Articles re on the 12th of Jan. 1562 (i.e. 1563), was dated on the 11th of the previous November1. In this interval, and probably Forty-two for some time before, archbishop Parker had been sedu- vived, lously engaged in modifying the XLII. Articles of 1553; with the intention of submitting them to the next synod as the basis of a Formulary of Faith to be considered by that body. He was aided in his delicate task by several of his brother-prelates, especially by bishop Cox of Ely, and still more perhaps by Guest of Rochester, who had already taken a most active part2 in the revision of the PrayerBook. They adopted as the basis of revision the Latin and corrected Articles of 1553; and it is interesting to find that one Parker. result of this preliminary criticism has been preserved among the Parker manuscripts surviving in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. We are thus enabled to describe the various changes which the present Articles have undergone with more of fulness and exactness than was possible in tracing the formation of the kindred documents discussed in previous chapters. Now in estimating the main spirit of the changes introduced at this revision, it is most important to observe that Parker and his friends, instead of drawing hints from 'Swiss' 1 It is well to remember that the Council of Trent was sitting at the same time: see p. 84, n. 1. After promulgating a decree on the 'sacrifice of the mass,' (Sept. 17, 1562), a vehement contest was being waged between the Italian bishops on one side, and the French and Spanish on the other, touching the extent of the papal jurisdiction, or rather the Divine appointment of episcopacy: Sarpi, II. 261 sq. The same spirit of national independence, manifested by French prelates on this occasion, had been witnessed under a different aspect in the autumn of 1561, at the Colloquy of Poissy,' where attempts were made to conciliate the Huguenots by means of a species of national synod, and without invoking the aid of the Roman Pontiff. Fleury, 2 See Dugdale's Life and Cha- 3 Dr Lamb, in 1829, published, among other documents, an exact copy of the Latin Articles of 1563, as presented by Parker to the Convocation. It contains also the marks of numerous corrections which the Formulary had itself experienced, while under the notice of that body. by archbishop Confessions, which were high in favour with the Marian exiles, had recourse to a series of Articles of 'Saxon' origin, particularly distinguished by the moderation of their tone. We find, indeed, that very soon after the accession of Elizabeth one considerable party of Reformers in this country were desirous of reverting to the ground which had been occupied at first by the compilers of the Augsburg Confession1. Guided by their counsels, overtures proceeded from the English court, with the idea of joining the great Lutheran, or Schmalkaldic, league2; to the annoyance of those churchmen, who were still evincing sympathy with Peter Martyr, who were satisfied with the Helvetic Confession1, and who spoke of Lutherans as mere 'papists' in disguise. Negociations on the subject of this union were continued eagerly for a while and then broken off; but notwithstanding the failure of the project, no small part of the fresh matter in the Articles of 1563 was borrowed from 1 Strype, Annals, A. D. 1558, 1. 53, 174, Lond. 1725. 2 See Jewel to Peter Martyr, April 28, 1559; Zurich Letters, 1. 21: cf. pp. 54, 55, and II. 48. 3 He was strongly opposed to the Augsburg Confession, and had migrated from Strasburg to Zürich on account of the Lutheran tendencies of the former place: Ibid. II. III. ; cf. his own letter to Sampson (March 20, 1560): Ibid. 11. 48. 4 Grindal writing to Bullinger (August 27, 1566) declared that 'notwithstanding the attempts of many to the contrary,' the English fully agreed with the Swiss, and with the Confession they had 'lately' set forth (meaning perhaps the second 'Helvetic Confession'): Ibid. I. 169. 5 Thus, Grindal in the letter cited above has classed the Lutherans with 'Ecebolians' and 'semi-papists' and intimates that they were menacing the Church of England (cf. II. 261, 262). Grindal and Horne (1. 177) writing jointly to Bullinger and Gualter (Feb. 6, 1567) declare that their forced adoption of the authorised vestments was the only means of preserving the Church from 'a papistical or at least a Lutheranopapistical ministry:' cf. II. 143, when the same plea for conformity is alleged by Gualter in writing to Beza (Sept. 11, 1566). He had just before (July 23, 1566) stigmatised the English Clergy as 'wolves, papists, Lutherans, Sadducees and Herodians' (II. 125). The root of his hatred lay in what he deemed the half-measures of the Lutherans, who 'invent a form of religion of a mixed, uncertain and doubtful character, and obtrude the same upon the churches under the pretext of evangelical reformation: from which the return to papistical superstition and idol-madness is afterwards most easy' (Ibid. 11. 11). And in this sentiment he is echoed by George Withers, the great organ of the disaffected English (Ibid. II. 157). them drarn a Lutheran document, itself in turn an echo of the Augsburg Many of Confession. It bears the title of 'Confession of Würtem- from the Wurtemberg Con berg',' and was presented to the Council of Trent in 1552 fession, 1552. by the ambassadors of that state2. Art. it. From it has been derived the clause in our second New clause in Article, touching the eternal generation and consubstantiality of the Son; the agreement being absolutely verbatim3. The same is true respecting the third Article, Of the Art. T Holy Spirit,' which has no equivalent in the Edwardine series, but exists entire among the Würtemberg Articles1. Art, vi. An appendix to the sixth of our present list (the fifth Additions in of the Edwardine), stating that those books are to be reputed as component parts of the Sacred Canon, 'of whose authority there has never been any doubt in the Church,' is manifestly copied from the same quarter5. Art. xi. The tenth Article on 'Free Will,' the new portion Art. of the eleventh on 'Justification,' and the twelfth8 Art. xii. on 'Good Works,' though not agreeing to the letter 1 See it at length in Le Plat, Monum. IV. 420 seqq. The resemblance of our own to this Formulary was first pointed out in Laurence's Bampton Lect. p. 40, and notes. It professes to be in exact accordance with the Augsburg Ar ticles; and although designed for the single State of Würtemberg, it will be found to be a mere compendium of the Repetitio Confessionis Augustance, drawn up at the same period by the Saxon Churches, for presentation at the Council of Trent (Francke, Libri Symbol. Append. pp. 69-116). 2 Sarpi, II. 104, ed. Courayer. 3 'Credimus et confitemur Filium Dei, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, ab æterno a Patre suo genitum, verum et æternum Deum, Patri suo consubstantialem.' De Filio Dei. For the corresponding English Articles, see App. No. III. 4 'Credimus et confitemur Spiritum Sanctum ab æterno procedere a Deo Patre et Filio, et esse ejusdem cum Patre et Filio essentiæ, majestatis, et gloriæ, verum ac æternum Deum.' De Spiritu Sancto. 5 Sacram Scripturam vocamus eos Canonicos libros veteris et novi Testamenti, de quorum authoritate in Ecclesia nunquam dubitatum est.' De Sacra Scriptura. 6 Quod autem nonnulli affirmant homini post lapsum tantam animi integritatem relictam, ut possit sese naturalibus suis viribus et bonis operibus, ad fidem et invocationem Dei convertere ac præparare, haud obscure pugnat cum Apostolica doctrina, et cum vero Ecclesiæ Catholicæ consensu.' De Peccato. 7 'Homo enim fit Deo acceptus, et reputatur coram eo justus, propter solum Filium Dei, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, per fidem.' De Justificatione, and still more closely in the statement, 'De Evangelio Christi.' 8 Non est autem sentiendum, Clause in Art. xx. Four new Articles. with the language of the same Formulary, are no less obviously adapted from it; while the oft-disputed clause of our twentieth Article1 (to which we shall advert hereafter) is analogous to language there employed by Würtemberg theologians with regard to the judicial functions of the Church. But in addition to important hints derivable from this foreign source, the copy of the Formulary as submitted by archbishop Parker to the southern Convocation in 1563, exhibits a variety of other changes. We discover that the twenty-ninth and thirtieth of our present set were now introduced by him; the first attempting to discountenance an error then prevailing with respect to their communication of Christ to the unworthy receiver of the Lord's Supper; and the second indicating the propriety of communion in both kinds. The fifth and twelfth on 'the Holy Spirit' and 'Good Works' respectively, though traceable as we have seen to the Confession of Würtemberg, were both entirely new in this rough draft of the Elizabethan Articles. The first had been designed, we may conjecture, to complete dogmatic statements of the Church in opposition to the Arians, and the second to repudiate the conclusion of the Solifidians; both of whom were following in the track of the reforming movement3. the early printed copies of the Articles, as finally put forth, 3 That such enemies continued to look formidable in the early years of Elizabeth is clear, among other proofs, from the following expressions of Parker (March 1, 1558-9): "They say that the realm is full of Anabaptists, Arians, Libertines, Free-will men, &c., against whom only I thought ministers should have needed to fight in unity of doctrine. As for the Romish adversaries, their mouths may be stopped with their own books and confessions of late days.' He then tions. Other amplifications indicate the same anxiety to check other addithe progress of new forms of error and to obviate misconception with regard to earlier statements1. Such is the design of matter added to the second, fifth, and eleventh of the XLII. Articles. The fifth was also now enlarged by a specification of the books accepted as canonical; the sixth by adding to it a new clause insisting on the present obligation of the moral law,-which clause however was transferred from the nineteenth of the elder series. A more adequate definition on the freedom of the will, and on its forfeiture by Adam's fall, was introduced into the earlier article relating to that question. The twenty-sixth was now modified in such a way as to deny distinctly that Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, are 'Sacraments of the Gospel.' The thirty-third was subjected to similar enlargement, for the purpose of declaring the authority of a national Church to institute and to abolish ceremonies. The thirty-fourth was made to specify the titles of the Homilies (with the exception of that against Rebellion, which was published afterwards). The thirty-sixth, in answer to misgivings and objections, dwelt upon the sense in which the royal supremacy had been accepted by the Church in matters ecclesiastical2. alludes to internal discords: 'I never dreamed that ministers should be compelled to impugn ministers, &c.' Parker's Correspondence, ed. P. S. p. 61: cf. p. 321. 1 Other additions, though only verbal, and as such passed over now, deserve to be carefully noted by the student; e. g. in the Article 'de Prædestinatione' the Edwardine reading is 'decrevit eos quos elegit ;' the Elizabethan, 'decrevit eos quos in Christo elegit.' 2 The Queen is unwilling to be addressed either by word of mouth, H. A. or in writing, as the head of the 9 |