Thomas Cranmer in the context of "Book of Common Prayer"

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was a dominant and forceful monarch. He is also known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope.

Born in Greenwich, Henry brought radical changes to the Constitution of England, expanding royal power and ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings in opposition to papal supremacy. He frequently used charges of treason and heresy to quell dissent, and those accused were often executed without a formal trial using bills of attainder. He achieved many of his political aims through his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in his administration.

The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It was the initial church of the Anglican tradition. The Church traces its history to the Christian hierarchy recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the 3rd century and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. Its members are called Anglicans.

In 1534, the Church of England renounced the authority of the Papacy under the direction of King Henry VIII pursuant to laws passed by the Parliament, beginning the English Reformation. The guiding theologian that shaped Anglican doctrine was the reforming Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who developed the Church of England's liturgical text, the Book of Common Prayer. Papal authority was briefly restored under Mary I, before her successor Elizabeth I renewed the breach. The Elizabethan Settlement (implemented 1559–1563) concluded the English Reformation, charting a course for the English church to describe itself as a via media between two branches of Protestantism—Lutheranism and Calvinism—and later, a denomination that is both Reformed and Catholic.

The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury and metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury. By virtue of their office the archbishop is also a Lord Spiritual, one of the 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The office has been vacant since 7 January 2025 following the resignation of Justin Welby, the 105th archbishop. Dame Sarah Mullally, currently the bishop of London, will become archbishop on 28 January 2026; she will be the first woman to hold the office.

The first archbishop was Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", who was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great and arrived in 597. From Augustine until William Warham the archbishops of Canterbury were in full communion with the Catholic Church. During the English Reformation, King Henry VIII broke communion with Rome and proclaimed himself the head of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer, appointed in 1533, became the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury and would become one of the most important figures in the development of Anglicanism.

Aniconism is the absence of material representations of the natural and supernatural world in various cultures. Most denominations of Christianity have not generally practiced aniconism, or the avoidance or prohibition of these types of images, even dating back to early Christian art and architecture. Those in the faith have generally had an active tradition of making artwork and Christian media; depicting God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, religious figures including saints and prophets, and other aspects of theology like The Trinity and Manus Dei.

There have however been periods of aniconism in Christian history, notably during the controversy of the Byzantine iconoclasm of the eighth century, and following the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, when Calvinism in particular rejected all images in churches, and this practice continues today in some Reformed (Calvinist) churches, as well as some forms of fundamentalist Christianity. The Catholic Church has always defended the use of sacred images in churches, shrines, and homes, encouraging their veneration but condemning anyone who would worship them as if they were gods themselves.

Anglican doctrine (also called Episcopal doctrine in some countries) is the body of Christian teachings used to guide the religious and moral practices of Anglicanism.

Thomas Cranmer, the guiding Reformer that led to the development of Anglicanism as a distinct tradition under the English Reformation, compiled the original Book of Common Prayer, which forms the basis of Anglican worship and practice. By 1571 it included the Thirty-nine Articles, the historic doctrinal statement of the Church of England. The Books of Homilies explicates the foundational teachings of Anglican Christianity, also compiled under the auspices of Archbishop Cranmer. Richard Hooker and the Caroline divines later developed Anglican doctrine of religious authority as being derived from scripture, tradition, and "redeemed" reason; Anglicans affirmed the primacy of scriptural revelation (prima scriptura), informed by the Church Fathers, the historic Nicene, Apostles and Athanasian creeds, and a latitudinarian interpretation of scholasticism. Charles Simeon espoused and popularised evangelical Reformed positions in the 18th and 19th centuries, while the Oxford Movement re-introduced monasticism, religious orders and various other pre-Reformation practices and beliefs in the 19th century.