alternatehistory.com

Back when I was a believer in Holy Mother Rome, I mocked Anglicans as "Catholic Lite" believers.

Now as one of those smug internet atheists you hear about, I still very much believe that. The Anglican Church very much does seem to be as an outsider to be a place for Catholics who don't like the Catholic Church, but still enjoy the ceremonial trappings of Mass.

But spending time on these boards, I wonder what would have happened in an alternate history where the powers that be in England took a less compromising approach to questions of the Eucharist, Worship, and Governance of the Church. What would the English Church have looked like had the dice rolled differently? What if Elizabeth had married and popped out a little German Lutheran to bully parliament? Or if a successful Franco-Scottish counter-reformation sent the ultra-Calvinists of the Scottish Lowlands to an alternate surviving Edward VI's court?

Would we see the Bible translated into Welsh, Cornish, and Irish Gaelic so that very localized Church councils (with London's approval, of course) could bring the Word of God to the masses in a tongue they understood (insert Brummie joke here)?

Would we see "jollie olde England" completely overwritten by dour Puritans, who sought to close the covenants and monasteries to bring their austere existence to everyone?

Might we even see more radical turns of Christianity, with Lutheran Swedes and Calvinist Dutchmen standing aghast with Rome as England adopts the heresies of Servetus and other more out there reformers?

Any thoughts and comments are welcome. But be warned that any thoughts and comments deemed too "out there" might result in the burning of the person expressing them.
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