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The Church of Ireland ((アイルランド語:Eaglais na hÉireann)) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second-largest Christian denomination on the island after Roman Catholicism. Like other Anglican churches, it has retained elements of pre-Reformation practice, notably its episcopal polity, while rejecting the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. Nevertheless, in theological and liturgical matters, it incorporates many principles of the Reformation, in particular the English Reformation. The church identifies as both Catholic and Reformed.〔("About Us", Church of Ireland website )〕 Within the church, differences exist between those members who are more Catholic-leaning (high church) and those who are more Protestant-leaning (low church or evangelical).〔(Church of Ireland ) 〕 For historical and cultural reasons, the Church of Ireland is generally identified as a Protestant church.〔(Protestant and Catholic ), APCK Study Leaflet, 1996〕 The Church of Ireland is the second-largest Christian tradition in the Republic of Ireland with around 130,000 members〔Republic of Ireland Central Statistics Office, (''Census 2006: Principal Demographic Results'' ).〕 and the third-largest in Northern Ireland, with around 260,000 members.〔(2011 Census, Key Statistics for Northern Ireland, December 2012, p. 19. )〕 ==Overview== The Church of Ireland describes itself as "that part of the Irish Church which was influenced by the Reformation, and has its origins in the early Celtic Church of St Patrick."〔("What we believe" ) Church of Ireland official website.〕The Church of Ireland considers itself Catholic because it is in possession of a continuous tradition of faith and practice, based on scripture and early traditions, enshrined in the Catholic creeds, together with the sacraments and apostolic ministry.〔("Protestant and Catholic" ) Church of Ireland official website.〕 However, the Church of Ireland is also Protestant, or Reformed, since it opposes doctrines and ways of worshipping that it considers contrary to scripture and which led to the Reformation. "The Church of Ireland, as a Reformed and Protestant Church, doth hereby re–affirm its constant witness against all those innovations in doctrine and worship whereby the Primitive faith hath been from time to time defaced or overlaid, and which at the Reformation this Church did disown and reject." 〔("Preamble and Declaration of the Constitution of the Church of Ireland 1870, 1.3" ) Church of Ireland official website.〕 When the Church of England broke communion with the Holy See, all but two of the bishops of the church in Ireland followed the Church of England, although almost no other clergy did so. The church then became the established church of Ireland, assuming possession of most church property (and so retaining a great repository of religious architecture and other items, though some were later destroyed). The church explains its possession of so many of the ancient church buildings of Ireland by reference to the precedent set by Emperor Constantine the Great in the 4th century: "Since the days of the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century European states saw themselves as having a central role in the government of the Church. This church-state link was vigorously applied when the Normans came to Ireland in the 12th century. Bishops were required to do homage to the king for their lands, just like earls and barons, who were vassals of the crown. It was therefore accepted, both during and after the Reformation, that the crown should continue to exercise that authority over the church, in which it continued to play a central role. In this way, church property that existed at the time of the Reformation, buildings included, was retained by the reformed, established (state) Church of Ireland.In Ireland, the substantial majority of the population continued to adhere to Roman Catholicism, despite the political and economic advantages of membership in the state church. Despite its numerical minority, however, the Church of Ireland remained the official state church until it was disestablished on 1 January 1871 by the Liberal government under William Ewart Gladstone. It is the contention of the Church of Ireland that in breaking with Rome, the reformed established church was reverting to a condition that had obtained in the church in Ireland prior to the 12th century — the independent character of Celtic Christianity. Legitimacy for the Norman invasion of Ireland was derived from a Papal Bull of 1155 — ''Laudabiliter''. The bull gave King Henry II of England authority to invade Ireland ostensibly as a means of reforming the church in Ireland more directly under the control of the Holy See.〔Austin Lane Poole (''From Domesday book to Magna Carta, 1087-1216'' ) Oxford University Press, 1993, pp303-304 (readable on Google books)〕 The authorisation from the Holy See was based upon the Donation of Constantine which made every Christian island in the western Roman Empire the property of the Papacy. By the time of the English Reformation, the Donation had been exposed as a forgery, and Henry VIII sought to undo by enforcing laws regarding praemunire the historic royal homage to the Papacy that was delivered by John, King of England before him. The Church of Ireland is the second largest church in Ireland and the third largest in Northern Ireland, after the Roman Catholic and Presbyterian churches. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Church of Ireland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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