page_title: History of the Church of England
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Church of England
caption_attribution_description: English: Archiepiscopal chair in Canterbury Cathedral
context_page_description: The formal history of the Church of England is traditionally dated by the Church to the Gregorian mission to England by Augustine of Canterbury in AD 597. As a result of Augustine's mission, and based on the tenets of Christianity, Christianity in England fell under control or authority of the Pope. This gave him the power to appoint bishops, preserve or change doctrine, and/or grant exceptions to standard doctrine.
  The phrase Church of England, however, frequently refers to the Church as of 1534, when it separated from the Catholic Church and became one of many churches embracing the Protestant Reformation. King Henry VIII of England was less concerned with church doctrine, and more with practical matters. Desiring control over religious dictates in order to divorce Catherine of Aragon, he had himself declared to be the supreme head of the Church in England. This resulted in a schism with the Papacy. Henry also used the schism as an excuse to seize the considerable land and wealth of many monasteries.
context_section_description: The formal history of the Church of England is traditionally dated by the Church to the Gregorian mission to England by Augustine of Canterbury in AD 597. As a result of Augustine's mission, and based on the tenets of Christianity, Christianity in England fell under control or authority of the Pope. This gave him the power to appoint bishops, preserve or change doctrine, and/or grant exceptions to standard doctrine.
  The phrase Church of England, however, frequently refers to the Church as of 1534, when it separated from the Catholic Church and became one of many churches embracing the Protestant Reformation. King Henry VIII of England was less concerned with church doctrine, and more with practical matters. Desiring control over religious dictates in order to divorce Catherine of Aragon, he had himself (as opposed to the Pope) declared to be the supreme head of the Church in England. This resulted in a schism with the Papacy. Henry also used the schism as an excuse to seize the considerable land and wealth of many monasteries. As a result of this schism, many non-Anglicans consider that the Church of England only existed from the 16th century Protestant Reformation, and the phrase in common usage may frequently mean that. This article, however, includes the entire history of Christian Church in its various forms in England.
  Christianity arrived in the British Isles around AD 47 during the Roman Empire according to Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. Archbishop Restitutus and others are known to have attended the Council of Arles in 314. Christianity developed roots in Sub-Roman Britain and later Ireland, Scotland, and Pictland. The Anglo-Saxons (Germanic pagans who progressively seized British territory) during the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries, established a small number of kingdoms and evangelisation of the Anglo-Saxons was carried out by the successors of the Gregorian mission and by Celtic missionaries from Scotland. The church in Wales remained isolated and was only brought within the jurisdiction of English bishops several centuries later.
  The Church of England became the established church by an act of Parliament in the Act of Supremacy, beginning a series of events known as the English Reformation. During the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip, the church was fully restored under Rome in 1555. However, the pope's authority was again explicitly rejected after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I when the Act of Supremacy 1558 was passed. Catholic and Reformed factions vied for determining the doctrines and worship of the church. This ended with the 1558 Elizabethan Settlement, which developed the understanding that the church was to be "both Catholic and Reformed".
caption: Chair of Saint Augustine, the archiepiscopal throne in Canterbury Cathedral, Kent[note 1]
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