England, Church of: Origins

Origins

Christianity, introduced by the Romans, was fairly well established in Britain by the 4th cent., but was almost destroyed by the Anglo-Saxon invasions beginning in the 5th cent. Surviving in isolation, the Celtic Church developed practices at variance with those on the Continent. This led to conflict when St. Augustine of Canterbury arrived (597) to reconvert England. Roman usages were eventually adopted in preference to Celtic ones (see Whitby, Synod of), but the English Church remained somewhat isolated until the Norman Conquest, when Continental churchmen undertook its reform.

Sections in this article:

Introduction
The Oxford Movement to the Present
The Eighteenth Century
The Glorious Revolution
The English Civil War and the Restoration
Creation of the Church
Origins
Organization and Doctrine
Bibliography

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