King James I of England appointed a commission to revise the “Bishop’s Bible.” The first edition of this “Authorized Version” (also known as the “King James Bible”) appeared in 1611. For more details see the Catholic Encyclopedia article titled “Authorized Version” at catholic.com.

Yes. St. Edmund Arrowsmith (1585-1628), one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, is also known as “Brian Arrowsmith” because Brian was his birth name. He preferred his confirmation name Edmund and is more commonly known by that name. There is also the Elizabethan martyr Bl. Brian Lacey (d. 1591).

Although the quote is commonly attributed without source documentation to Pope Leo X, it is believed to have originated in a satirical piece titled "The Pageant of the Popes" by a Protestant controversialist named John Bale (1495–1563). Bale wrote: "For on a time when a Cardinall Bembus did move a question out of the Gospell, the Pope gave him a very contemptuous answer saying: ‘All ages can testifie enough howe profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie.’"

The Catholic Church cannot be said to be "Arminian" because it came before Arminianism and is not a product of that theology. Rather, it is better to say that Calvinism and Arminianism agree with Catholicism on some issues and disagree with it on others.

Calvinism was formulated by John Calvin in the sixteenth century. Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, wove together a systematic theology that eventually would be remembered by the acronym TULIP. TULIP stands for total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.

Arminianism, named for its principal theologian, Jacobus Arminius, can be distilled to the five points it made that provoked a reaction from Calvinists, known as the Five Articles of the Remonstrants: apart from grace man cannot save himself or do anything truly good, conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace, and the possibility of apostasy. (The first of these converges with Calvinism’s understanding of total depravity, though later Arminians and Calvinists have developed this idea differently.)

In some respects Catholicism and Calvinism agree (e.g., Catholic theologians from Thomas Aquinas to Robert Bellarmine have taught unconditional election) and in some they disagree (the Church does not teach that all believers are predestined to persevere in the faith). In some respects Catholicism and Arminianism agree (the Church teaches universal redemption) and in some they can disagree (the Church allows for the possibility of unconditional election).

No. There were no early councils that endorsed the 66 books Protestants honor (check the facts in your local library). The current canon of Scripture was affirmed at the Council of Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus, which included all and only the seventy-three books Catholics honor today. This canon was repeated at Hippo and at Carthage (A.D. 393 and 397, respectively) and has been repeated ever since.

It was Martin Luther who tossed out the seven books considered canonical since the beginning of Church history. He also rejected the epistle to the Hebrews and the book of Revelation. He also called the epistle of James "an epistle of straw" because James 2:14–26 conflicted with his personal theology on good works. He also added the word (in his German translation) only in Romans 3:20 and Romans 4:15, and he inserted the word alone in Romans 3:28.

No. The Anglican church does not have valid holy orders, therefore, eucharistic intercommunion is not possible.

The Catechism states the following:

Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church "have not preserved the proper reality of the eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of holy orders." It is for this reason that, for the Catholic Church, eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible.

For further reading on Anglican orders, visit www.newadvent.org and search for "Anglican orders."

The reformation the Church received came from the Council of Trent. It changed discipline but not doctrine. It formed seminaries, regularizing the education of the clergy. It unified the liturgy. It clarified doctrine but did not—and could not—change any of it. As a result, the Catholic Church remained consistent in what it had always taught. Such consistency remains to the present day.

The Protestant Reformation resulted in the continuous division of churches over the interpretation of Scripture, each new denomination insisting on its own as authentic. But of course, since they all contradict each other, they can’t all be correct. The divisions continue to this day—thousands of them. If this is reformation, I’d hate to see chaos!

The Catholic Church does not recognize the validity of Anglican orders, whether they are sought by men or women. In the Catholic Church’s view, no Anglican priest, man or woman, can validly consecrate the bread and wine. During the reign of King Edward VI the Church of England no longer upheld the Mass as a sacrifice. Therefore the form of the sacrament of holy orders was compromised, rendering it invalid.

The Anglican theory that the Catholic Church has three distinct branches, none of which is in communion with the other, misunderstands the nature of the Church. The true Church must be united in faith and sacraments, in communion with the pope. If one part breaks from that unity, then it is no longer part of the Church. Anglicans, in their desire to be recognized as part of the true Church, have come up with this new theory at the expense of unity.

If the Anglican church always constituted a distinct "branch" of the church, independent of the pope, then why did Henry VIII appeal to the Bishop of Rome for permission to marry Catherine and then for permission to divorce her and marry Anne Boleyn? Why did he decide to settle for the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury only after getting turned down by the pope?

Trent simply reaffirmed the historic canon of the Bible after it had been challenged by Protestants. The same books Trent affirmed had been affirmed by councils and popes prior to Trent. The first council recorded as dealing with the canon was the Council of Rome, which convened in A.D. 382 under Pope Damascus. Later councils, such as Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), and the ecumenical council of Florence (1438) reaffirmed the canon issued by the Council of Rome.

At all these councils the canon that was proclaimed included the seven deuterocanonical books—1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Wisdom, and Sirach—and rejected 1 and 2 Esdras. Far from being inconsistent; Trent reaffirmed what the Church had taught since the earliest centuries.