|
|
Article: The Extra-Canonical Ordination of Bishops and the Episcopal Church
- Article from:
- Anglican and Episcopal History
- Article date:
- December 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Historical Society of the Episcopal Church Dec 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Bishops have always been very important to the Church of England, and, if anything, even more so to its American counterpart. In England, bishops were among the leaders of the Reformation, and three (Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley) were martyrs to it during the reign of Mary I. Cranmer, as archbishop of Canterbury, was largely responsible for the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, the Ordinal in 1550, and the second prayer book in 1552 - the foundational documents of Anglican Christianity. In America, the Episcopal Church, following Scottish precedent, took its name from the fact that it has bishops, adding the word "Protestant" to distinguish it from the Roman Catholic ...