1509 Henry VIII becomes king of England
1526 William Tyndale's English New Testament published
1534 Henry VIII leads Parliament in break with Roman Catholic Church and becomes 'supreme head of the Church of England"
1547 Edward VI becomes king and advances Protestantism
1549 First version of Book of Common Prayer published
1553 Mary Tudor becomes queen and labors to reestablish Roman Catholicism; nearly 300 Protestants are martyred during her reign, including Thomas Cranmer
1558 Elizabeth inherits throne and restores Anglicanism
1558 William Perkins is born
1559 Act of Uniformity requires use of Book of Common Prayer for public worship
1567 Controversy over clerical vestments is symptom of Puritans' desire for further reformation
1570 Puritan leader Thomas Cartwright deprived of teaching post at Cambridge for criticizing Anglican liturgy and government
1571 Parliament approves Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion stating doctrinal beliefs of English church
1583 John Whitgift becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and enforces uniformity in public worship
1588 England's navy defeats the Spanish Armada
1599 Oliver Cromwell is born
1602 Death of William Perkins
1603 James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England
1604 James I rejects most Puritan requests for reform included in their "Millenary Petition"
1608 John Milton is born
1611 King James Version published
1616 Richard Baxter and john Owen are born; William Shakespeare dies
1618 James I advocates Sunday recreation in opposition to Puritan Sabbatarianism
1618 Thirty Years War begins in central Europe
1620 The "Pilgrims," Puritan Separatists who had fled to the Netherlands, sail to America and found colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts
1625 Charles I becomes king
1628 Oliver Cromwell becomes Member ...

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