Anglicans and Empire.

One of the closest connections between religion and the American Revolution involved the Anglicans. These people belonged to the official Church of England, which enjoyed the protection of the state and was supported by tax money. In five of the thirteen colonies the Anglican Church was the legally established religion in the 1750s and 1760s. Anglicanism was a version of Protestantism, distinguished by the fact that the king of England was the official religious leader as well as the head of state. Theologically it was closely related to the Calvinist reformed tradition, the religion of the Puritans who settled New England, but Anglicans were more moderate in tone and placed greater importance on more-elaborate rituals. As a belief and a practice, then, it fit comfortably among the varieties of Christian religions practiced by most early Americans. The feature that most...