Religion in a Calvinist/Puritan England

[Blackadder Mk2]

Looking up Anglo-Catholicism and such and inspired.

So I lack the knowledge that other posters may have on the matter, but I've been looking up some facts on the period and I'm interested in the question of how Non-Conformism and Anglo-Catholicism in England/Britain might have changed had the Puritans had their way and established a Calvinistic Presbyterian Church as the official faith for England.

The PoD can vary from Edward VI surviving, James I's heir Henry Stuart, the Commonwealth's survival, or simply the effects of an alternate Glorious Revolution, but I'll admit that my intrigue here lies more in the personal and theological aspects, so we'll presume very few butterflies with this alternate Act of Uniformity. The Great Ejection ITTL might fractured the Methodists between the pro-predestination Whitefield and the pro-Ariminius Wesley, but the Baptists will be excluded ITTL too as may the Quackers, depending on the loyalty oath question. Still, it's going to be a Church of a different character with the different emphasises and lack of Bishops. How might Non-Conformism change ITTL? I imagine there'd be a Restorationist element in a Commonwealth TL, but in one where the King decides No Bishops, One King, it would probably be rooted in calling for a return of the episcopal element, argue against predestination, and less stripped-down churches.

As for the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholicism movement, I imagine that there might be more movement towards outright conversion to the Catholic faith as the CoE ITTL is going to be very different and less easy to reconcile with Rome. There was already a lot of anti-Catholic feeling when Emancipation passed and the Church hierarchy in England was restored, but it may be ratcheted up and said theological differences may push a lot of OTL pro-High Church people into Catholicism.

Thoughts?

 

[Makemakean]

As for the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholicism movement, I imagine that there might be more movement towards outright conversion to the Catholic faith as the CoE ITTL is going to be very different and less easy to reconcile with Rome. There was already a lot of anti-Catholic feeling when Emancipation passed and the Church hierarchy in England was restored, but it may be ratcheted up and said theological differences may push a lot of OTL pro-High Church people into Catholicism.

Yes and no.

One of the reasons why people became Anglo-Catholic in the first place was because during the 19th century, being a Catholic still made you something of an "other" in many people's eyes, so being an Anglo-Catholic sort of allowed you to be a Catholic without becoming an "other". Indeed, the reason why Anglo-Catholicism has been dying out in the 20th century is because that stigma about being Catholic has sort of died out, so if you're an Anglican feel yourself drawn towards Catholicism these days, you don't move into the Anglo-Catholic camp, you just convert.

If you look at other European countries where they were more strict about their Protestantism (England and the Netherlands were extremely liberal by continental standards), you'll find that in most countries, there simply never emerged any good analogues to Anglo-Catholicism, nor a movement towards outright conversion to Catholicism either. This leads me to believe that the Anglo-Catholic movement was largely a byproduct of the Church of England allowing for a diversity of thought other Protestant churches plainly lacked, and though laws being (relatively) liberal, Catholicism still being stigmatized.