It is often said that it is Protestant in doctrine and Catholic in ritual and hierarchy.

But compared with the Lutheran church it is found to be if anything further from Rome.

In fact the Anglicans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries abhorred the Lutherans as "semi-papists." [Sidenote: The Church of England] And yet the Anglican church was like the Lutheran not only in its conservatism as compared with Calvinism, but in its political aspects.
Both became the strong allies of the throne; both had not only a markedly national but a markedly governmental quality.

Just as the Reformation succeeded in England by becoming national in opposition to Spain, and remaining national in opposition to French culture, so the Anglican church naturally became a perfect expression of the English character.

Moderate, decorous, detesting extremes of speculation and enthusiasm, she cares less for logic than for practical convenience.
Closely interwoven with the religious settlement were the questions of the heir to the throne [Sidenote: Succession] and of foreign policy.
Elizabeth's life was the only breakwater that stood between the people and a Catholic, if not a disputed, succession.