Alternative Anglicanisms

When Henry VIII split from the Church of England, it became largely an independent Catholic Church. After the struggles that followed, it settled on the Elizabethan settlement, a mixture of Roman, Lutheran and Calvinist elements, with an Episcopal structure. It became seen as another Protestant faith.

But how differently could it have been if pushed. Could we have Presbyterian or Congregational structures with the right PODs? In terms of theology, a more Catholic doctrine seems easy to do, but what about the other way? How radical could we go? Could we see a fully Lutheran church? How about one that became Quaker or Unitarian Universalist and syncretic?
 
We could go rather a lot towards making Anglicanism more Protestant, yes. The obvious PoD is for Edward VI to be healthier and live out a full reign, as he was as Protestant as Mary was Catholic, and in combination with Archbishop Cranmer's gradually increasing radicalism would probably have ended up with a much more explicitly Protestant Church of England. This would probably have looked more Lutheran than Calvinist, but it might have had elements of the latter.
 
The easiest POD is to have Edward VI live a long life. Edward appears to have been an intense Calvinist. Had he lived a long life (say to the early 17th as his elder sister Elizabeth did) it seems plausible that England would have fallen much more firmly into the Reformed Tradition (or perhaps more the Presbyterian rather than the Episcopal tradition). I have a hard to seeing something like Quakerism becoming the state religion.
 
We could go rather a lot towards making Anglicanism more Protestant, yes. The obvious PoD is for Edward VI to be healthier and live out a full reign, as he was as Protestant as Mary was Catholic, and in combination with Archbishop Cranmer's gradually increasing radicalism would probably have ended up with a much more explicitly Protestant Church of England. This would probably have looked more Lutheran than Calvinist, but it might have had elements of the latter.


I disagree with your last point. Edward was firmly rooted in Calvinist thought rather than Lutheran thought. Aside from this point I think you are right.
 
The easiest POD is to have Edward VI live a long life. Edward appears to have been an intense Calvinist. Had he lived a long life (say to the early 17th as his elder sister Elizabeth did) it seems plausible that England would have fallen much more firmly into the Reformed Tradition (or perhaps more the Presbyterian rather than the Episcopal tradition). I have a hard to seeing something like Quakerism becoming the state religion.

I think we can look to Scotland to see what the Church of England under Edward VI probably would have become.

There probably would have been more social tension though and possibly open conflict - the transition between Catholicism and Calvinism/Reformed is much more abrupt, even visually - the latter would destroy images and whitewash the walls of their churches. While an Anglican or even Lutheran church might superficially resemble a Catholic one, Reformed churches were clearly identifiable.
 
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