Throughout the latter half of the sixteenth century, the newly-established Church of England worked to solidify shifts in its doctrines and practices by instituting reforms that signaled a distinct break with the Roman Catholic Church. In one of the most fundamental of these reforms, following those of other Protestant sects in Europe, the Anglican Church embraced the doctrine of grace, diminishing the role of an individual's deeds in his or her salvation. When doctrine was put into practice, Anglican reforms also involved significant shifts in the ways the English people practiced religion, often implemented without specific justification. For example, in the Book of Common Prayer, the formally-outlined procedure for confession in the 1549 edition was entirely excised three years later, in the 1552 edition,1 with little (and rather ambiguous) explanation for the change.2 Despite such purposeful excisions, the Book still retained thereafter prayers for general, public confession, which must have sent a mixed signal to worshippers. In theory, the Anglican Church abandoned good works and confession as remnants of the corrupt Catholic past; nonetheless, the practical application of religious confession suggested instead that repentance as a “good work” could influence one’s fate. Surely, this sudden reversal must have been difficult for the English people to comprehend, forcing them to reconcile their personal convictions within loyalties divided between their King and their Church.3

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page