I see that some Anglicans of an evangelical persuasion are accusing @JustinWelby of 'heresy' for praying for the dead. They're right, of course, that this practice isn't part of the CofE's reformed heritage. But even at its most Puritan, the CofE has never called it *heretical*

The CofE has always been careful not to label Catholic practices as heretical; read the 39 Articles, where Catholic doctrines are dismissed as 'vain', 'fondly invented', even 'blasphemous fables', but never as *heresies*

There are a number of reasons for this. It was legally problematic for the CofE to continue to rely on medieval ecclesiastical law and the continuity of medieval institutions if the medieval church was *heretical*. Rather, the medieval church was generally presented as *corrupt*

It was also difficult for the CofE to continue pursuing heretics such as Anabaptists (as it did until the 1670s) if Catholics were re-classified as heretics as well

There was a pre-Reformation tradition of clearly distinguishing 'vain superstition' from heresy in the proceedings of ecclesiastical courts; the c16th CofE simply extended the medieval church's definition of superstition to cover Roman Catholic beliefs and practices in general

Legally speaking, it would have been very challenging to define Catholicism as heresy, and there is more than one way to define unacceptable belief - without using the 'h' word

Another factor here is the reluctance of c16th English people to accept that their ancestors had been heretics. Believing your ancestors were misled into superstition by wicked clerics is one thing; believing they fell away entirely from the Christian faith as heretics is another

So Anglican evangelicals should feel free to condemn the ABC for praying for the dead if they want to (that's their tradition), but it is profoundly at odds with the evangelical tradition in the CofE to call it *heresy*