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HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE ARTICLES OF

RELIGION.

IN 1552, Cranmer and Ridley drew up forty-two Articles of Religion. They evidently made considerable use of the Lutheran confessions of faith; notably of the confession of Augsburg, which was drawn up by Melancthon and approved by Luther, and presented to the Emperor of Germany in 1530. It is a matter of doubt whether Convocation ever sanctioned these Articles, which, however, were revised by the Bishops.

In 1562, Archbishop Parker re-cast the Articles. He added four new ones (the fifth, twelfth, nineteenth, and thirtieth), and omitted four of the original forty-two, viz., the tenth (of Grace); sixteenth (of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost); nineteenth (all men are bound to keep the moral Commandments of the Law); and forty-first (of heretics called Millenarii). He consulted the Confession of Wurtemburg, which consisted of thirty-six articles, presented by the Duke of Wurtemberg in 1552 to the Council of Trent. Archbishop Parker's draft was submitted to both houses of Convocation, and was by them considerably altered. The quotation from S. Peter about preaching to the spirits in prison was omitted in Article III., and the thirty-ninth (the resurrection of the dead is not yet brought to pass); the fortieth (the souls of them that depart this life do neither die nor sleep idly); and the forty-second (all men shall not be saved at the length), were omitted. The whole number was thus reduced to thirty-nine, but the copy as altered by the Queen in Council omitted Article XXIX., and inserted the clause, "The Church hath authority to decree rites and ceremonies," &c., in Article XX. In 1571, the thirty-nine Articles in their present form were set forth by the authority of the Queen, Convocation, and Parliament.

It is noteworthy that the Declaration enjoining that the Articles should be taken in their literal and grammatical sense, was drawn up by Archbishop Laud, thus clearly proving that he considered the doctrine of the Articles thoroughly in harmony with the definite Catholic teaching of the Prayer Book, and that he would not for a moment have sanctioned a strained interpretation, or non-natural sense of the statements therein contained.

BEMROSE AND SONS, PRINTERS, LONDON AND DERBY.