The Elizabethan Church of England and the Origins of Anglicanism

Abstract

Chapter 4 examines the history of worship, ecclesiastical government, theological developments, and religious change in Britain during the reign of Elizabeth. It commences with a wider-ranging discussion of the changing sense of the designation ‘ecclesia anglicana’. It pays attention to: the growing diversification of schismatic forces at work in the British isles during this period; changes in doctrinal programmes promulgated in response to changes of monarch; and the proliferation of cultural debate concerning the representation of Christian and non-Christian in manuscript and print culture in this period. The chapter explores selected ‘test cases’ of writers and documents from the period to illuminate particular issues. It considers the hermeneutics proposed by John Jewel in his famous ‘Challenge Sermon’ of 1559, the doctrinal formula of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (1563/71) and concludes with a consideration of the distinctive synthesis of ‘Reformed’ and ‘Catholic’ tendencies in the Elizabethan religious settlement.