riod.
Until the Reformation of the sixteenth century, every English Christian was a Roman Catholic (Wolf 8). Each such Catholic worshipped in a church governed by a hierarchy of celibate priests, subject to bishops, who were in turn subject to the two Archbishops of York and Canterbury, who were in turn subject to the Pope. The services were conducted in Latin (Wolf 8). During this time, Catholics believed in the Church's authority as conveyed in the writings of the early Christian writers, the "Fathers," as well as in the authority of the Bible. The Bible, however, was not in general circulation although passages excerpted from it were read to the laity in Latin at every service (Wolf 9).
The English Reformation of the sixteenth century changed everything. The Reformation was prompted by King Henry VIII's desire and determination to divorce his wife and by the Pope's inability, Peter Lee Wolf states for political reasons, to grant him such a divorce (10). However, Wolf argues that although this political crisis determined the moment of the break between England and Rome, it would not have been possible if there did not already exist hostility in England toward the papacy and Catholicism (10). Thus, by the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the official Church of England had repudiated both Rome and the extreme Protestantism of Calvin (Wolf 11). However, there remained many Catholics who longed for a return to the old ways and hoped for a restoration of Catholicism. On the other hand, there also existed many Protestants who felt that the newly emerging Church of England was not Protestant enough (Wolf 11-12).
Consequently, beginning in the late eighteenth century, there took place what has come to be known as a great Evangelical revival in England (Wolf 17). Wolf argues that the revival was, in part, fostered by the French Revolution, and quotes a Victorian commentator: "The triumph of Atheism in France restored Ch...