How England became a protestant country?

Answer 1

No because Elizabeth I wanted to find a "middle way" in religion because most of her supporters were Catholic and she was a Protestant. In other words, she let Catholics worship in their own way and she let Protestants worship in their own way so that her supporters wouldn't turn against her. This meant that there were no longer disputes between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Answer 2

No! The ist English Mass & worship serices did not begin until 1554. Until then it was simply the Catholic Church (Western, i.e., Church of Rome). Thomas Cranmer (71st Archbishop of Canterbury) translated the Latin services into English...under direction from King Henry VIII. Note: Henry died before the 1st English Service was ever held. Yes! ... if you follow the dates closely. Actually, the first English Prayer Book went into effect in 1549. England was "Catholic" separated from Rome until Henry's death in 1548. Henry only allowed a small portion of the Mass to be put into English---a preparation for receiving communion---as well as having the English Bible read in churches. Under Edward I, the Reformation began to arrive in force, with a still more Protestant Prayer Book in 1552. Stone altars were broken up in many places and replaced with wooded Holy Tables, statues removed. The next Prayer Book was in 1559 under Elizabeth I, after the Catholic Restoration under Mary had been overturned. ---An Anglican Priest

Answer 3

In England there was also dissent across the country on the wave of the Protestant movement across Europe. The monasteries in England had become powerful and corrupt, and Henry VIII saw them as a threat, not only to his own position but to the wellbeing of the country as a whole. The last straw that saw Henry break with Rome was the pope's refusal to grant Henry a divorce. He then set up his own church in England in protest at papal authority, which he believed had usurped his own, and as a 'protesting' Church was Protestant in all but Lutheran name. The pope's response was to excommunicate Henry as a punishment rather than Christian forgiveness. This was more draconian than one might expect in view of the fact that the Church erroneously believed that there was no salvation possible outside the Church, and that members of all other Christian churches (eg Orthodox, Protestant and the new Church of England) would be damned as they were not of the 'true' Church.

Henry went on to dissolve the monasteries and to declare himself Supreme Governor (under Christ) of the Church of England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as its spiritual leader. After some turmoil in the reign of his daughter Mary, who brought Catholicism back briefly, by a cruel, murderous reign (giving her the nickname 'Bloody Mary'), his younger daughter Elizabeth I reinstated the (now regarded as protestant) Church of England. In subsequent years the Book of Common Prayer was introduced, and the 39 Articles of Religion (a list of beliefs of the Church) was adopted, which removed much of the non-Biblical Catholic dogma that was seen as heretical, the non-Biblical sacrificial nature of the mass, condemned the idea of Purgatory as a thing invented by humans and denounced the praying to saints and invocation of relics as superstition However, the articles did preserve the threefold orders (deacons, priests and bishops) but little else. And these Articles still apply across the Church of England; at an ordination, a candidate for priesthood still has to swear allegiance to these beliefs. Therefore any Church of England priest who still upholds exclusively Catholic doctrines of purgatory and so on is actually breaking the oaths made at his ordination. The 39 Articles are available online.

Churches were altered to suit the new protestant Church of England; stone sacrificial altars were removed and a wooden table set at 90 degrees placed in the chancel areas. Later these 'communion tables' would be set back at the east end again, where the remain to this day. The Communion service became a remembrance rather than a re-sacrifice of Christ (an idea that was totally rejected as unBiblical and heretical) and The Bible and all services said in English and not Latin.

And so things remained for hundreds of years until the Oxford movement in the 19th century began to revisit catholicism within the Church of England. Now, the Church of England is still regarded as a protestant Church and a church that rejects papal authority, but has a rich spectrum of worship styles from the very charismatic evangelical church through to the more 'middle of the road' typical Anglican worship through to 'high church' Anglocatholicism (with a small 'C' in Catholic to remind us that it is not the Roman Catholic Church but an Anglican Church which hs some catholic characteristics in worship).

In recent decades, however, the Church of England has been moving more towards the evangelical end of the spectrum. This is possibly as there are a higher percentage of ordinands coming from evangelical parishes, and also that the high church stlye of worship is seen as outdated and very exclusive, rather than relevant to modern society, inclusive of all, and accessible to the unchurched.

Answer 4

England became protestant in about 1536

Answer 5

Yes.