England in the 1500s left the Roman-based Catholic Church with a radical change and joined the Anglican Church. Here is an inspiring article describing this process.
Whether deliberately planned or by the turn of events, the protestant reformation in England was initiated largely from the top down, by the monarchy rather than the clergy. By 1534, Henry VIII had severed ties with the Vatican and had transformed the all-round Catholic Church of England into a symbol of national unity and a monarchy-dominated entity. Bishops and high priests, who were completely under royal rule, replaced the Catholic priests, and religious doctrine was turned into an ideological prop for central government. After Henry's measures temporarily bolstered his shaky finances and greatly expanded his authority over many aspects of English life hitherto held by the Catholic clergy, the closure of the monasteries and the confiscation of their vast estates followed.
However, henry was not entirely devoted to the ideas of the reformation; He also did not abandon his Catholic rituals. The king, who succeeded the pope as head of the new Anglican Church, broke the vow of wedlock, closed the monasteries, and confiscated the vast material resources of the Church. but British Protestants who publicly challenged Catholic doctrines such as the trinity and trans-substance were sent to die with the same neutrality as Catholics who argued that papal authority was above the monarchy. Henry's failure to complete the Reformation was a potential source of conflict between monarchy and parliament, since the Anglican Church was essentially a Catholic church tailored to the needs of the British Crown, Henry never fully gained the loyalty of his rapidly growing number of true Protestant subjects. But they, too, were unable to openly challenge Henry's rule by provoking conversion to Catholicism. Thus, an uneasy balance of power in the religious as well as the political sphere prevented both full and open reformation and outright insurrection.
Even in its moderate Anglican state, British Protestantism fostered a belief in individuality and the "inner light" over religious institutions. Influenced by Calvinism, the English saw themselves not as simple subjects of royalty, but rather as members of a divine elite—the "chosen of the visible saints" in a godless world. Nor did Anglicanism reduce individuals to mere members of a common social position, as Catholicism did to citizens in France and Spain. In fact, the English people, in opposition to the despotic tendencies of the monarchy, became self-conscious individuals who were sharp in expressing their views and increasingly confident in their personal judgments. guided guilds yielded to rough merchant adventurers, and docile peasants to an unruly "mobility" of quick temper and ready to interfere in political or religious matters. Although society shared its medieval origins, the commons was empowered by an independent upper class, merchant class, and artisans, and saw itself as the true voice of the "people"—the word had an ambiguous meaning at the time—not a homeland below a feudal hierarchy.
After Henry VIII's death in 1547, a regency was established by Henry's young son, vi. He oversaw England's foreign and domestic affairs on behalf of Edward. With Henry's death, the Assembly's replacement of Henry's Anglican Reformation with an increasingly militant Protestantism—a detachment from Catholicism that continued to plunder the remaining wealth of the Church—deliberated British society even more. It does not matter whether this new religious order is the product of ambition or ideology; in fact, both factors probably played a role. But Edward died before he could reach adulthood, and when his half-sister Mary came to the throne (let's ignore Jane Grey's 9-day career on the throne), religious policy shifted prominently towards extreme Catholicism. the new queen is the spanish ii, the king of a country that most of the british people regard as england's most dangerous enemy. He married Felipe. quite logically they saw the zealous Spanish king as a standard servant of the Catholic orthodoxy determined to be an anti-reformation inquisitor; under Mary, the orthodox sacraments abolished by Edward's regents were resumed; Relations with the Vatican were reestablished, and opposition Protestants, whose views were more radical than Henry's reformation, were subjected to frenzied attacks, including numerous executions. Bloody Mary's efforts to re-establish Catholicism were followed by a disastrous and costly war with France, which had completely alienated the English people, and when Mary died in 1558, Britain's future and morale were at its lowest. The country, torn by religious conflicts and burdened with enormous debt, was on the brink of civil war. (If we don't die, let's re-enter it, right?)
Anglicans saw the accession of the new Protestant queen Elizabeth (daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn) to the throne as a deliverance from God, and Elizabeth largely lived up to their expectations. Although no less domineering than his father, he made a tremendous effort to come to terms with all opposition groups and groups that could gradually undermine the country. Relations with the Vatican were completely severed, Catholic priests were expelled on an order that required absolute obedience, which did not prevent him from driving radical Protestants and Puritans, especially their millenarian meetings underground. Inclined towards social reform, Elizabeth and her talented advisers stabilized the English currency, improved working conditions for the lower classes, and softened the longstanding animosity between the kingdom's hostile social strata. The defeat of the Spanish Armada ensured British maritime and commercial supremacy, while the Elizabethan administration gave every incentive to trade, manufacturing, and agricultural development. The state took care of the poor, who were victims of the depression that had lasted for more than a century. Elizabeth reconciled with the upper class that previous Tudor kings had to adopt, and her clever policy of reconciliation with parliament, the nobility, the upper class, and the business class created a period of internal peace. needless to stress, his reign was a time of extraordinary literary and cultural achievement; It was an age especially famous for its dramas and poems: the Elizabethan age. (with love to Shakespeare...)