The Church of England

The Church of England represents the state religion of the Kingdom. It combines the ideas of both the Catholic church and various Protestant beliefs into a body acceptable to the majority of the population. Its believers range from near-Catholics who merely reject the authority of the Pope to Protestants who believe the extreme views of Puritans are a little too extreme and they'd much prefer a cosier, less brimstoney church.

Established firmly by Queen Elizabeth I, as a via media it sought to unify the broad beliefs that had developed in England and stop the burning of everyone interfering with the running of the Kingdom. Unfortunately in this goal, as the Civil Wars show, it largely failed. Many blame this on King Henry IX’s toleration of other Christian faiths, a toleration which sadly ended his life and plunged his kingdom into years of warfare.

When peace was re-established his widowed wife determined that if a multitude of faiths amongst the followers of Christ was going to lead to such bloodshed, then only one faith would be permitted. Catholics and Puritans and all the other sects would only be tolerated if they swore the most demanding of oaths to obey the Queen in her domain.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth II the recusancy fines were policed with relentless zeal, the money swelling the coffers of the Crown and Church. Most of those in England who would not surrender their faith fled for the Americas, and now only the Jews – exempt from the purge – remain as a significant alternative faith in the south.

Members of the Church of England express a wide range of beliefs taken from both Catholic and Protestant beliefs. The foundation of the Church is accepted as the 39 Articles and the Book of Common Prayer - these summarise the beliefs of the whole church, and allow a degree of leeway in the understanding of these and other miscellaneous aspects of the church. It lists such things as the belief in the Trinity, Resurrection and the Creeds as well as Predestination, Episcopal Organisation and so on.

At the extremes of the Church, some members and clergy may deviate slightly, and while their affirmation to the Church of these beliefs may be concrete, their teaching might be a little different. The advantage of living in a large city such as Oxford is that, unlike most of the Kingdom, there are several Churches with differing beliefs within a relatively small geographical area, and thus lay worshippers have a degree of choice as to whether to attend a Lower or Higher Church.

The Anglican Church has spread somewhat on the Continent now, establishing sister Churches in the remains of the Low Countries and in some of the German Principalities. The Church in the Netherlands acknowledges the primacy of the King, while those in other countries tend to be headed (at least notionally) by the rulers of those lands.

Officially, the Anglican Church tries to tolerate magic in much the same way it tolerates sodomy and picking your nose in the sermon: it doesn’t like it much, but realises it’s inevitable and thus largely ignores it. The practice of magic is no more barred to the clergy than the practice of mathematics or ship-building, but it is not considered an important part of the Ordained minister’s life.

There are some Anglicans, however, who believe that magic – and Theurgy in particular – is not only a good but a necessary practice for the devout, on the principle that one must discover as much as possible about God's creation in order to better understand His plan.

Your character is assumed, by default, to be a member of the Church of England unless you specify otherwise; by far the vast majority of Albion’s subjects attend weekly Eucharist at their local Church. As an Anglican, you are a member of the most tolerated group of the country. This brings a lot of peace and quiet to your soul. To see detail on playing a more devout member of the Church, or an Ordained clergyman or woman, see the Church of England Organisation page.