History of Catholicism in England
The Catholic Church in England and Wales (Latin: Ecclesia Catholica in Anglia et Cambria; Welsh: Yr Eglwys Gatholig yng Nghymru a Lloegr) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Its origins date from the 6th century, when Pope Gregory I through the Benedictine missionary, Augustine of Canterbury, intensified the evangelization of the Kingdom of Kent linking it to the Holy See in 597 AD. This unbroken communion with the Holy See lasted until King Henry VIII ended it in 1534.For two hundred and fifty years the government forced members of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church known as recusants to go underground and seek academic training in Catholic Europe, where exiled English clergy set up schools and seminaries for the sons of English recusant families.
5 episodes
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Saint Cuthbert
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life of the Northumbrian monk, priest and hermit who lived on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and became one of England's most revered saints.
28 January 2021
Featuring: Jane Hawkes, Sarah Foot, John Hines
St Hilda
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Hilda, who led a large and influential network of monasteries in 7th century Britain.
5 April 2007
Featuring: John Blair, Rosemary Cramp, Sarah Foot
The Hanoverian Succession
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the struggle by Whig politicians in London to have a Protestant from Hanover crowned at Westminster Abbey rather than the Catholic son of James II.
28 November 2024
Featuring: Andreas Gestrich, Elaine Chalus, Mark Knights
The Venerable Bede
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Venerable Bede, who revolutionised history and scholarship, and became adopted by Rome as the last of the founding fathers of Christian religion.
25 November 2004
Featuring: Richard Gameson, Sarah Foot, Michelle Brown
ReligionMedieval English theologiansEnglish Roman Catholic saintsEnglish Christian theologiansTrope theoristsDoctors of the ChurchAnglican saintsNorthumbrian saints8th-century Christian theologians, 8th-century English writers, 8th-century writers in Latin, Anglo-Saxon poets, Anglo-Saxon writersChristian hagiographersLutheran saintsHistory of Catholicism in EnglandThomas Becket
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Becket, chancellor turned archbishop, who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral and whose tomb became a centre of pilgrimage across Europe.
14 December 2017
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Michael Staunton, Danica Summerlin