Who established the Anglican church in England?

Who founded the Anglican church?

King Henry VIII

A common error! The Anglican Church is that Church which began its life in an upper room in Jerusalem soon after the death of Christ, when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and Disciples as recorded in the Scriptures. [Acts 2.] It wasn't all of that Church, but a showing forth in the British Isles. When it arrived in Britain we do not know! Albanicus the Wise, a Celtic Historian in the 5th, Century told us that ,"Christ the true Son afforded His Light, the knowledge of His precepts ,to our Island in the last year, as we know, of Tiberious Caesar. " [approx, 37AD.] An amazing claim, but one that was attested to in the middle ages when the English Church was allowed precedence on account of her early provenance! At the Council of Whitby in 644 AD, the decision was taken to pattern Church life more on the style of Continental Christians rather than the style they were used to! The social system at this time was one founded on an agricultural style and the Church's life suited this. But times were changing and in 689 AD, the English Kings sought a new leader and were rewarded by the Patriarch of the West sending an experienced bishop of Greek birth to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury! He carried out a complete re-organisation of the Church from the ground floor and it is from this time that the new organisation , whilst remaining Catholic, was known as the Church of England. Not all the Church followed the course of events set in motion by Whitby and there was from that time a schism in the Church that lasted about two hundred years till the remaining Celtic hardliners rejoined the major group!. It was in the middle of the 8th, Century that the term Anglican, or English began to be used as a name for the Church in this country. It was used by Bede in his history and we find it being used in 1215 AD in the Magna Charter as a term for the Church of the English!

According to The Archbishop of Tyre, 303 AD. the Catholic Faith was brought here by S. Simon Zelote, the Brother of Christ. The First Bishop was Aristobulos a friend of S.Paul's who is mentioned in Romans. Albanicus the Wise, a Celtic Historian the Church was in Britain in 37AD. This is supported by Canons at the medieval latin Councils granting England the precedence on account of her pre=eminence regarding her early presence.

Another Perspective

King Henry VIII requested that Pope permit him to divorce his wife and marry his mistress. The Pope refused and Henry married his mistress anyway and renounced Catholicism. He removed England from the Pope's control, seized many of the Church's assets and declared himself to be the head of the Church. Henry's repudiation of papal authority led to the Church of England's existence as a separate entity: a new branch of the Christian Church that was neither Catholic nor Protestant but a hybrid that became known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. It became official in 1536. Henry funded the first printing of The Bible in English to spite the Pope.