Quote Originally Posted by Lyle
is the Church of England really THAT much different than the Catholic religion? I mean everyone knows why it was created, a little guy named Henry VIII and his problems with making an heir.

And yeah every nation that was Catholic was "ruled" by the Pope...if you don't agree look it up. The Inquisition, the arrests and torture of the Templar Knights...those happened in Spain, England, France, Italy, and hell there are more places where The Pope has used his influence....Germany perhaps (1940's)
Ok a brief history lesson to you Lyle.

Yes Henry 8th was indeed an Orthadox Catholic who simply wanted to marry Ann Bolyen. However seeing as he was already married to Catherine of Aragon and that her cousin was Emporer of Rome and had the Pope under house arrest he couldn't get a divorce and so proceeded to set up his own church.

However at the same time there was a huge schism occuring in the church throughout Europe as Protestants led by Martin Luther and later John Calvin condemned the Catholic church as being a blashemy against God and the work of the Devil.

In England and Scotland Protestantism spread like wildfire and became the crucial issue for the Puritans a century or so after Henry. They killed Charles the Catholic king and installed Oliver Cromwell as protectorate.

When he died and Charles II took the throne he promised to uphold the Protestant faith, although his brother James was a staunch and open Catholic. As Charles died heirless, fearing the worst a group of noble rebels contacted William of Orange, the Dutch Steinmaster and asked him to come and conquer England to save us from Catholic tryanny.

Catholicism and Popery was seen as attacks on freedom and a form of heritical despotism. At this time Englands great enemy was the Catholic French tyrant Loius 14th.

Catholicism was outlawed in Britain and is now pretty much extinct in England. It remains popular in Ireland of course, who often conspired with the French against the English.

But to say that England is Catholic is to be approximately 400 years out of date. No we are not Catholics, we have nothing to do with the Pope.

The high Anglican church does bear many similarites to the Catholic church but I believe only about 0.00001% of the British population are High Anglicans so irrelevent really.

The main religion is the UK today, is as in America, Hedonism.