英美宗教文化

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英美宗教文化-- Religion in Britain and the U.S. 分类：英美文化习俗 2010-01-28 20:19 阅读

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Religion in Britain and the U.S.

About Christianity

As we know, most people in Britain believed in Christianity. Christianity is the world's largest

single religion, with an estimated 2.0 billion followers or about 33% of the world's population.

Christianity has numerous religious traditions that widely vary by culture, as well as thousands of

different beliefs and branches.

Christianity is generally grouped into three main branches:

(1)Roman Catholicism 天主教

the largest single denomination教派, with over one billion adherents.信徒 People in many

western European countries(such as France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland,

parts of the U.S. and Latin America ) belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The head is the Pope,

who lives in Vatican City, which is an independent state under the absolute authority of the Pope

of the Roman Catholic Church. It is an enclave with Rome, Italy, which is to say, it lies in the city

of Rome.

(2)Orthodox Christianity东正教

It was separated from Catholicism in 1054. People in some eastern European countries (such as,

Greece, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Russia) belong to the Orthodox Eastern

Church.

(3)Protestantism 新教

It was separated from the Roman Catholic Church at the Reformation in the 16th century. It is

spreading over Britain, the U.S.A., Germany, Switzerland, Northern Europe, Australia, New

Zealand and South Africa, including Anglicanism英国国教, Calvinism加儿文教, Lutheranism路

德教 (of course, the leader was Martin Luther), and Methodism 卫理公会派

Britain

In Britain, there are mainly three main churches:

(1) the Church of England, or Anglican Church

It is established church during the Reformation, and it represents the official state religion. Its

head is the king or queen of Britain.

(2) the Church of Scotland or the Scotland Presbyterian Church.

People of Scotland belong to this church, it is a Presbyterian church., and the leaders are the

ministers(牧师)and elders.

(3) The churches in Wales:

The churches in Wales are Calvinist or Presbyterian Churches.

Of course, in Britain, there are still some people belong to the Roman Catholic Church.

The U.S.

The U.S. is an immigrant country, of course, different people have different beliefs, but for the

people who believe in Christianity, they mainly belong to the Roman Catholic Church and the

Protestant churches, and the Baptist Church is the largest Protestant church in the U.S.

Henry Ⅷ’s Religious Reform

The church of the Middle Ages had not been only a religious body, it had been a political and legal

power as well. Before Henry Ⅷ’s Religious Reform in the 16th century, British people also

belong to the Roman Catholic Church, at that time, the Pope had the supreme power, and even the

king had to obey the orders of the Pope.

The common people hated the church vary much, because the priests were very greedy and lazy,

but at first the king didn’t realize that.

The external pretext for the Reformation was Henry Ⅷ’s divorce case. Henry Ⅷ died in 1509

and his son Henry Ⅷ succeeded him. He married Catherine, the widow of his elder brother. The

Pope had given him special permission to marry his elder brother’s widow, as this was against the

laws of the Church, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Mary, but all her sons died in childbirth,

and Henry badly needed a son to succeed him. Wishing to divorce his queen, he applied to the

Pope for approval in order to be free to marry again. This could have been easily done by the Pope,

for he had done the same for two recent kings of France. But Emperor Charles V of Spain was

Catherine’s nephew, and his army had seized Rome. So the Pope had to refuse to do what Henry

desired.

Angry as he was, Henry had no wish to break away from the Roman Church (the Catholic Church),

for he wanted only a reformed national church within the Catholic framework. For the next five

years Henry did everything to gain the Pope’s approval, but all his efforts were in vain, for the

Pope remained under Charles’s influence.

Henry’s troubles over his marriage made him realize something that most English people had

known for years: that foreign interference in England had gone on too long and must be stopped

forever. At last Henry had the divorce settled by civil means — by a special act of Parliament in

1533. Archbishop Cranmer declared that his marriage to Catherine was unlawful and accepted his

new wife, Ann Boleyn, as Queen. In 1534 Parliament passed the “Act of Supremacy” according to

which Henry was declared the head of the English Church. Thus the English Church became

independent of Rome. Little was done in the modification of religious doctrines and forms, but the

administration was changed. The Roman Catholic Church was international; the English Church

was strictly national.

Most of the bishops accepted these changes without difficulties because they had always been

appointed by the King.

Those who wanted to change any part of the faith were called Protestants, but they had little

influence as yet. The King and Parliament wanted the old faith under a new rule. They killed some

Protestants who attacked the faith, and they killed some Catholics who attacked the new rule.

Henry’s family trouble did not end with his marriage with Ann Boleyn. She bore him a daughter,

Elizabeth, but was unfaithful to her husband. After three years Henry cut off her head. His next

wife, Jane Seymour, died in giving birth to his son Edward. His secretary Cromwell then brought

him a foreign wife, Anne of Cleves, to please his German friends. Unfortunately she was neither

well-educated nor beautiful. He sent her home, cut off Cromwell’s head, and married a beautiful

girl called Catherine Howard. But she too was unfaithful, so her head followed Cromwell’s. His

sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, was a wise and gentle girl but she had no children.

Henry Ⅷ died in 1547. under the reign of his son, Edward Ⅵ (1547-1553), monastic properties

that had been spared in Henry’s days were confiscated and parish churches plundered. The

English Church became close to the form of Protestantism on the Continent. However during his

Catholic sister, Mary’s reign (1553-1558), the Counter-Reformation set in. she, the daughter of

Catherine, had grown up with a fierce hatred of those who had upset her mother’s marriage.

Relying on the King of Spain, the champion of Catholicism of the continent, whom she had

married, Mary re-established Catholicism and in four years she burnt three hundred Protestants,

for which she was called “Bloody” Mary. Fortunately, she ruled for only a few years and in 1558

she died. Her ostensibly Protestant sister, Elizabeth, now became Queen. Under Elizabeth the

Anglican Church was restored, and she was declared “governor” of the church. Rigorous laws

were issued against Catholics.

The struggle between the English Church and Catholicism was essentially a struggle between the

new “nobility” of money and bourgeoisie on the one hand and remnants of feudalism on the other.

Religious problems in Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland

Do you know why Ireland broke away with Britain? It was also because of religious problems.

After the Reformation, Northern Ireland, which consists of six counties, became mainly Protestant.

While Ireland is one of the most catholic countries of Europe and today about 94% of the Irish

population are roman Catholics. Northern Ireland elected to remain in the union with Great Britain

when the remaining 26 counties of Ireland obtained autonomy in 1921.

From then on, the full name of Britain changed from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and

Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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