Caroline Divines in the context of "Anglo-Catholicism"

⭐ In the context of Anglo-Catholicism, the Caroline Divines are considered…




⭐ Core Definition: Caroline Divines

The Caroline Divines were influential theologians and writers in the Church of England who lived during the reigns of King Charles I and, after the Stuart Restoration, King Charles II (Latin: Carolus). There is no official list of Caroline-era divines; they are defined by the era in which they lived, and Caroline Divines hailed from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. However, of these four nations, it is Caroline England which is most commonly considered to have fostered a golden age of Anglican scholarship and devotional writing, despite the socio-cultural upset of civil war, regicide, and military rule under Oliver Cromwell. Importantly, the term divine is restricted neither to canonised saints nor to Anglican figures, but is used of many writers and thinkers in the wider Christian church.

↓ Menu

👉 Caroline Divines in the context of Anglo-Catholicism

Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage, especially pre-Reformation roots, of the Church of England and other churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Catholicism claims to restore liturgical and devotional expressions of church life that reflect the ancient practices of the early and medieval church.

The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic heritage of Anglicanism already existed. Particularly influential in the history of Anglo-Catholicism were the Caroline Divines of the 17th century, the Jacobite Nonjuring schism of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the Oxford Movement, which began at the University of Oxford in 1833 and ushered in a period of Anglican history known as the "Catholic Revival".

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier

Caroline Divines in the context of Laudianism

Laudianism, also called Old High Churchmanship, or Orthodox Anglicanism as they styled themselves when debating the Tractarians, was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that tried to avoid the extremes of Roman Catholicism and Puritanism by building on the work of Richard Hooker, and John Jewel and was promulgated by Archbishop William Laud and his supporters. It rejected the predestination upheld by Calvinism in favour of free will, and hence the possibility of salvation for all men through objective work of the sacraments. Laudianism had a significant impact on the Anglican high church movement and its emphasis on the sacraments, personal holiness, beautiful liturgy, and the episcopate. Laudianism was the culmination of the move to Arminianism in the Church of England, and led directly to the Caroline Divines, of which Laud was one of the first. The expression of this since the Oxford movement is often called Central churchmanship.

↑ Return to Menu