Who is the head of the church in an Anglican Church?
The Pope is not the Head of the Church of England, otherwise known as the Anglican Church. Please note the following brief history of the Modern Anglican Church.King Henry VIII requested that Pope permit him to divorce his wife and marry his mistress. The Pope refused and Henry married his mistress anyway and renounced Catholicism. He removed England from the Pope's control, seized many of the Church's assets and declared himself to be the head of the Church. Henry's repudiation of papal authority led to the Church of England's existence as a separate entity: a new branch of the Christian Church that was neither Catholic nor Protestant but a hybrid that became known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. It became official in 1536. Henry funded the first printing of the Bible in English to spite the Pope.Another PerspectiveWhile Henry did indeed request the pope for an annulment, not a divorce, he did so because it was custom and practice at that time. Sometime previously the King of France had obtained a divorce or annulment , from this source at great financial cost, but as I say, just as in any industrial dispute today, it was custom and practice.At no time had the Bishop of Rome been head of the Anglican Church, the Church in Britain was in this country within a few years of the Crucifixion and the popes claim to sovereignty had not been made till several hundred years after that time. Further the popes claims to authority relied on the gifts of the Roman Emperors not on the Divine Will. Authority is on the shoulders of the Episcopal College not on the papacy!What Henry did do , was to enter another arena, on the side of the Eastern Church and of the Conciliarists, by pointing out that according to the Councils, [Nice,] No bishop can interfere in another bishop's see!
