Church of England in the Colonies

CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE COLONIES

CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE COLONIES. The Church of England, or Anglican Church, first took root in America at Jamestown in 1607. The earliest plans for Virginia envisioned a role for the church, and as soon as the colony was strong enough, it was legally established. All the other southern colonies, except Maryland, were founded under the leadership of churchmen. In time, the Church of England was established in all of them, although not in North Carolina until 1765. Maryland was founded by a Roman Catholic proprietor, George Calvert, and in 1649 its general assembly passed an act protecting freedom of religion; but the Protestant settlers there took control in the Revolution of 1688 and by 1702 had suppressed the open practice of Catholicism and established the Church of England. The Anglican Church dominated the four leading counties of New York. In the other northern colonies Anglicans enjoyed no establishment and depended for support largely upon the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, founded in 1701.

During the eighteenth century the Church of England advanced in the colonies where it was not established and lost ground in those where it was—a phenomenon that corresponded with the religious awakenings and general breakdown of theological barriers during that century. The American Revolution deprived the church of its establishments in the South and of the aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the North and exposed it to some popular opposition. In 1789 the Protestant Episcopal Church broke from the English church and its primate, the archbishop of Canterbury. Although it created a revised version of the Book of Common Prayer for use in the United States and set up a native episcopate, the Episcopal Church retained its predecessor's high-church rituals and tradition of apostolic succession.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Herklots, Hugh G. The Church of England and the American Episcopal Church. London: Mowbray, 1966.

W. W. Manross / a. r.

See also Church and State, Separation of ; Episcopalianism ; Great Awakening .