Bishops, Women, Laity and Church

In the post below by Eric Von Salzen, mention is made of the fact that currently, and previously, the titular head of the Church of England has been a woman. Certainly, Anglicanism achieved its 'classic' form during the reign of Elizabeth I, under whom the defining characteristics of a comprehensive Anglicanism were set by royal force.

An interesting thing here is not just the authority of women in the Church of England - which Elizabeth I demonstrated long before the recent decision to allow the consecration women to the episcopate - but also the authority of the laity. The imperial authority of a lay sovereign to rule over Christendom - since Constantine, and reasserted by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I - included the authority to preside over the Church therein. To this day, the Archbishop of Canterbury is named by the Prime Minister under formally delegated authority of the Queen.

What is even more interesting is how far the Church of England (and the Episcopal Church) has been willing to envision this lay authority - in practice and speculation. Indeed, Thomas Cranmer himself said once that (theoretically) "it is not forbidden by God's law" for a lay-person in the form of a "Christian prince" to ordain bishops and priests - under extreme circumstances. William White picked up on Cranmer's point in his seminal pamphlet The Case for the Episcopal Church in the United States Considered to suggest that it might be necessary for post-colonial Episcopalians to produce a line of bishops without episcopal consecration of them.

Of course neither Cranmer or White went this way - but that they suggested even the possibility is remarkable.