Anglicanism And The Transformations Of English Regime:from Early 16^th Century To Late 17^th Century

Constitutional monarchy has provided a reliable guarantee for the political stability and economic prosperity of England.Until now,the regime of tradition combined with modernity has still exuded lasting vitality.As the pursuit of good regime has always been an important goal of political science research,the literature exploring the causes and process of the formation of English constitutional regime can be described as vast and numerous.Studies of English history in the 16th and 17th centuries have shown that after having experienced feudal monarchy,autocratic monarchy,the revolution and restoration of the dynasty,England finally embarked on a stable constitutional road.The existing research perspectives on the causes of English regime include economic factors,parliamentary factors,legal system factors,and the promotion of the Puritan movement.This dissertation makes the Established Church of England-Anglicanism as the breakthrough point to examine the relevance between official political theology represented by Anglicanism and the regime evolution,so as to provide a new perspective for understanding this historical process.The complexity of history makes any simple causal relationship based on a single factor seem arbitrary.Multi-angle analysis will increase the possibility of pursuing true knowledge,besides the strong religious atmosphere in early modern England,the legitimacy of power was inseparable from the support of religious discourse.The influences of Anglicanism and English regime were mutual.In order to fully demonstrate the interaction of the idea and the institution,this dissertation has placed Anglicanism in the history of the transformations of English regime,as to expand the discussion by combining history and theory.Anglicanism and English regime underwent periodic changes and adjustments,which provides us with two ideas for understanding the religious and political history,at the same time,it is also the writing thread of this dissertation.Firstly,political institutions and thoughts affect each other and define the boundary and direction of development for each other.Secondly,the process of regime evolution is actually a process of continuous adjustment of the relationship between church and state,both of which has experienced the change from despotism to toleration,and in this two fields,England has been at the forefront of modernization in the whole world.The premise of regime reform is the establishment of a sovereign state and the recognition of the new concept of "state".Reformation in the Tudor contributed to this leap of historical stage.Europe in the Middle Ages was a Christian community.After the Pope's revolution in the 11th century,the Roman Curia has established the core position in religion area.the universal church eliminated the regional concept of the country,and the dualism of secular and religious power cut the complete sovereign power.In fact,the influence of the Catholic Church was not limited to religious field.The comprehensive and in-depth Christianization was reflected in all aspects of social life.The public knowledge and views of the world were shaped by Christianity,and the theory of government and institutional construction were political expressions of Christian thought.Since the Roman Curia had monopolized the power of interpreting doctrines,it grasped the political trend of the Middle Ages.The Tudor dynasty was also in this macro-situation,but its church and state relationship showed some particularities.England had entered the centralization process,and the kingship not only showed strong leadership in the feudal monarchy stage,it also exerted a greater influence on the church of England.Despite the superiority of the kingship in the church and state relationship at that time,the marriage problem of King Henry ? could not circumvent the church holding spiritual power.Although the collision of the dynasty interests and the power of the pope was accidental,it became insoluble in the traditional religious framework.The powerful kingship chose to conform to the trend of Reformation and reshaped the Christian power relationship.As a result,the king simultaneously started the process of political reform and Reformation in England.The formation of Anglicanism came from the practical need of political reform.Anglicanism defended the supremacy of kingship and the independence of the country,providing ideological support for England's transformation from the Middle Ages to the modern state.In order to get rid of the Pope's control,the Church of England broke away from the Roman Curia.The Church in England as a branch of the Catholic Church was transformed into the Church of England,and the king was revered as the double head of the secular country and the Church of the state.By transferring the power of the Pope to the King,England established Royal Supremacy with a high concentration of power,which had been the original symbol of sovereignty.This revolutionary adjustment to the church and state relationship is extremely subversive in the traditional Christian mind.The theologians in the Established Church adopted the Protestant method of returning to the original idea.they endorsed the new power relation by reinterpreting the Bible.By the time of Queen Elizabeth,Anglicanism has established a relatively systematic theological system.The Anglican characteristics and the church-state theory came into being during this period.Compared with traditional Catholicism and radical Puritanism,Anglicanism has taken the middle way.On the basis of accepting the connotation of Protestant theology,Anglicanism has remained a large number of Catholic appearances such as rites and institutions.The model of Via Media has become the unique background of the Anglican church.Compared with the Continent where the Protestant leader had played an important role,the EnglishReformation was dominated from top to bottom by the ruling class,reflecting obvious political utility.By contrast,Anglicanism showed great flexibility and conservatism,which could adjust the doctrines following the political situation,and refused to combine philosophical thinking with religious fanaticism.The church-state theory advocated the same structure of the church and the state,and the unity of the secular and religious leaders.The theory corresponded to the new relationship between church and state constructed by Royal Supremacy.On the one hand,the doctrine had provided powerful interpretation,on the other hand,it caused new contradictions and conflicts,so it needed to be improved constantly coping with problems in history.The theory of divine right of kings developed by Anglicanism had promoted absolute monarchy,which also made England experience a coincidence of political and religious contradictions in the early Stuart dynasty.Anglicanism had been under attack from two directions because of its reconciliation and inclusiveness.The one was Catholicism and the other was Puritanism.The former required to return to the universal church and recognition of the papacy,and the latter required continued deepening of reforms in accordance with Calvinism.Although there were the most differences between Catholicism and Puritanism,both of them supported the Christian division of secular and religious kingdoms,opposed the king to be heads of church and state,and opposed the integration of church and state,because they believed that this destroyed the independence of the church.In the complex and harsh European religious situation,both Catholics and Puritans had developed doctrines of active resistance,giving believers the right or obligation to use force against pagan tyrants.This posed double challenges to the king and the church of England.The king asked for the safety and stability of the throne,and Anglicanism asked for the maintenance of its national status,so they formed an alliance for the common interests.To a large extent,the transformation of Anglicanism in this period had the demand for maintaining social order.But the history proved that when the relationship between church and state is too close,the era of autocracy will arrive.Anglicanism demonstrated the idea of divine right of kings,proving the irresistibility of the kingship and the absoluteness of the obedience of the people.The king helped the Anglicans to oppress the pagans with secular power.The dual dictatorship in the political and religious fields accumulated and transformed the contradictions between the two aspects,Eventually,the civil war broke out.After the civil war,the relationship between church and state appeared opposition situation,and the development of Anglican theology during this period provided ideological preparations for the Glorious Revolution.Puritanism established a transient republican government during the civil war.The Established church was abolished,and the king was beheaded.On the one hand,it proved the direct relationship between theology and political system,on the other hand,the disorder of the society made Puritanism lose its foundation of masses.The subsequent crisis of the monarchy in England had no longer resolved by Puritanism and republicanism.The contradiction between Anglicanism and Puritanism was focused on the struggle for the Established Church,but from the restoration of the dynasty,the Anglicanism was faced up with the problem of how to deal with the phenomenon of religious pluralism.The parliament and the Established Church chose suppression of the Puritan forces according to the Clarendon Code.The Puritan factions chose tolerance with each other,withdrew from the battle of national church,and established independent churches outside the Established Church.The king also wanted religious tolerance after the civil war,to avoid political crisis caused by religious disputes,which conflicted with the interest of the Anglicanism.There were two directions of changes in the Anglican theology during the restoration,firstly,considering the lessons of the Puritan revolution,Anglicanism emphasized the meaning of obedience to faith;Secondly,it emphasized the independence of the church from state and maintained the distance from the royal power.The enduring tension between the church and state originating from Christian dualism highlighted in the contradiction between politics and religion.The Glorious Revolution was a political practice of Anglican theology.Under the constitutional monarchy,the king and the Established Church built up harmonious relationship.It was the first time to be faced with the problem of a pagan king in the restoration dynasty,which posed a serious challenge to the church-state.In the conflict between faith and royal loyalty,the Anglicans chose the former.Different from the Catholic and Puritan theories of active resistance,the Anglicans believed in passive obedience and opposed violent resistance,which determined the form of Glorious Revolution and the Anglican church could only cooperate with the parliament to defend the revolutionary achievements.The most notable achievement Anglicanism got was the limitation of the Protestant beliefs of the king.This limitation has shown multiple meanings.Firstly,the significance of the constitutional government is not only to restrict the power of the king,but also affecting the inheritance of the throne;Secondly,because the belief of the king is restricted by the statutes,the king's double identity can be safely maintained;Lastly,the Anglicans recognized the legitimacy of all Protestants,and the idea of religious tolerance was integrated into the post-revolutionary relationship between church and state.However,the tolerance at that time was limited.Puritans enjoyed freedom of belief,but did not have complete civil rights.The Anglicanism could not resist the reality of religious pluralism,but protected the church-state tradition.Anglicanism was the forerunner of English Conservatism,both of which have defended the achievements of England's regime in religious and secular forms.Neither Anglicanism nor the regime has shown a strong sense of rupture in the process of development.Respecting traditions and accepting reforms timely help maintain their long-term authority and vitality.When the radicalism of the French Revolution spread throughout Europe,Edmund Burke praised the political wisdom of the Glorious Revolution and adhered to the political tradition and Christian morality of England.Burke's political thoughts has shown the Anglican origin,and Conservatism is the secular interpretation of Anglicanism.It needs to clarify here,the nation of United Kingdom in this dissertation refers mainly to England.The time limit is from early 16th century to late 17th ceutury,and some discussion involves the 18th and 19th century.