Editing Anglicanism (section)

==Identity==
{{See also|History of the Anglican Communion}}

===Early history===
[[File:Saint Alban (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Saint Alban]] is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr]]
[[File:Augustinus von Canterbury.jpg|thumb|[[Augustine of Canterbury]], the first [[archbishop of Canterbury]]]]
According to legend, the founding of Christianity in Britain is commonly attributed to [[Joseph of Arimathea]] and is commemorated at [[Glastonbury Abbey]].{{efn|According to John Godfrey, {{blockquote|The most famous and beautiful legend of all related to the conversion of Britain is of course that of Joseph of Arimathea, who is said to have arrived in Britain with twelve companions in the year 63 at the bidding of the apostle Philip. According to this legend, Joseph brought with him the Holy Grail and built, at Glastonbury, the first British church.{{sfn|Godfrey|1962|p=9}}}}}}{{sfnm |1a1=Bays |1y=2012 |1p=25 |2a1=Godfrey |2y=1962 |2p=9 |3a1=Kelly |3y=1999}} Many of the early [[Church Fathers]] wrote of the presence of Christianity in [[Roman Britain]], with [[Tertullian]] stating "those parts of Britain into which the Roman arms had never penetrated were become subject to Christ".{{sfnm |1a1=Bays |1y=2012 |1p=25 |2a1=Kelly |2y=1999 |3a1=Timpson |3y=1847 |3p=12}} [[Saint Alban]], who was executed in AD 209, is the first [[Christian martyr]] in the British Isles. For this reason he is [[venerated]] as the British [[protomartyr]].{{sfnm |1a1=Armentrout |1a2=Slocum |1y=2000 |2a1=Bays |2y=2012 |2p=25 |3a1=Cross |3a2=Livingstone |3y=2005}} The historian [[Heinrich Zimmer (Celticist)|Heinrich Zimmer]] writes that "Just as Britain was a part of the Roman Empire, so the British Church formed (during the fourth century) a branch of the Catholic Church of the West; and during the whole of that century, from the [[Synod of Arles|Council of Arles]] (316) onward, took part in all proceedings concerning the Church."{{sfn|Zimmer|1902|pp=107–109<!--|ps=: "For although we differ widely from the current views with regard to the introduction and development of Irish Christianity down to the days of Columba, yet this does not affect the fundamental view, shared by most modern investigators, as to the relation of the institutions of the Celtic Church towards those of the Roman Church at the beginning of the seventh century. On the contrary, with regard to the Irish branch, this view receives fresh support from our statements. Neither from what tradition tells us about the doctrines and institutions of the Celtic Church, nor from what we know or may fairly conjecture about her history, do we receive any support for the hypothesis that the Celtic Church during her golden age greatly resembled the Church of the apostolic era in institutions and dogma. Just as Britain was a part of the Roman Empire, so the British Church formed (during the fourth century) a branch of the Catholic Church of the West; and during the whole of that century, from the council of Arles (316) onward, took part in all proceedings concerning the Church. But the Irish branch of the Celtic Church was an offshoot of that British Church, and had sprung up as early as the fourth century. At the beginning of the seventh century the institutions of the Celtic Church on either side of the Irish Sea showed divergences from the Church of Rome which are well attested. These, on a closer view, admit of full explanation. Above all, we must not forget the fact that in the Roman Catholic Church the position of the Roman bishop during the fourth century and up to the time of Leo the Great (440–461) differed from that of Pope Gregory the Great (509–604) at the end of the sixth century. At the beginning of the seventh century rigid uniformity of institutions was regarded as an essential requirement of the ''unitas catholica''; but to the fourth century this idea was wholly foreign. Besides, many innovations took long to domesticate themselves with the distant branches of the Church. At the end of the fourth century the British branch of the Catholic Church, together with its offshoot in the barbarian isle, were severed from Rome, because political Rome had lost its hold on Britain."-->}}

After [[End of Roman rule in Britain|Roman troops withdrew from Britain]], the "absence of Roman military and governmental influence and overall decline of Roman imperial political power enabled Britain and the surrounding isles to develop distinctively from the rest of the West. A new culture emerged around the [[Irish Sea]] among the [[Celts|Celtic peoples]] with [[Celtic Christianity]] at its core. What resulted was a form of Christianity distinct from Rome in many traditions and practices."{{efn|[[John Carey (Celticist)|John Carey]] writes that {{blockquote|'Celtic Christianity' is a phrase used, with varying degrees of specificity, to designate a complex of features held to have been common to the Celtic-speaking countries in the early Middle Ages. Doubts concerning the term's usefulness have repeatedly been expressed, however, and the majority of scholars consider it to be problematic ...

While there is considerable evidence for divergent Irish and (to an even greater degree) British practice in matters of liturgy, baptism, and ecclesiastical administration, the usages in question seem only to have characterized specific regions, and not necessarily to have been uniformly present there. Only the Britons were accused of practising a heterodox baptism; traces of an archaic liturgy in Wales find no counterpart in the eclectic, but largely Gallican, worship attested from Ireland; and the superiority of abbots to bishops appears to have been limited to some parts of Gaelic sphere of influence.{{sfn|Carey|2006|pp=431, 433}}}}

In ''The Celtic Resource Book'', [[Martin Wallace (bishop)|Martin Wallace]] writes that {{blockquote|it is important to remember that there was never any such thing as 'The Celtic Church'. It was never an organized system in the way that we understand churches today. Rather, each Celtic church was highly independent and if there was a relationship between any of them the relationship tended to be one of spiritual support through missionary endeavour, rather than through any particular church structure. It is also important to remember that the Celtic church life as it emerged in fifth-century Ireland would be quite different to that which emerged in nineteenth century Hebridean communities. Even on the mainland the patterns of church life would vary considerably from one place to another, and from one age to another.{{sfn|Wallace|2009|p=9}}}}}}{{sfn|Hogue|2010|p=160<!--"In AD 407, Rome withdrew its armies from Britain to defend Italy from Visigothic attack. With the sack of Rome in AD 410, legions of Rome never returned to Britain. The absence of Roman military and governmental influence and overall decline of Roman imperial political power enabled Britain and the surrounding isles to develop distinctively from the rest of the West. A new culture emerged around the Irish Sea among the Celtic peoples with Celtic Christianity at its core. What resulted was a form of Christianity distinct from Rome in many traditions and practices.-->}}{{sfnm |1a1=Hexham |1a2=Rost |1a3=Morehead |1y=2004 |1p=48<!--"Rooted in those years of Celtic Christian culture's isolation is its uniqueness, its mystery...Nowhere in this history of Christianity is there so clear an instance of the Christian transformation of a pagan culture with so little influence by the culture that brought the Christian message. For as soon as the Roman culture had carried the gospel to Ireland, the carrier collapsed....For several generations there was little influence from the rest of European Christianity and the result was a unique Christian blossoming of a formerly pagan culture."--> |2a1=De Waal |2y=1998 |2p=52}}

The historian [[Charles Thomas (historian)|Charles Thomas]], in addition to the [[Celtic studies|Celticist]] Heinrich Zimmer, writes that the distinction between sub-Roman and post-Roman Insular Christianity, also known as Celtic Christianity, began to become apparent around AD 475,{{sfnm |1a1=Thomas |1y=1981 |1p=348 |2a1=Zimmer |2y=1902 |2pp=107–109}} with the [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic churches]] allowing married clergy,{{sfn|Godfrey|1962|pp=440–441}} observing [[Lent]] and Easter according to their own calendar,{{sfn|Boenig|2000|p=7<!--"Not only did the Roman missionaries have to negotiation an accommodation with Germanic and vestigial Celtic paganism, they also had the native Celtic Christianity to deal with. The Celtic Church was largely isolated from the rest of Western Christendom: much of Europe's continent was pagan, and there had been little contact between the Celtic Church and Rome in the years before and during the Anglo-Saxon Migration. As a result the Celtic Church had developed a number of idiosyncrasies that set it apart from the rest of Western Christendom, or at least that is how those adhering to the Roman version of Christianity, like Bede, saw it. Celtic Christianity was dominated by strong abbots and monasteries and characterised by relatively weak bishops (with St. Patrick, a missionary to Ireland from Britain, of course, an exception). This was largely the opposite to the condition that obtained in the Roman Church. The Celtic Church followed, moreover, the eighty-four-year cycle of the dating of Easter rather than the nineteen-year cycle of the Roman Church."-->}}<ref>{{cite book|title=The Churchman |year=1881|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=427|quote=The Roman Church, and those of the Continent, calculated the occurrence of the Easter festival by a new and more accurate method. The Irish and British Churches calculated by an old and defective rule, which they considered had been transmitted to them from St. John. The difference was sometimes so much as a whole month between the Celtic and the Catholic Easter. When the two Churches came into contact, as they did in the North of England, this discrepancy gave rise to scandal and controversy.}}</ref> and having a different [[tonsure]]; moreover, like the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and the [[Oriental Orthodox Churches|Oriental Orthodox]] churches, the Celtic churches operated independently of the Pope's authority,{{sfnm |1a1=Cairns |1y=1996 |1p=172 |2a1=Grafton |2y=1911 |2p=69 |3a1=Hunter Blair |3y=2003 |3p=129}} as a result of their isolated development in the British Isles.{{sfnm |1a1=Hunter Blair |1y=2003 |1p=129 |2a1=Taylor |2y=1916 |2p=59}}

In what is known as the [[Gregorian mission]], [[Pope Gregory I|Pope Gregory&nbsp;I]] sent [[Augustine of Canterbury]] to the British Isles in AD 596, with the purpose of [[evangelism|evangelising]] the pagans there (who were largely [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|Anglo-Saxons]]),{{sfn|Wright|2008|p=25}} as well as to reconcile the Celtic churches in the British Isles to the [[See of Rome]].{{sfnm |1a1=Boenig |1y=2000 |1p=7 |2a1=Wallace |2y=2009 |2p=9 |3a1=Wilken |3y=2012 |3pp=274–275}} In [[Kent, England|Kent]], Augustine persuaded the Anglo-Saxon king "[[Æthelberht of Kent|Æthelberht]] and his people to accept Christianity".{{sfn|Carpenter|2003|p=94}} Augustine, on two occasions, "met in conference with members of the Celtic episcopacy, but no understanding was reached between them".{{sfn|Hunter Blair|1966|p=226}}

Eventually, the "Christian Church of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria convened the [[Synod of Whitby]] in 663/664 to decide whether to follow Celtic or Roman usages". This meeting, with [[Oswiu|King Oswiu]] as the final decision maker, "led to the acceptance of Roman usage elsewhere in England and brought the English Church into close contact with the Continent".{{sfn|Campbell|2011|p=112}} As a result of assuming Roman usages, the Celtic Church surrendered its independence, and, from this point on, the Church in England "was no longer purely Celtic, but became Anglo-Roman-Celtic".{{sfn|Hardinge|1995|p=xii}} The theologian Christopher L. Webber writes that "Although "the Roman form of Christianity became the dominant influence in Britain as in all of western Europe, Anglican Christianity has continued to have a distinctive quality because of its Celtic heritage."{{sfn|Webber|1999<!--"Although the Roman form of Christianity became the dominant influence in Britain as in all of western Europe, Anglican Christianity has continued to have a distinctive quality because of its Celtic heritage."-->}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://anglican.org/church/ChurchHistory.html|title=Church History|work=The Anglican Domain|publisher=Society of Archbishop Justus|access-date=18 March 2014|archive-date=25 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725010717/http://anglican.org/church/ChurchHistory.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oikoumene.org/en/church-families/anglican-churches|title=Anglican Churches|publisher=World Council of Churches|access-date=18 March 2014|archive-date=24 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424211706/http://www.oikoumene.org/en/church-families/anglican-churches|url-status=live}}</ref>

Following the Synod of Whitby, tensions between Rome and the English king would gradually escalate, due in part to royal assertions that it was the custom of England for the king to exercise authority over the Church. In the late 1000s, [[William the Conqueror]] (William I) refused to swear fealty to the Pope citing English tradition,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elfinspell: 1079 A.D., William I's Letter to the Pope Gregory VII, from King's Letters, edited by Robert Steel, William the Conqueror, primary source document, Norman England History, Primary Source, English translation |url=https://www.elfinspell.com/KingsLettersWilliamI.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.elfinspell.com}}</ref> controlled appointments to ecclesiastical offices<ref>{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: William the Conqueror |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15642c.htm |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> (a power historically reserved to the Pope) and forbade papal legates to enter England without royal permission.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Age of Gregory VII, 1073-85: Letters of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury |url=http://legalhistorysources.com/Canon%20Law/GregorianReform/GregoryVIILetters.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=legalhistorysources.com}}</ref> In 1164, under [[Henry II of England|Henry II]], the [[Constitutions of Clarendon]], citing English custom, required royal assent for excommunications and mandated that ecclesiastical court appeals terminate with the king rather than the Pope.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Ernest F. (Ernest Flagg) |date=1998-12-29 |title=Constitutions of Clarendon. 1164. |url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/constcla.asp |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=avalon.law.yale.edu}}</ref> The [[Magna Carta]] in 1215, asserting that "the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=The National |title=The National Archives - Homepage |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/magna-carta/british-library-magna-carta-1215-runnymede/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=The National Archives |language=en-GB}}</ref> would be annulled by [[Pope Innocent III]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shameful and Demeaning: The Annulment of Magna Carta |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2015/08/shameful-and-demeaning-the-annulment-of-magna-carta.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=blogs.bl.uk |language=en}}</ref> but reissued in both 1216 and 1225. Under [[Edward I of England|Edward I]], in 1279, the [[Statutes of Mortmain|Statute of Mortmain]] required royal approval to grant or transfer land to the Church.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Ernest F. (Ernest Flagg) |date=1998-12-29 |title=Statute of Mortmain; November 15, 1279 |url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/mortmain.asp |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=avalon.law.yale.edu}}</ref> Additionally, Edward I would reject [[Pope Boniface VIII]]'s bull ''[[Clericis laicos|Clericis Laicos]]'' which forbade secular taxation of clergy. Per the king's orders, non-compliant clergy were punished by law and church property was seized.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edward I - Wars, Scotland, Wales {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-I-king-of-England/Wars#ref266880 |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The 1351 [[Statute of Provisors]], under [[Edward III of England|Edward III]], prohibited papal appointments to English benefices, reserving the power for the king.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2nd_Statute_of_Provisors.pdf |title=The Second Statute of Provisors |website=Thomas More Studies |access-date=4 May 2025}}</ref> The 1353 [[Statute of Praemunire]] prohibited appeals to papal courts for either ecclesiastical or temporal matters.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-02 |title=1392: 16 Richard c.5: Statute of Praemunire |url=https://statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/fourteenth-century/1392-16-richard-c-5-statute-of-praemunire/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=The Statutes Project |language=en-GB}}</ref> To date, neither the Statute of Provisors nor the Statute of Praemunire has been repealed. In 1401, [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]]'s statute ''[[De heretico comburendo|De Heretico Comburendo]]'' would transfer heresy trials from ecclesiastical to secular courts, further cementing the tradition of English kings claiming authority over English ecclesiastical matters.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-06 |title=1400: 2 Henry 4 c.15: De heretico comburendo |url=https://statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/fifteenth-century/1400-2-henry-4-c-15-de-heretico-comburendo/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=The Statutes Project |language=en-GB}}</ref> English delegates to the Councils of [[Council of Pisa|Pisa]] (1409), [[Council of Constance|Constance]] (1414–1418), and [[Council Of Basel|Basel]] (1431–1445) would voice support for conciliarism in an attempt to limit the powers of the Pope over-against the bishops of the Church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Council of Constance |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04288a.htm |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Council of Florence |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06111a.htm |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>
[[File:King's_College_Chapel,_Cambridge_-_The_Great_East_Window.jpg|thumb|[[King's College Chapel, Cambridge]], Great East Window.]]
The Church in England remained united with Rome until the English Parliament passed the [[Acts of Supremacy|Act of Supremacy]] in 1534, declaring King [[Henry VIII]] the “Supreme Head” of the Church of England. This act culminated centuries of English monarchs asserting authority over ecclesiastical matters, from William I's refusal of papal fealty (1070s) to the Statutes of Provisors (1351) and Praemunire (1353). Henry and his theologians, including [[Thomas Cranmer]], cited these historical customs to justify royal supremacy, arguing that the crown traditionally governed the Church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Act of Appeals |url=https://www.henryviiithereign.co.uk/1532-act-of-appeals-preamble.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Henry VIII,the Reign |language=en}}</ref> The immediate catalyst was Henry's need to annul his 24-year marriage to [[Catherine of Aragon]], which he believed was invalid based on biblical prohibitions (Leviticus 20:21) and the lack of a male heir, seen as divine judgment. When [[Pope Clement VII]], under pressure from [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Charles V]], refused the annulment, Henry acted to resolve the issue domestically, supported by legislative steps like the [[Submission of the Clergy Act 1533|Submission of the Clergy]] (1534) and [[Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532|Act in Restraint of Appeals]] (1533). The break with Rome reflected a mix of theological conviction, historical precedent, and political necessity, fulfilling a longstanding English desire for ecclesiastical autonomy while addressing immediate dynastic concerns. This laid the foundation for the development of Anglicanism as a distinct national church.

The English Church under Henry VIII continued to maintain Catholic doctrines and liturgical celebrations of the [[Anglican sacraments|sacraments]] despite its separation from Rome. With little exception, Henry VIII allowed no changes during his lifetime.{{sfn|Russell|2010}} Under [[King Edward VI]] (1547–1553), however, the church in England first began to undergo what is known as the [[English Reformation]], in the course of which it acquired a number of characteristics that would subsequently become recognised as constituting its distinctive "Anglican" identity.{{sfn|Russell|2010|p=88}}

===Development===
{{See also|History of the Anglican Communion}}
[[File:Elizabeth I in coronation robes.jpg|left|thumb|[[Queen Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth&nbsp;I]] revived the [[Church of England]] in 1559 and established a uniform faith and practice; she took the title "Supreme Governor"]]
With the [[Elizabethan Settlement]] of 1559, the Protestant identity of the English and Irish churches was affirmed by means of parliamentary legislation which mandated allegiance and loyalty to the English Crown in all their members. The Elizabethan church began to develop distinct religious traditions, assimilating some of the theology of [[Reformed churches]] with the services in the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' (which drew extensively on the [[Sarum Rite]] native to England), under the leadership and organisation of a continuing episcopate.{{sfn|Edwards|1983|p=89}} Over the years, these traditions themselves came to command adherence and loyalty. The Elizabethan Settlement stopped the radical Protestant tendencies under Edward VI by combining the more radical elements of the [[Book of Common Prayer (1552)|1552 prayer book]] with the conservative "Catholic" [[Book of Common Prayer (1549)|1549 prayer book]] into the [[Book of Common Prayer (1559)|1559 ''Book of Common Prayer'']]. From then on, Protestantism was in a "state of arrested development", regardless of the attempts to detach the Church of England from its "idiosyncratic anchorage in the medieval past" by various groups which tried to push it towards a more Reformed theology and governance in the years 1560–1660.{{sfn|MacCulloch|1990|pp=171–172}}

Although two important constitutive elements of what later would emerge as Anglicanism were present in 1559 – scripture, the [[historic episcopate]], the ''Book of Common Prayer'', the teachings of the First Four Ecumenical Councils as the yardstick of catholicity, the teaching of the Church Fathers and Catholic bishops, and informed reason – neither the laypeople nor the clergy perceived themselves as Anglicans at the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign, as there was no such identity. Neither does the term ''[[via media]]'' appear until the 1627 to describe a church which refused to identify itself definitely as Catholic or Protestant, or as both, "and had decided in the end that this is virtue rather than a handicap".<ref>Diarmid MacCullough, ''The Later Reformation in England'', 1990, pp. 142, 171–172 {{ISBN|0-333-69331-0}}</ref>
[[File:New College Chapel Interior 1, Oxford, UK - Diliff.jpg|thumb|[[New College, Oxford|New College Chape]]<nowiki/>l, Oxford]]
Historical studies on the period 1560–1660 written before the late 1960s tended to project the predominant conformist spirituality and doctrine of the 1660s on the ecclesiastical situation one hundred years before, and there was also a tendency to take polemically binary partitions of reality claimed by contestants studied (such as the dichotomies Protestant-"Popish" or "[[Laudianism|Laudian]]"-"Puritan") at face value. Since the late 1960s, these interpretations have been criticised. Studies on the subject written during the last forty-five years have, however, not reached any consensus on how to interpret this period in English church history. The extent to which one or several positions concerning doctrine and spirituality existed alongside the more well-known and articulate Puritan movement and the Durham House Party, and the exact extent of continental Calvinism among the English elite and among the ordinary churchgoers from the 1560s to the 1620s are subjects of current and ongoing debate.{{efn|For a study stressing the hegemony of continental Calvinism before the 1620s, see {{harvnb|Tyacke|1987}}. For a study perceiving an emerging self-conscious "Prayer Book Episcopalism" distinct from, but a predecessor to, [[Restoration (England)|Restoration]] Anglicanism, see {{harvnb|Maltby|1998}}.}}

In 1662, under [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]], a revised ''Book of Common Prayer'' was produced, which was acceptable to high churchmen as well as some [[Puritans]] and is still considered authoritative to this day.{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=11, 129}} In so far as Anglicans derived their identity from both parliamentary legislation and ecclesiastical tradition, a crisis of identity could result wherever secular and religious loyalties came into conflict – and such a crisis indeed occurred in 1776 with the [[United States Declaration of Independence]], most of whose signatories were, at least nominally, Anglican.{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=42}} For these American patriots, even the forms of Anglican services were in doubt, since the Prayer Book rites of [[Matins]], [[Evening Prayer (Anglican)|Evensong]], and Holy Communion all included specific prayers for the British royal family. Consequently, the conclusion of the [[American Revolutionary War|War of Independence]] eventually resulted in the creation of two new Anglican churches, the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church in the United States]] in those states that had achieved independence; and in the 1830s, [[Anglican Church of Canada|the Church of England in Canada]] became independent from the Church of England in those North American colonies which had remained under British control and to which many Loyalist churchmen had migrated.{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=43}}

Reluctantly, legislation was passed in the British Parliament (the Consecration of Bishops Abroad Act 1786) to allow bishops to be consecrated for an American church outside of allegiance to the British Crown (since no dioceses had ever been established in the former American colonies).{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=43}} Both in the United States and in Canada, the new Anglican churches developed novel models of self-government, collective decision-making, and self-supported financing; that would be consistent with separation of religious and secular identities.{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=322}}

In the following century, two further factors acted to accelerate the development of a distinct Anglican identity. From 1828 and 1829, [[Dissenters]] and Catholics could be elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]],{{sfn|Edwards|1984|pp=113, 124}} which consequently ceased to be a body drawn purely from the established churches of Scotland, England, and Ireland; but which nevertheless, over the following ten years, engaged in extensive reforming legislation affecting the interests of the English and Irish churches; which, by the [[Acts of Union 1800|Acts of Union of 1800]], had been reconstituted as the [[United Church of England and Ireland]] (a union which was dissolved in 1871). The propriety of this legislation was bitterly contested by the [[Oxford Movement]] (Tractarians),{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=178}} who in response developed a vision of Anglicanism as religious tradition deriving ultimately from the [[ecumenical councils]] of the patristic church. Those within the Church of England opposed to the Tractarians, and to their revived ritual practices, introduced a stream of bills in parliament aimed to control innovations in worship.{{sfn|Chadwick|1987|p=324}} This only made the dilemma more acute, with consequent continual litigation in the secular and ecclesiastical courts.

Over the same period, Anglican churches engaged vigorously in [[Mission (Christian)|Christian missions]], resulting in the creation, by the end of the century, of over ninety colonial bishoprics,{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=318}} which gradually coalesced into new self-governing churches on the Canadian and American models. However, the case of [[John Colenso]], [[Bishop of Natal]], reinstated in 1865 by the English [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]] over the heads of the Church in South Africa,{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=324}} demonstrated acutely that the extension of episcopacy had to be accompanied by a recognised Anglican ecclesiology of ecclesiastical authority, distinct from secular power.

Consequently, at the instigation of the bishops of Canada and South Africa, the first [[Lambeth Conference]] was called in 1867;{{sfn|Edwards|1984|p=325}} to be followed by further conferences in 1878 and 1888, and thereafter at ten-year intervals. The various papers and declarations of successive Lambeth Conferences have served to frame the continued Anglican debate on identity, especially as relating to the possibility of ecumenical discussion with other churches. This ecumenical aspiration became much more of a possibility, as other denominational groups rapidly followed the example of the Anglican Communion in founding their own transnational alliances: the [[World Alliance of Reformed Churches|Alliance of Reformed Churches]], the [[World Methodist Council|Ecumenical Methodist Council]], the [[World Alliance of Reformed Churches|International Congregational Council]], and the [[Baptist World Alliance]].

===Theories===
{{multiple image
| align     = right
| direction = horizontal
| total_width = 330
| header    = Leaders of the [[Tractarian]] movement
| image1    = Edward Bouverie Pusey.jpg
| width1    = 302
| height1 = 355
| caption1  = [[Edward Bouverie Pusey]]
| image2    = John-Henry-Newman.gif
| width2    = 600
| height2 = 811
| caption2  = [[John Henry Newman]]
}}

Anglicanism was seen as a middle way, or ''via media'', between two branches of Protestantism, Lutheranism and Reformed Christianity.<ref name="Anglican and Episcopal History"/> In their rejection of absolute parliamentary authority, the [[Oxford Movement|Tractarians]], especially [[John Henry Newman]], looked back to the writings of 17th-century Anglican divines, finding in these texts the idea of the English church as a ''via media'' between the Protestant and Catholic traditions.{{sfn|Morris|2003}} This view was associated – especially in the writings of [[Edward Bouverie Pusey]] – with the theory of Anglicanism as one of three "[[Branch Theory|branches]]" (alongside the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches) historically arising out of the common tradition of the earliest [[ecumenical councils]]. Newman himself subsequently rejected his theory of the ''via media'', as essentially historicist and static and hence unable to accommodate any dynamic development within the church.{{sfn|Morris|2003}} Nevertheless, the aspiration to ground Anglican identity in the writings of the 17th-century divines and in faithfulness to the traditions of the [[Church Fathers]] reflects a continuing theme of Anglican ecclesiology, most recently in the writings of [[Henry Robert McAdoo]].{{sfn|McAdoo|1991}}

The Tractarian formulation of the theory of the ''via media'' between Protestantism and Catholicism was essentially a party platform, and not acceptable to Anglicans outside the confines of the [[Oxford Movement]]. However, this theory of the via media was reworked in the ecclesiological writings of [[Frederick Denison Maurice]], in a more dynamic form that became widely influential. Both Maurice and Newman saw the Church of England of their day as sorely deficient in faith; but whereas Newman had looked back to a distant past when the light of faith might have appeared to burn brighter, Maurice looked forward to the possibility of a brighter revelation of faith in the future. Maurice saw the Protestant and Catholic strands within the Church of England as contrary but complementary, both maintaining elements of the true church, but incomplete without the other; such that a true catholic and evangelical church might come into being by a union of opposites.{{sfn|Sykes|1978|p=16}}

Central to Maurice's perspective was his belief that the collective elements of family, nation, and church represented a divine order of structures through which God unfolds his continuing work of creation. Hence, for Maurice, the Protestant tradition had maintained the elements of national distinction which were amongst the marks of the true universal church, but which had been lost within contemporary Catholicism in the internationalism of centralised papal authority. Within the coming universal church that Maurice foresaw, national churches would each maintain the six signs of catholicity: baptism, Eucharist, the creeds, Scripture, an episcopal ministry, and a fixed liturgy (which could take a variety of forms in accordance with divinely ordained distinctions in national characteristics).{{sfn|Morris|2003}} This vision of a becoming universal church as a congregation of autonomous national churches proved highly congenial in Anglican circles; and Maurice's six signs were adapted to form the [[Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral]] of 1888.{{sfn|Woodhouse-Hawkins|1988}}

In the latter decades of the 20th century, Maurice's theory, and the various strands of Anglican thought that derived from it, have been criticised by [[Stephen Sykes]],{{sfn|Sykes|1978|p=19}} who argues that the terms ''Protestant'' and ''Catholic'' as used in these approaches are synthetic constructs denoting ecclesiastic identities unacceptable to those to whom the labels are applied. Hence, the Catholic Church does not regard itself as a party or strand within the universal church – but rather identifies itself as the universal church. Moreover, Sykes criticises the proposition, implicit in theories of ''via media'', that there is no distinctive body of Anglican doctrines, other than those of the universal church; accusing this of being an excuse not to undertake systematic doctrine at all.{{sfn|Sykes|1978|p=53}}

Contrariwise, Sykes notes a high degree of commonality in Anglican liturgical forms and in the doctrinal understandings expressed within those liturgies. He proposes that Anglican identity might rather be found within a shared consistent pattern of prescriptive liturgies, established and maintained through [[Canon law of the Anglican Communion|canon law]], and embodying both a historic deposit of formal statements of doctrine, and also framing the regular reading and proclamation of scripture.{{sfn|Sykes|1978|p=44}} Sykes nevertheless agrees with those heirs of Maurice who emphasise the incompleteness of Anglicanism as a positive feature, and quotes with qualified approval the words of [[Michael Ramsey]]:

{{Blockquote|For while the Anglican church is vindicated by its place in history, with a strikingly balanced witness to Gospel and Church and sound learning, its greater vindication lies in its pointing through its own history to something of which it is a fragment. Its credentials are its incompleteness, with the tension and the travail of its soul. It is clumsy and untidy, it baffles neatness and logic. For it is not sent to commend itself as 'the best type of Christianity,' but by its very brokenness to point to the universal Church wherein all have died.{{sfn|Ramsey|1936|p=220}}}}