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Thirty-nine Articles of Religion

Development

During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603), a Calvinist consensus developed among the leading clergy within the Church of England, specifically in regards to the doctrine of predestination. The church's doctrinal statement, the Thirty-nine Articles, addressed predestination in Article 17 ("Of Predestination and Election"). While Calvinists believed in double predestination (that God predestined some people for salvation but others for reprobation), Article 17 only endorsed election to salvation.

The University of Cambridge was a Calvinist stronghold and notable Calvinist professors included Thomas Cartwright, William Perkins, and William Whitaker.

The influence of Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius led to the emergence of an Arminian movement in the universities (notably William Barret, Peter Baro, John Overall and Antonio del Corro), which challenged the prevailing Calvinism.

Thus a controversy over predestination arose at Cambridge University, specifically between Whitaker and Peter Baro.

According to historian Nicholas Tyacke, the Court of High Commission had authority to resolve the controversy, and its decision was represented by the Lambeth Articles. The most senior clergy involved in the Lambeth discussions were Archbishop Whitgift; Richard Fletcher, bishop of London; and Richard Vaughan, bishop-elect of Bangor.

The Lambeth Articles (also known as the Nine Articles) were first drafted in Latin by William Whitaker, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. He had been sent to John Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the heads of Cambridge University, along with Humphrey Tyndal, Dean of Ely, in order to settle the controversy. The Articles were originally drafted by Whitaker and modified later by the bishops to make them more acceptable to anti-Calvinists.

The Lambeth Articles were not intended to replace the Thirty-nine Articles but were designed to officially align Article 17 to Calvinist theology.

The Articles were adopted and signed by Archbishop Whitgift; Richard Fletcher, Bishop of London; Richard Vaughan, Bishop elect of Bangor; and others at a meeting convened at Lambeth Palace on November 20, 1595.

Content

The nine articles adopted at Lambeth can be summarised as follows:

1. The eternal election of some to life, and the reprobation of others to death.
2. The moving cause of predestination to life is not the foreknowledge of faith and good works, but only the good pleasure of God.
3. The number of the elect is unalterably fixed.
4. Those who are not predestinated to life shall necessarily be damned for their sins.
5. The true faith of the elect never fails finally nor totally.
6. A true believer, or one furnished with justifying faith, has a full assurance and certainty of remission and everlasting salvation in Christ.
7. Saving grace is not communicated to all men.
8. No man can come to the Son unless the Father shall draw him, but all men are not drawn by the Father.
9. It is not in every one's will and power to be saved.

The theological interpretation of the Lambeth Articles has been a matter of controversy among scholars. Before 1958, the Articles were generally described as being Calvinist. In his 1958 work Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge, historian Harry Porter presented the theory that William Whitaker's original Calvinist draft was modified by the bishops to be acceptable to non-Calvinists as a doctrinal middle-way.

Porter's thesis was endorsed by Peter White and Debora Shuger. However, critics of the Porter thesis point out that terminology used in the Lambeth Articles is consistent with sublapsarian Calvinism. In addition, the endorsements of Archbishops Whitgift and Matthew Hutton would seem to confirm the Calvinism of the Articles.

Porter, Reformation and Reaction, pp. 340–43, 364–75;

P. White, Predestination, Policy and Polemic: Conflict and Consensus in the English Church from the Reformation to the Civil War (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 11–12, 101–10, 312;

D. Shuger, ‘The Mysteries of the Lambeth Articles’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, lxviii (2017), pp. 306–25.

Articles of Religion

1. Predecessors
2. Development
3. Content
4. Later history (this section can include the following components)
   1. Legal status and use (in England and in other Anglican churches)
   2. Influence in non-Anglican churches (Methodist Articles, etc.)
5. Interpretation

Predecessors

Forty-two Articles (1553)

Henry VIII was succeeded by his son, Edward VI, in 1547. During Edward's reign, the Church of England adopted a stronger Protestant identity. The Book of Common Prayer of 1549 authorised a reformed liturgy, and this prayer book was revised in 1552 to make it more explicitly Protestant. To make the English Church fully Protestant, Cranmer also envisioned a reform of canon law and the creation of a concise doctrinal statement, which would become the Forty-two Articles. Work on a doctrinal statement was delayed by Cranmer's efforts to forge a doctrinal consensus among the various Protestant churches to counter the work of the Catholic Council of Trent. When this proved impossible, Cranmer turned his attention to defining what the Church of England believed.

The Forty-two Articles were drafted by Cranmer and a small group of fellow Protestants. The title page claimed that the articles were approved by Convocation when in reality they were never discussed or adopted by the clerical body. They were also never approved by Parliament. The articles were issued by Royal Mandate on 19 June 1553.

The theology of the articles has been described as a "restrained" Calvinism. Parts of it, as well as the Thirty-nine Articles, were influenced by the Lutheran Augsburg Confession. Seven articles would be omitted from the final version of the Thirty-nine Articles:

• Article 10 Of Grace
• Article 16 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
• Article 35 Of the books of Prayers and Ceremonies of the Church of England
• Article 39 The resurrection of the dead is not yet brought to pass
• Article 40 The souls of them that depart this life do neither die with their bodies nor sleep idly
• Article 41 Heretics called Millenarii
• Article 42 All Men shall not be saved at the length

1. Of faith in the Holy Trinity
2. That the Word, or Son of God was made a very Man
3. Of the going down of Christ into hell
4. Of the resurrection of Christ
5. The doctrine of Holy Scripture is sufficient to salvation
6. The Old Testament is not to be refused
7. The three Creeds
8. Of original or birth sin
9. Of free will
10. Of grace
11. Of the justification of Man
12. Works before justification
13. Works of Supererogation
14. No Man is without sin, but Christ alone
15. Of sin against the Holy Ghost
16. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
17. Of Predestination and Election
18. We must trust to obtain eternal salvation only by the name of Christ
19. All men are bound to keep the moral commandments of the law
20. Of the Church
21. Of the authority of the Church
22. Of the authority of General Councils
23. Of Purgatory
24. No Man may minister in the Congregation, except he be called
25. Men must speak in the Congregation in such tongue, as the people understandeth
26. Of the Sacraments
27. The wickedness of the Ministers doth not take away the effectual operation of God’s ordinances
28. Of Baptism
29. Of the Lord’s Supper
30. Of the perfect oblation of Christ made upon the Cross
31. The state of single life is commanded to no Man by the word of God
32. Excommunicate persons are to be avoided
33. Traditions of the Church
34. Homilies
35. Of the books of Prayers and Ceremonies of the Church of England
36. Of Civil Magistrates
37. Christian Men’s goods are not common
38. Christian Men may take an oath
39. The resurrection of the dead is not yet brought to pass
40. The souls of them that depart this life do neither die with their bodies nor sleep idly
41. Heretics called Millenarii
42. All Men shall not be saved at the length

Development

In 1563, Convocation met under Archbishop Parker to revise the articles. Convocation passed only 39 of the 42, and Elizabeth reduced the number to 38 by throwing out Article XXIX to avoid offending her subjects with Catholic leanings. In 1571, despite the opposition of Bishop Edmund Gheast, Article XXIX was re-inserted, declaring that the wicked do not eat the Body of Christ. This was done following the queen's excommunication by the Pope Pius V in 1570. That act destroyed any hope of reconciliation with Rome and it was no longer necessary to fear that Article XXIX would offend Catholic sensibilities. The Articles, increased to Thirty-nine, were ratified by the Queen, and the bishops and clergy were required to assent.

In 1571, legislation was passed requiring all clergy not ordained under the Edwardian Ordinal to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles.

Later history

During the reign of Elizabeth II, a "Calvinist consensus" developed within the church regarding the doctrines of salvation. Article 17 only endorsed election to salvation and was silent on whether God predestined people for reprobation; however, most of the bishops and leading churchmen believed in double predestination. When an Arminian minority emerged to challenge this consensus, Archbishop Whitgift issued the Lambeth Articles in 1595. These did not replace the Thirty-nine Articles but were meant to officially align Article 17 to Calvinist theology. The Queen was unwilling to alter her religious settlement and refused to assent to these new articles.

• Marshall, Peter (2017b). "Settlement Patterns: The Church of England, 1553–1603". In Milton, Anthony (ed.). The Oxford History of Anglicanism. Vol. 1: Reformation and Identity, c. 1520–1662. Oxford University Press. pp. 45–62. ISBN 9780199639731.

• Lambeth Articles
• Hampton Court Conference
• Royal Declaration of 1628

• Legal status and use (in England and in other Anglican churches)
• Influence in non-Anglican churches (Methodist Articles, etc.)

All Church of England clergy and lay readers are required to affirm their belief in the Thirty-nine Articles.

Interpretation

Theologian J. I. Packer wrote that the articles "are demonstrably Protestant as opposed to Roman [Catholic], and Reformed as opposed to Lutheran." At the same time, Packer acknowledges that the articles are "consciously eclectic", going on to write:

They set out the Trinitarian faith of the ecumenical creeds (1-5) as biblical and necessary to salvation (6-8), together with Augustine’s doctrine of sin (9-10); Lutheran teaching on justification, grace, and the church (11-21, 23, 34, 37), as given in the Augsburg Confession of 1530 and Württemberg Confession of 1552 (used in the 1563 revision); and sacramental teaching of the Swiss sort, with at one point an anti-Lutheran edge.

Theologian Martin Davie agrees that the articles are Protestant, writing that "The claim that the Articles are Protestant rather than Roman Catholic in their theology is not one that is open to serious question." On whether the articles are Lutheran or Reformed, Davie writes:

We do not find in the writings of these Reformers [of the English Church] the idea that there were two opposed theological blocs, Lutheran and Reformed, between which one had to chose. What we find instead is a stress on the agreement between Protestant theologians about the basic tenets of the faith and a minimising of the significance of the differences between them.

According to theologian Henry Chadwick, the articles are a revealing window into the ethos and character of Anglicanism, in particular in the way the document works to navigate a via media (Latin: middle path or middle way) between the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church on the one hand, and those of the Lutheran and Reformed churches on the other hand, thus giving the Church of England a unique middle-of-the-road position. The via media was expressed so adroitly in the Articles that some Anglican scholars have labelled their content as an early example of the idea that the doctrine of Anglicanism is one of "Reformed Catholicism".

• Davie, Martin (2013). Our Inheritance of Faith: A Commentary on the Thirty Nine Articles. Gilead Books Publishing. ISBN 0956856071.
• De Satge, J. C.; Packer, J. I.; Herklots, H. G. G.; Lampe, G. W. H. (1964). The Articles of the Church of England. London: A. R. Mowbray.
• O'Donovan, Oliver (2011). On the Thirty Nine Articles: A Conversation with Tudor Christianity (2nd ed.). London: SCM Press. ISBN 9780334047810.
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid (2001). The Later Reformation in England, 1547–1603. British History in Perspective (2nd ed.). Palgrave. ISBN 9780333921395.
• Packer, J. I. (1961). The Thirty Nine Articles. London: Church Pastoral Aid Society.