Protestantism in the United Kingdom

is the largest religious demographic in the United Kingdom.
Before Protestantism reached England, the Roman Catholic Church was the established state church. Scotland, Wales and Ireland were also closely tied to Roman Catholicism. During the 16th century, the English Reformation and the Scottish Reformation in differing ways resulted in both countries becoming Protestant while the Reformation in Ireland did not enjoy the same degree of popular support.
Protestantism influenced many of England's monarchs in the 16th and 17th centuries, including Henry VIII, Edward VI, Elizabeth I and James I. Persecution was frequent for followers whose faith differed from that of the reigning monarch and violence and death was commonplace for the first 100 years of the Reformation. Reformers and early church leaders were persecuted in the first decades of the Reformation, but the non-conformist movement survived nonetheless.
As a result of the Reformation, Protestantism is the most widely practiced branch of Christianity in the modern United Kingdom, even though active participation in the church has declined in recent years.

Overview

is the largest religion in the world. It is mainly split into three large branches, the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant Church. The Protestant Church is the youngest of these, resulting from the Reformation of 1517 which was in protest of major problems within the Roman Catholic Church. In England and Wales, Protestantism was definitively established in the 1530s when Henry VIII separated the Church of England from Rome.
The Protestant church does not have one human leader and groups have divided off into denominations with different Christian beliefs. Prominent branches include Anglicanism, the Reformed tradition, Methodism, Pentecostalism and Baptists.
For centuries, Protestantism has played a crucial role in shaping political and religious life throughout Europe and beyond. The Protestant Reformation began in the early 16th century with Martin Luther, a German monk and philosopher. It developed further on the island of Great Britain, especially in England, and produced many notable figures.

United Kingdom before the Reformation

Before protestant ideas reached England, the Roman Catholic Church was the established religion. Scotland, Wales and Ireland were also closely tied to Roman Catholicism. Despite the established and dominant position of the Roman Catholic Church, the proto-Protestant Lollard movement, founded by John Wycliffe, had considerable followers in England and some in Scotland from the 14th to the 16th century.

Early Reformation

English language

In Catholic England, the only Bible authorised for use was written in Latin Vulgate, a translation of proper Latin considered holy by the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, only clergy had access to copies of the Bible. Ordinary citizens were dependent on their local priests for the reading of scripture because they could not read the text for themselves. Early in the Reformation, one of the fundamental disagreements between the Roman Church and Protestant leaders was over the distribution of the Bible in the people's common language.
In the 14th century, John Wycliffe helped make the Bible available to all English-speaking people, regardless of their wealth or social standing. Wycliffe translated the whole Bible into the English language because he believed that Englishmen needed to be familiar with the scriptures on their own terms in order to know Jesus Christ. Wycliffe was supported politically by John of Gaunt, the son of King Edward III, who held considerable power in government during the last several years of his father's reign and throughout the minority rule of his nephew Richard II. Historians are divided on if the alliance between the two men was due to unorthodox religious views on Gaunt's part, mere political expediency for both of them, or some combination thereof.
Later, the invention of the printing press made it easier for reformers to share copies of the new Bible. In 1526, William Tyndale published the first complete Bible in print. This facilitated distribution at a lower cost, and soon the Bible was not only readable to English citizens, but also affordable for most people. Once the common people had access to the Bible, many left the Catholic church and joined the Protestant Church. The rapid growth in biblical reading was a notable event of the Reformation. Soon several new Protestant doctrines were emerging that challenged the Roman Catholic Church. Leading reformers and philosophers of the time helped establish these doctrines by preaching to large groups of people.

Religious controversies

– Catholics believe that when they participate in the Eucharist, the bread and wine transform into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ when the priest prays over it. All Protestant leaders rejected this belief as false.
Monasticism – Many Protestant leaders believed this was unnecessary for salvation and harmful to those who practised it.
The practice of penance and the belief that good works could balance the punishment of sin or lead to salvation were particularly common. Protestants rejected this doctrine, believing that good works alone could not allow one to enter heaven.
Scriptures – The Catholic church used the Bible as well as other literature written within the first decades of Jesus' death. Protestants believe that the Bible is the only holy word of God and rely on the doctrines of sola scriptura, sola fide and sola gratia.
These differences led to the emergence of a new alternative to Catholicism in the British Isles. They continue to be debated to this day.

Protestant influence on politics

Monarchs

During the 16th and 17th centuries, nearly all the monarchs and resulting governments of Scotland, Ireland, and England were defined as being either Catholic or Protestant.
Henry VIII was the first monarch to introduce a new state religion to the English. In 1532, he wanted to have his marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon, annulled. When Pope Clement VII refused to consent to the annulment, Henry VIII decided to separate the entire country of England from the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope had no more authority over the people of England; this parting of ways allowed for Protestantism to enter the country.
Henry VIII established the Church of England after his split with the Pope. However, England stayed much the same, even with the new state religion. Its doctrines and practices were, at first, very similar to those of the Catholic Church. The King made two visible differences to show his authority over the new church; priests and monks were now allowed to marry, and monasteries were seen to belong to the King to use as he wished. The King did not establish this Anglican Church as a result of religious differences with Catholicism; his motives were mainly political, and he persecuted radical Protestants who threatened his new church.
Henry VIII's successor, his son Edward VI, supported the Reformation, but his belief was spiritual as well as political. He was more devout in his faith, and persecution of Protestant subjects ceased.
Under his sister Queen Mary I, however, Protestants were persecuted once again. She was raised Catholic, and saw it as her duty to purge the evil of Protestantism from her country. During her reign, reformers of the church, such as Thomas Hawkes, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Thomas Cranmer, and George Wishart, were executed for their faith. These executions did not heavily hinder the Protestant movement. In fact, many joined the church when they saw how committed these martyrs were to their religion.
The next monarch, Elizabeth I, was a Protestant. Under her rule, the Protestant Church flourished. Protestants now filled many leadership positions in government. With this new power, however, came the persecution of many Catholics. As new branches of Protestantism grew, similarities between the Catholic and Protestant churches steadily decreased during this time.
The reign of King James I established a certain future for Protestantism in England. The King James Bible introduced a new Protestant form of the Bible to church members throughout the country. This translation was in a language and dialect specific to the English people and to their Protestant religion. James I fulfilled the efforts of Protestant reformers who had been supporting the distribution of Bibles in common language for decades. The King James Bible is still used by many people today.

Political events

The English Civil War was largely influenced by the Protestant Reformation. While England struggled between Catholicism and Protestantism, Scotland was experiencing a significant impact from the Reformation and its ideas. A strong Presbyterian following had developed, but the Church of Scotland did not agree with King Charles I's expectations of the Protestant religion.
Oliver Cromwell, an English MP born in Huntingdon, emerged victorious at the end of the Civil War. Once he gained control of England, Cromwell established a radical religious government. He organized the Assembly of Saints, a firm and strict sect of Protestantism that was very similar to Puritanism. The Assembly remained strong in England for 10 years until the reign of Charles II, who ended many of the strict practices.
When Parliament passed the Act of Toleration of 1689, dissenters received freedom of worship within England. Catholics were not included in this act of Parliament, but members of other religions, most notably Protestantism, were officially protected from persecution based on their faith.

Protestantism in other countries of the United Kingdom

Northern Ireland

During the Reformation in Great Britain, the Catholic population of Ireland stayed loyal to the Vatican. The island remained Catholic until the Plantation when large numbers of Scottish Protestants were evicted from their farms and sent to live in the north of the island. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Church of Scotland have been closely tied in the past. In 1871, the Church of Ireland was disestablished and was no longer the state church.
When the island was partitioned in 1921, the north still had a Protestant/British majority and remained part of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland has the highest concentration of Catholics of any part of the UK. By the start of the 20th century, Northern Ireland citizens see themselves as approximately half Catholic and half Protestant, although a growing number of people identify as ‘other’, mainly having no religious beliefs or having arrived from a non-Christian country.