Christianity accepted and redeveloped aspects of Old Testament angelology according to its new requirements. Angels intervene in the central events involving the coming of the Messiah: Gabriel is the angel of the Annunciation, while an angelic star, a celestial symbol of power, acts as a heavenly sign guiding the Wise Men who have come to Palestine from the East in search of the Redeemer. Paul’s letter to the Colossians (1:16, 2:10) lists the angelic hierarchy: Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, and Powers. It also sets down a central tenet of Christianity, which would determine later theological disputes (Col. 2:18): namely, that care should be taken to avoid idolatry and the worship of angels.
The Council of Laodicea in 336 (Canon 35) proscribed the invocation and adoration of angels. Patristic efforts concentrated on limiting the mythological and poetic developments of Judaic and Gnostic angelology and emphasized the role of angels as intermediaries in the action of salvation and their role as servants. The very iconography which avoided depicting them with wings in early centuries—these would appear at the end of the fourth century—was driven by the need to avoid confusing them with winged pagan gods, such as statues of Nike (Victory).
In the sixth-century work of Dionysius the Areopagite, Neoplatonic and Christian ideas are put together to create an angelic hierarchy of three sets of three, grouped according to their closeness to God: Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; Dominations, Powers, and Virtues; and Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. These became well-known designations during the Middle Ages.
Anglicanism, also called the Anglican Communion, is a federation of autonomous national and regional churches that are in full intercommunion through the archbishop of Canterbury of the Church of England. Anglican churches share a tradition of doctrine, polity, and liturgy stemming from the English Reformation of the sixteenth century. Often classified as Protestant, they also claim a Catholic heritage of faith and order from the ancient, undivided church.
The endeavor to hold together in a comprehensive middle way (via media) the tensions of its Protestant and Catholic elements is characteristic of Anglicanism. This tradition is a legacy of the English Reformation, which was essentially an act of state, not a popular movement. Without the coercive power of the state Anglicanism might have died aborning. The long reign of Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603) ensured its survival.
Like her father, Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547), Elizabeth was determined to rule both church and state. The Act of Supremacy of 1559 changed Henry’s title of “supreme head in earth of the Church of England” (1534) to that of “supreme governor.” Elizabeth had no intention of submitting England to papal authority, which her sister, Mary I (r. 1553–1558), had restored. She was equally adamant against agitation for a presbyterian form of church government that would dispense with the royal supremacy, the episcopacy, and the liturgy.
The two editions of The Book of Common Prayer authorized in 1549 and 1552 under Edward VI (r. 1547–1553) were chiefly the work of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury (1533–1556), whom Queen Mary had burned as a heretic. Both books were Protestant in doctrine, but many ceremonies and ornaments from the Latin rites that were retained in 1549 were eliminated in 1552. Elizabeth preferred the 1549 prayer book. Parliament would accept only that of 1552, but the queen succeeded in making a few substantial changes in it. Pejorative references to the bishop of Rome were omitted. The 1,549 words of administration at Communion were added. Those additions clearly identified the consecrated bread and wine with the body and blood of Christ. Elizabeth eliminated a rubric stating that kneeling to receive Communion did not imply adoration of “any real and essential presence there being of Christ’s natural flesh and blood,” but she was unable to enforce a new rubric restoring the ornaments of the church as they had been specified in the second year of Edward VI’s reign.
Many episcopal sees, including Canterbury, were vacant at Elizabeth’s accession. Most of Mary’s bishops were deprived of their offices for refusing to accept the new settlement. Careful to maintain the episcopal succession, Elizabeth chose Matthew Parker, a moderate reformer and a friend and admirer of Cranmer, to be archbishop of Canterbury. He was consecrated on December 17, 1559, by two bishops from Henry’s time and two from Edward’s. Vacant sees were filled with the queen’s supporters.
Monasticism, Spirituality and Sense of Peace in Christianity
