Portal:Anglicanism/Selected biography/13
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army, which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658. Cromwell has been seen by some as a regicidal dictator. In Ireland, he is widely hated to this day.
Under Cromwell, Anglicanism was disestablished, presbyterian polity was introduced, the Thirty-Nine Articles were replaced with the Westminster Confession, and the Book of Common Prayer was replaced by the Directory of Public Worship. Despite this, about one quarter of English clergy and countless citizens refused to conform. When the Royalists returned to power in 1660, his corpse was dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. The Restoration government re-established Anglicanism, the episcopal polity, and issued a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1662.
