological one under the Puritans almost a century later. Under Henry nothing changed doctrinally. England simply rejected the authority of Rome. In this move, however, England forecast the future of Christianity in modern nations. She made Christian beliefs almost altogether a private affair and considered the practice of religion an instrument of the state. Later generations called it civil religion.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, English-Reformation, Henry-VIII, history[/tags]
(1553)
When King Henry VIII died, his son Edward VI followed him to the throne. During his brief years England saw the six Articles (from Henry's reign) repealed, priests allowed to marry, and the old Latin service of worship replaced by Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer in English. In 1553 Cranmer also produced the Forty-Two Articles which defined the faith of the Church of England along Protestant lines.
[tags]BlogRodent, Book-of-Common-Prayer, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Edward-VI, Forty-Two-Articles, Henry-VIII, history[/tags]
At the Conference, under the reign of King James I of England (formerly James VI of Scotland) in 1604, some leading Puritans had a chance to present to the king their ideas for change in the Church of England. But James dismissed most of their opinions rather rudely. On only one point did he consent to the demands of the Puritans. He was willing to have a new translation of the Scriptures made. From this decision came what we call the King James version of the Bible.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Hampton-Court-Conference, history, James[/tags]
King of England from 1509-1547. Under King Henry, England rejected the authority of Rome. King Henry had no son born of his queen, Catherine of Aragon, who had delivered five children (the only survivor beyond infancy was the princess Mary). England was in no mood to accept a girl as heir to the throne because of the nation's only previous queen who had occasioned bloody wars of succession. As Catherine grew older, Henry grew more troubled. In 1525 the queen was forty and Henry pondered more and more the ways of God: "Am I under some curse of God?" (Catherine had been Henry's deceased brother Arthur's wife for several months.) In his mind was Le 10:21, "If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing, they shall be childless." The Church of Rome recognized the curse, but had granted the marriage for reasons of its own
In 1603, when Queen Elizabeth died without an heir, James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, became James I of England, uniting for the first time the two kingdoms. When the Puritans presented their ideas for change in the Church of England at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, King James rejected most of their opinions, but did consent to have a new translation of the Scriptures made, resulting in the King James Version of the Bible.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Hampton-Court-Conference, history, James, James-I[/tags]
At Hampton Court Conference in 1604 the Puritans presented to King James I their ideas for change in the Church of England. He consented on only one of their points, he was willing to have a new translation of the Scriptures made. From this decision came what we call the King James version of the Bible.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Hampton-Court-Conference, history, James, King-James-Version[/tags]
Signs of reasons's deadening influence upon churches appeared in a large group within the Church of England called the Latitudinarians. The eloquent John Tillotson, the archbishop of Canterbury (1691-1694), was among them. He vigorously denounced what he called religious "enthusiasm". This included any emotional expression encouraged by fervent preachers. He and his fellow Latitudinarians stressed instead proper behavior. Men should reform their conduct; they should be generous, humane nd tolerant, and avoid bigotry and fanaticism.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, history, Latitudinarians[/tags]
Like its predecessor, the Evangelical Movement, it was more a movement of the heart than of the head. Unlike the Clapham Sect, the Oxford men were deeply troubled by the direction of English society. They saw the reforms of the government as attacks upon the sanctity of the Church of England and they determined to resist the intrusions of the world. With the Reform Act of 1832 the balance of power in Parliament shifted away from the aristocracy and the Anglican Church into the hands of "profane politicians". The Oxford men felt that the Church of England needed to affirm that its authority did not rest on authority from the state, it came from God. Bishops of the Church were not empowered by social position but by an apostolic commission. Even if the Church were completely separated from the state, the Church of England could still claim the allegiance of
Exiles who were forced to flee England under the reign of "Bloody Mary", returned under the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) to cry out against the "ease in Zion". They had read their Bibles and had developed their own ideas about a true reformation in England, differing from Elizabeth's establishment. We know these reformers as "Puritans", preachers of personal and national righteousness.
In its day Puritanism stood for change and a new day in England. The first Puritans had little confidence in traditional religion. Their plans for a new England arose from a deep conviction that spiritual conversion was crucial to Christianity. This rebirth separated the Puritan from the mass of mankind and endowed him with the privileges and the duties of the elect of God. The church may prepare a man for this experience, and, after it, the church may guide him, but the heart of the experience,
"Quaker" was a derisive name. In 1650 Judge Bennett told George Fox that he knew that at the meetings of Fox and his followers people shook with emotion. So he told him, "you folk are the tremblers, you are the quakers." And the name stuck.
When dissent from the Church of England was made legal, Quakers called themselves the "Society of Friends". That is what they are called today, although in many parts of the world "Friends Church" is the name.
George Fox saw a need to proclaim Christ who liberates people from the power of sin in their lives and began preaching in the open air to thousands.
The early Quaker preachers sounded rather like the Old Testament prophet Amos: they proclaimed Christ as truth and let that truth stand in judgement over current evils. They wanted people to live by Christ's righteousness, rather than to
(1832)
This act shifted the balance of power in Parliament from the landed gentry to the middle class and signified a new sensitivity to democratic forces. This action meant that many of the new members of Parliament, though not members of the Church of England, wielded significant power over the Church.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, history, Reform-Act[/tags]
Pastor and leader of the Scrooby congregation. When, after the Hampton Court Conference, they left the Church of England and moved to Holland for safety and freedom of worship they realized that their children were forgetting the English language and customs. So, ten years after leaving England, they returned to England and set sail from Plymouth for New England in the Mayflower.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Hampton-Court-Conference, history, John-Robinson[/tags]
The most outstanding example of ministry to the dispossessed was the work of a pietistic evangelical William Booth (1829-1912). He started his ministry with the Methodist New Connection but soon withdrew to work with London's poor. His street preaching in London's East End in 1864 met with phenomenal success. Within eleven years he had thirty-two stations promoting evangelism and social service among London's destitute. His workers, organized like a military unit, were soon called the Salvation Army. Evangelist Booth became General Booth.
By 1888 the General had established 1,000 British corps and had dispatched patrols to many other nations. His book In Darkest England and the Way Out appeared in 1890 graphically comparing the social darkness in England to Africa's darkness pictured by David Livingstone. In London, in one year, he reported 2,157 people had been found dead, 2,297 had committed suicide, 30,000 were living in prostitution, 160,000 had
Some in the Puritan movement grew impatient for change in the Church. Shortly after the Hampton Court Conference, little groups of believers began to meet for worship as they felt the Bible taught them — not according to bishops and prayer books. They were determined to obey God even if their nation's leaders were not. We call this movement Separatism because the groups were intent upon leaving the Church of England.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, English-Separatism, Hampton-Court-Conference, history[/tags]
After the Hampton Court Conference, little groups of believers began to meet for worship as they felt the Bible taught them — not according to bishops and prayer books. This movement was identified as separatism because the groups were intent upon leaving the Church of England. One of these groups was in Gainsborough in northern England. By 1608 this group had moved to Amsterdam, Holland for safety and freedom of worship. John Smyth was the pastor of this flock. A Cambridge graduate, he studied his Greek New Testament with care and discovered that the practice of baptizing babies never appeared in its pages. If babies were not included in the covenant of grace — only mature believers in Jesus Christ — then shouldn't churches be constituted by confession of faith rather than ties of covenants? Smyth and forty members of the Amsterdam congregation answered, "yes", and were baptized upon the profession of their
(1534)
In his move to cut the Roman Catholic Church off from England, King Henry VIII declared the Act of Supremacy in 1534, declaring "The king's majesty justly and rightly is and ought to be and shall be reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England called 'Anglicana Ecclesia'." Thus was the break with Rome complete.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-England, ChurchRodent, Henry-VIII, history, Supremacy-Act[/tags]
