Church of England

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Church of England

English national church

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Dec 17, 2024 • Article History

Key People:: Elizabeth I; Henry VIII; Thomas More; St. John Henry Newman; Saint John Fisher

Related Topics:: Anglicanism; Convocations of Canterbury and York; Nonjuror; High Church; Low Church

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Former Church of England leader resigns as priest after claims he mishandled an abuse case • Dec. 17, 2024, 6:11 PM ET (AP)

Church of England, English national church that traces its history back to the arrival of Christianity in Britain during the 2nd century. It has been the original church of the Anglican Communion since the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. As the successor of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval English church, it has valued and preserved much of the traditional framework of medieval Roman Catholicism in church government, liturgy, and customs, while it also has usually held the fundamentals of Reformation faith. The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, who began invading Britain after Rome stopped governing the country in the 5th century, was undertaken by ...(100 of 1149 words)

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