Timeline Of The English Reformation |
|
Adapted
from the book A History of the Church of England by J.H.R. Moorman |
|
Date |
Event |
1517 |
Martin Luther challenged the authority of
the Roman Church and started a movement. Both his theological and
political ideas soon began to find a footing in England. |
1527 |
By this year Henry VIII had been married for
eighteen years and was without a male heir. Henry applies to Rome
to make arrangements for the annulment of his marriage. |
1529 |
Henry meets a Cambridge tutor called Thomas
Cranmer while lodging at Waltham Abbey. |
1530 |
Henry deprives the Pope's legate Wolsey of
his chancellorship. |
1532-34 |
In the course of three years Henry passed
seven bills through Parliament, each carefully designed to cut one of
the threads which bound England to Rome. All the powers that the papacy
had exerted had been transferred to the king or the Archbishop of
Canterbury. |
1534 |
Bishop John Fisher of Rochester refuses to
take the oath acknowledging the king's supremacy of State and Church,
was tried, found guilty, and beheaded. A few weeks later Sir Thomas
More who suffered for the same cause followed him. |
1535 |
Miles Coverdale produced his English Bible
and dedicated it to the king. |
1535 |
Henry drafted an Act of Parliament to close
down several monasteries. Their incomes and possessions were
transferred to the king. |
1539 |
Henry issued the Six Articles Act described
as "an act abolishing diversity of opinions." This act not only
dictated to people what they should believe but made doubt or heresy a
felony. The six subjects were the doctrine of Transubstantiation, the
adequacy of Communion in one kind only, the necessity of clerical
celibacy, the obligation upon nuns and lay-brothers to observe vows of
chastity, the importance of Private Masses, and the necessity of
sacramental confession. |
1545 |
Henry was at war with France and Scotland
and again short of money. Henry passes a bill through Parliament for
the dissolution of chantries and hospitals and the handing over of
their endowments to the king. |
1547 |
Henry dies, leaving the crown to a
small and delicate boy of nine years of age, Edward VI. Everything now
depended on the personnel of the Council that was to govern for the
next seven years until Edward was deemed to be of age. The Duke of
Somerset, an uncle of the king and convinced reformer, soon got power
into his own hands. |
1547 |
An Act of Parliament passed repealing
the Six Articles. |
1548 |
A number of distinguished Protestant
theologians from abroad arrive in England. This group of foreign
theologians played an important part in the history of the Church in
England during the next three years. |
1549 |
Cranmer prepares an English Prayer
Book to supersede the Roman service books. |
1549 |
Duke of Northumberland seizes power
from the hands of Somerset. Cranmer's mind moves towards a much more
Protestant position. |
1552 |
The Prayer Book is annexed to carry
reform much further. Words and phrases bore a much more Protestant
interpretation. |
1552 |
Cranmer draws up forty-five articles
to define the doctrine of the Church of England. They were aimed partly
against the medieval doctrines of the scholastics and partly against
the antinomian teaching of the extreme Protestants. |
1553 |
The young King Edward, at the age of
fifteen, dies from a tubercular infection of the lungs. The crown went
to Henry's eldest daughter Mary, a half-Spaniard and a fanatical Roman
Catholic. |
1554 |
A set of injunctions required all
bishops to restore the old order. The reformers who did not seek
sanctuary abroad were imprisoned, including Cranmer, Latimer, and
Ridley. |
1554 |
Mary marries Prince Philip of Spain.
Preparations were made for England to be reconciled with Rome. |
1554 |
The English Parliament agreed to
retrace all the steps which it had taken in the last thirty years.
Cardinal Reginald Pole absolved the realm from its long-continued
schism. |
1555 |
Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley were
condemned and executed. Pole was appointed as Cranmer's successor. |
1558 |
The deaths of Mary and Archbishop Pole
seemed like a providential deliverance to England. Elizabeth ascended
the throne. |
1559 |
The Elizabethan Settlement: |
1562 |
Bishop John Jewel produced a large work
called the Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae. This is a vigorous
condemnation of Rome and defense of the Church of England. |
1563 |
Convocation set itself to revise the
Articles of Religion and reduced them to 39. These are a statement of
the Church of England's attitude towards the doctrinal disputes that
were convulsing Europe at the time. |
1566 |
The Council of Trent had now concluded
and published its decrees. |
1568 |
The Pope finds a collaborator in Mary
Queen of Scots to flee into England and rally the Romanists. |
1569 |
A rebellion to get rid of Elizabeth
and restore the "true and catholic religion" was quickly suppressed. |
1570 |
The Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis
excommunicates Elizabeth. The Pope dispensed all her subjects from
their oath of allegiance to her. |
1572 |
A manifesto called An Admonition to
Parliament provided a platform for Puritan controversy and attack. |
1580 |
Robert Browne separated from the
Church of England to form an independent congregation of
non-conformists. |
1581 |
Parliament passed an act that
increased the fines for absence from Church and declared that anyone
joining the Church of Rome should be regarded as a traitor. |
1594 |
Richard Hooker, a pupil of Jewel,
published his book Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker refutes
the Puritan argument that Scripture is the only test of what is
correct, and defends the Church's right to make her own laws so long as
they are not contrary to Scripture. |
1603 |
On the death of Queen Elizabeth, James
was invited to unite the crowns of England and Scotland. |
1604 |
James was presented with the "Milenary
Petition" which was subscribed by a thousand clergy of Puritan
sympathies who were anxious to gain his support. |
1604 |
A conference was held at Hampton Court
to debate the Puritan objections of the Prayer Book. James sided with
the Anglican Establishment. A plan was laid out for a new translation
of the Bible. |
1611 |
The Authorized Version of the Bible
was published. |
1620 |
The
Puritans found the atmosphere of their
native land intolerable and decided to emigrate to the New World. |
1625 |
Charles I inherited from his father
the throne and a profound belief in the Divine Right of Kings. |
1629 |
Charles decided to dissolve Parliament
and govern by Royal Prerogative. For the next eleven years there was no
meeting of Parliament. |
1633 |
William Laud was appointed Archbishop
of Canterbury. Throughout his career, Laud desired to see the Church of
England "catholic and reformed" in the spirit of Jewel and Hooker. |
1640 |
Parliament was summoned to help
Charles fight a war with Scotland. A few months later, Parliament
received a document by thousands of Londoners demanding the abolition
of all ecclesiastical government. A week later Laud was impeached. |
1641 |
Parliament presented Charles with the
Grand Remonstrance, a long statement of grievances against the king and
his party. |
1642 |
After a failed coup, Charles left
London for Yorkshire. Civil War began when Charles raised his standard
at Nottingham. |
1643 |
Parliament enlisted the support of the
Scots. Puritan leaders met in London to draw up an agreement that might
serve as a basis for an alliance with Presbyterian Scotland. |
1644 |
Oliver Cromwell triumphed over the
Royalist troops. This was the first decisive battle of the war and gave
great prestige to the Independent party. |
1644 |
The Church of England came to an end
wherever Parliament could make its will obeyed. The Book of Common
Prayer was declared illegal and replaced by the Directory of Public
Worship. |
1649 |
Charles was brought to London and
sentenced to death. The execution marked the triumph of the Puritans. |
1658 |
Oliver Cromwell died. His son Richard,
who succeeded him as Protector, was a failure and resigned two years
later. |
1660 |
The army got rid of the old Parliament
and arranged for the election of a new Parliament that invited the king
to return. |
1660 |
King Charles II was on the side of the
Anglicans. They intended to see to the restoration of the Church of
England as they had known it in the days of William Laud. |
1661 |
Twelve bishops and twelve Puritan
theologians met at the Conference of Savoy Hospital to debate Puritan
objections to the Prayer Book. The bishops took up a strong and
unyielding position behind primitive custom and catholic usage and
refused to budge. |
1662 |
A revision of the Prayer Book had been
made by a liturgical committee and was now presented and approved.
Altogether about 600 alterations were made, but mostly on matters of
detail. |
1662 |
On St. Bartholomew's day the Church of
England was fully and exclusively restored. The Puritans then separated
from the Church and the final act of the English reformation was closed. |