The difference of the two series, and their relation to the Thirteen Articles, will be more readily seen from the following table:

10. De Ministris Eccle- Saluation. siæ,

6. The olde Testamente

11. De Ritibus Ecclesias-is not to be refused. ticis.

12. De Rebus Civilibus. 13. De Corporum Resurrectione et Judicio Extremo.

7. The three Credes.
8. O1 originall or birthe

sinne.

9. Of free wille.
10. Of Grace.

11. Of the Justification

[This order follows, as of manne. far as it goes, the order of the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession.]

12. Workes before Justification.

13. Workes of Supererogation.

14. No man is without sinne, but Christe alone.

15. Of sinne against the holie Ghoste.

16. Blasphemie against the holie Ghoste.

17. Of predestination and election.

18. We must truste to obteine eternal salvation onely by the name of Christ.

19. All men are bound to kepe the moral commaundementes of the Lawe.

20. Of the Church.

21. Of the aucthoritie of the Churche.

22. Of the aucthoritie of General Counsailes.

THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

1571.

1. Of Faith in the Holy' Trinity.

2. Of Christ the Son of God, which was made very

man.

3. Of the Going down of Christ into Hell.

4. Of the Resurrection of Christ.

5. Of the Holy Ghost. 6. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scripture for Salvation.

7. Of the Old Testament.

8. Of the Three Creeds. 9. Of Original or Birth

Sin.

10. Of Free Will.

11. Of the Justification of man.

12. Of Good Works. 13. Of Works before Justification.

14. Of Works of Supererogation.

15. Of Christ alone without sin.

16. Of Sin after Baptism.

17. Of Predestination and Election.

18. Of obtaining Salvation by the name of Christ.

19. Of the Church.

20. Of the Authority of the Church.

21. Of the Authority of General Councils.

23. Of Purgatorie.

22. Of Purgatory.

24. No manne maie min- 23. Of Ministering in the ister in the Congregation Congregation. except he be called.

25. Menne must speake 24. Of Speaking in the the Congregation in Congregation in such a soche toung as the people tongue as the people ununderstandeth. derstandeth.

the Ministres dooeth not of Ministers which hinder take awaie the effectuall not the effect of the Sacraoperation of Goddes ordi- ments.

gooddes are not commune. goods, which are not com

§ 81. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE ARTICLES.

The theological interpretation of the Articles by English writers has been mostly conducted in a controversial rather than an historical spirit, and accommodated to a particular school or party. Moderate High-Churchmen and Arminians, who dislike Calvinism, represent them as purely Lutheran;1 Anglo-Catholics and Tractarians, who abhor both Lutheranism and Calvinism, endeavor to conform them as much as possible to the contemporary decrees of the Council of Trent; Calvinistic and evangelical Low-Churchmen find in them substantially their own creed. Continental historians, both Protestant and Catholic, rank the Church of England among the Reformed Churches as distinct from the Lutheran, and her Articles are found in every collection of Reformed Confessions.4

The Articles must be understood in their natural grammatical and historical sense, from the stand-point and genius of the Reformation, the public and private writings of their compilers and earliest expounders. In doubtful cases we may consult the Homilies, the Catechism, the several revisions of the Prayer-book, the Canons, and other contemporary documents bearing on the reformation of doctrine and discipline in the Church of England.

In a preceding section we have endeavored to give the historical key for the understanding of the doctrinal character of the English Articles. A closer examination will lead us to the following conclusions:

1. The Articles are Catholic in the cecumenical doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation, like all the Protestant Confessions of the Reformation period; and they state those doctrines partly in the very words of two Lutheran documents, viz., the Augsburg Confession and the Würtemberg Confession.

1

So Archbishop Laurence, of Cashel, and Hardwick, in their learned works on the Articles. * Newman, Pusey, Forbes. Archbishop Laud had prepared the way for this Romanizing interpretation.

3

Even the Puritans accepted the doctrinal Articles, and the Westminster Assembly first made them the basis of its Calvinistic Confession.

From the Corpus et Syntagma down to the collections of Niemeyer and Böckel. The Roman Catholic Möhler likewise numbers the Articles among the Reformed (Calvinistic) Confessions, Symbolik, p. 22. On the other hand, the Articles have no place in any collec tion of Lutheran symbols; still less, of course, could they be included among Greek or Latin symbols.

2. They are Augustinian in the anthropological and soteriological doctrines of free-will, sin, and grace: herein likewise agreeing with the Continental Reformers, especially the Lutheran.

3. They are Protestant and evangelical in rejecting the peculiar errors and abuses of Rome, and in teaching those doctrines of Scripture and tradition, justification by faith, faith and good works, the Church, and the number of sacraments, which Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin held in common.

4. They are Reformed or moderately Calvinistic in the two doctrines of Predestination and the Lord's Supper, in which the Lutheran and Reformed Churches differed; although the chief Reformed Confessions were framed after the Articles.

5. They are Erastian in the political sections, teaching the closest union of Church and State, and the royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil; with the difference, however, that the Elizabethan revision dropped the title of the king as 'supreme head in earth,' and excluded the ministry of the Word and Sacraments from the 'chief government' of the English Church claimed by the crown.' All the Reformation Churches were more or less intolerant, and enforced uniformity of belief as far as they had the power; but the Calvinists and Puritans were more careful of the rights of the Church over against the State than the Lutherans.

6. Art. XXXV., referring to the Prayer-book and the consecration of archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons, is purely Anglican and Episcopalian, and excited the opposition of the Puritans.

We have now to furnish the proof as far as the doctrinal articles are concerned.

THE ARTICLES AND THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION.

The Edwardine Articles were based in part, as already observed, upon a previous draft of Thirteen Articles, which was the joint product of German and English divines, and based upon the doctrinal

'The modification of the royal supremacy in Art. XXXVII., as compared with Art. XXXVI. of Edward, was intended to meet the scruples of Romanists and Calvinists. Nevertheless this article, and the two acts of supremacy and uniformity, form the basis of that restrictive code of laws which pressed so heavily for more than two centuries upon the consciences of Roman Catholic and Protestant dissenters. Comp. the third chapter of Hallam's Constitutional History of England (Harper's ed. pp. 71 sqq.).

Articles of the Augsburg Confession. Some passages were trans ferred verbatim from the Lutheran document to the Thirteen Arti cles, and from these to the Forty-two (1553), and were retained in the Elizabethan revision (1563 and 1571). This will appear from the following comparison. The corresponding words are printed in

ART. I. De Unitate Dei et
Trinitate Personarum.

De Unitate Essentiæ Di

THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

1563.

ART. I. De Fide in Sacrosanctum Trinitatem.

Unus est vivus et verus

Ecclesiæ magno consensu apud nos docent, Decretum vinæ et de Tribus Personis, Deus æternus, incorporeus Nicænæ Synodi, de unitate censemus decretum Nicene impartibilis, impassibilis, essentiæ divinæ et de tribus Synodi verum, et sine ulla immensa potentiæ, sapientiæ personis, verum et sine ulla dubitatione credendum ac bonitatis: creator et condubitatione credendum esse, videlicet, quod sit una servator omnium tum visibiesse. Videlicet, quod sit Essentia Divina, quæ et ap- lium tum invisibilium. Et una essentia divina, quæ et pellatur et est Deus, ater- in unitate huius divinæ naappellatur et est Deus, æternus, incorporeus, imparti- turæ tres sunt Personæ ejusnus, incorporeus impartibilis, bilis, immensa potentia, sa- dem essentiæ, potentiæ, ac immensa potentia, sapientia, pientia, bonitate, creator et æternitatis, Pater, Filius, et bonitate, creator et conserva- conservator omnium rerum Spiritus Sanctus.1 tor omnium rerum, visibi- visibilium et invisibilium, et lium et invisibilium; et ta- tamen tres sint personæ ejusmen tres sint personæ, ejus- dem essentiæ et potentiæ, et dem essentia et potentia, et coæternæ, Pater, Filius, et coæternæ, Pater, Filius et Spiritus Sanctus; et noSpiritus Sanctus. Et no- mine personæ utimur ea mine personæ utuntur ea significatione qua usi sunt significatione, qua usi sunt in hac causa scriptores in hac causa scriptores ecclesiastici, ut significet ecclesiastici, ut significet non partem aut qualitatem non partem aut qualitatem in alio, sed quod proprie in alio, sed quod proprie subsistit. subsistit.

Damnant omnes hæreses, Damnamus omnes hærecontra hunc articulum ex- ses contra hunc articulum ortas, ut Manichæos, qui exortas, ut Manichæos, qui duo principia ponebant, duo principia ponebant, Bonum et Malum; item Bonum et Malum: item Valentinianos, Arianos, Valentinianos, Arianos, Eunomianos, Mahometis- Eunomianos, Mahometis

'The same passage occurs in the Reformatio Legum ecclesiasticarum (De Summa Trinitate, c. 2), a work prepared by a committee consisting of Cranmer, Peter Martyr, and six others, 1551. It was edited by Cardwell, Oxford, 1850, and serves as a commentary on the Articles. See Hardwick, pp. 82 and 371.