in centuries gone by, did the Anglican church impose capital punishment?

Question

Ralph Waldo Emerson [19th century] writes of the mild nature of the Anglican Church, which in my experience is very present today. There is a diversity of opinion in various matters; some might say too much diversity, but at least no one is told what to think.
But what did the Anglican Church do with previous dissenters, such as the Quakers? And when did it start to get its mild reputation?

Answer 1

It is shocking to see that in the USA (then a British colony and covered by English law) legislation was passed specifically to be able to convict and execute Quakers. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/2822/marydyer.html

Here is a link for you showing how one famous dissenter was dealt with merely for expressing his own opinions and circulating them. http://history.powys.org.uk/history/common/penry.html

The Church of England seems to have reached an accommodation within itself at a time of many dissenters (Puritans) within its ranks. The following passage from http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/puritans.html
seems to summarise it quite well. 'The Crown would initiate a basic "carrot and stick" policy within the Jacobean Church under Bancroft. The carrot was a basic subscription to the authority of the Crown and the Church and to comply with its basic ceremony requirements of the Book of Common Prayer. Once having subscribed all clergy would be welcomed as loyal supports of the Crown and Church.
The Crown and the Church for its part would welcome all moderate clergy including those with puritan values. The Church was also willing to moderate its own procedures to make subscription as easy as possible to accommodate the greatest number of individual clergy possible including those holding puritan values. The Crown wanted as large a tent as possible within which to reasonable accommodate the greatest number of moderate and conformable clergy. Tolerance and as little controversy as possible was sought by the Crown and the Church. Successful clergy need only comply, keep their opinions to themselves, and not to be controversial.
As far as the Crown and the Church was concerned there were two basic clergy in the Jacobean Church: 1) those clergy that had subscribed; and, 2) those clergy who had not. The former were considered loyal clergy, puritan or not. And the latter might be considered to be Radicals, nonconformists, and possible enemies of the State.'

With many fleeing the country and returning, it made sense to reach an accommodation within its ranks and it has moved since to the perhaps excessively tolerant position of today.

Answer 2

the churches are no better than the romans puting there fairy tale laws onto this planet thay are dowing to this planet to what the romans done to there jesus bloke 2000yrs ago

Answer 3

I think they sort of did it via the king but after Charles the first executed and Cromwell, there was less of it , witches and mainly odd women became targets, but a special witch finder was appointed as an agent of church to do this , last witch burning 1775 in Germany.See a book called "gendercide and genocide" edited by Allan Jones, shows that still goes on in Africa , tho not church sanctioned.

Answer 4

The matter is much more complex than a simple 'death penalty for religion'. The death penalty was for treason - or plotting against the state.

Henry VIII broke with Rome because the Pope refused to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon (in Spain). Basically it was a question of who had authority in England over matters of state (not being a historian I can't give a fuller picture) but the result was, among other things, that the Monarch of England was prevented from marrying a Roman Catholic [on the grounds that the Pope must not be able to exert political influence ove the country through the monarch] - a rule that is still in force today, although many think it is time to repeal it.

Catholics, and Protestants, were executed for what appear now to be religious 'crimes', but in reality they were a threat to the authority of the Crown so were treason rather than anything else.

As far as I know people such as the Quakers were never a threat to the state, so didn't face death. They may well have got up people's noses for other reasons, but that is a different matter!

Answer 5

I think the Church of England (Anglican) was a refuge for those that were agnostic, atheist or just plain disinterested.
Social pressure was such that you had to be seen to be a christian, and that was the church that didn't put you out too much.

Answer 6

The number of Christians executed by the Anglican church is second only to the Catholic church. We must remember that the Anglican church is really the Catholic church with a king instead of a pope.