ABSTRACT
In the Elizabethan era, the English Church fought for its survival against a Catholic Church that threatened its very existence. A generation later, with the immediate trauma of the Reformation behind them, a group of theologians, known traditionally as the ‘Caroline Divines’, presented a positive image of the national church which stressed its catholic and apostolic aspect. Their attitudes to the Church of Rome, as set forth in their writings, provide a useful comparison with modern ecumenical discussions undertaken by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), and can contributing to its work.
