Anglo-Catholicism

[9] The articles for the most part concurred with the teachings of the Church in England as they had been prior to the Protestant Reformation and defended, among other things, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacrament of Confession, the honouring and invocation of Christian saints, and prayer for the dead.

[note 1] This was followed by the Institution of the Christian Man (also called The Bishops' Book) in 1537, a combined effort by numerous Anglican clergy and theologians which—though not strongly Protestant in its inclinations—showed a slight move towards Reformed positions.

[11] The Six Articles, released two years later, moved away from all Reformed ideas and strongly affirmed Catholic positions regarding matters such as transubstantiation and Mass for the dead.

[12][13] The King's Book, the official article of religion written by Henry in 1543, likewise expressed Catholic sacramental theology and encouraged prayer for the dead.

[14] A major shift in the development of Anglican doctrine came in the reign of Henry's son, Edward VI, who repealed the Six Articles[15] and under whose rule the Church of England became more identifiably Protestant.

[18] The nature of early Anglicanism was to be of great importance to the Anglo-Catholics of the 19th century, who would argue that their beliefs and practices were common during this period and were inoffensive to the earliest members of the Church of England.

[19] The Caroline Divines were a group of influential Anglican theologians active in the 17th century who opposed Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Puritanism[20] and stressed the importance of apostolic succession, episcopal polity, and the sacraments.

The principal objective of the Oxford Movement was the defence of the Church of England as a divinely founded institution, of the doctrine of apostolic succession, and of the Book of Common Prayer as a "rule of faith".

Its liturgical practices were influential, as were its social achievements (including its slum settlements) and its revival of male and female monasticism within Anglicanism.

Present-day "traditionalist" Anglo-Catholics seek to maintain tradition and to keep Anglican doctrine in line with that of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Thus in recent years, many Anglo-Catholics have accepted the ordination of women, the use of inclusive language in Bible translations and the liturgy, and progressive attitudes towards homosexuality and the blessing of same sex unions.

This more "progressive" style of Anglo-Catholicism is represented by Affirming Catholicism and the Society of Catholic Priests, although, unlike Forward in Faith, this organisation is not as visible with the laity.

A third strand of Anglican Catholicism criticises elements of both liberalism and conservatism, drawing instead on the 20th-century Catholic Nouvelle Théologie, especially Henri de Lubac.

John Milbank and others within this strand have been instrumental in the creation of the ecumenical (though predominantly Anglican and Roman Catholic) movement known as radical orthodoxy.

Under these terms, regional groupings of Anglican Catholics may apply for reception by the Holy See under the jurisdiction of an "ordinary" (i.e. a bishop or priest[note 2]) appointed by Rome to oversee the community.

[35] Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker, in 1572, published De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ, which traced the roots of the Anglican Church, arguing "that the early British Church differed from Roman Catholicism in key points and thus provided an alternative model for patristic Christianity,"[36] a view repeated by many Anglo-Catholics such as Charles Chapman Grafton, Bishop of the Diocese of Fond du Lac.

"[38] In the same vein, Anglo-Catholics emphasise the doctrines of apostolic succession and the threefold order, holding that these were retained by the Anglican Church after it went through the English Reformation.

Anglicans of Anglo-Catholic churchmanship also believe in the real objective presence of Christ in the Eucharist and understand the way He is manifest in the sacrament to be a mystery of faith.

[43][44] Like the Eastern Orthodox and Lutherans, Anglo-Catholics, with the exception of the minority of Anglican Papalists, reject the Catholic doctrines of the papal supremacy and papal infallibility, with Walter Herbert Stowe, an Anglo-Catholic cleric, explaining the Anglican position on these issues:[45] Anglo-Catholics reject all these claims except that of Primacy on the following grounds: (i) There is no evidence in Scripture or anywhere else that Christ conferred these powers upon St. Peter; (2) there is no evidence that St. Peter claimed them for himself or his successors; (3) there is strong contrary evidence that St. Peter erred in an important matter of faith in Antioch, the eating together and social intercourse of Jewish and Gentile Christians affecting the whole future of the Church and the Christian Religion, and this lapse was so serious that St. Paul withstood him to the face; (4) he did not preside at the first Council of the Church in Jerusalem and did not hand down the decision of the Council; (5) he was Bishop of Antioch before he was bishop anywhere else, and, if the papal claims are in any way true, the Bishop of Antioch has a better right to hold them; (6) that St. Peter was ever in Rome is disputed, and the most that can be said for it is that it is an interesting historical problem; (7) there is no evidence whatsoever that he conferred such powers upon his successors-to-be in the See of Rome; (8) there was no primitive acceptance of such claims, and there never has been universal acceptance in any later age.