conference with the extant. to investigate the origin of those Six Articles, or to expatiate on the persecutions which for several months at least accompanied their enactment. An inquiry more congenial to our purpose is suggested by the mission of the Wittenberg reformers. We have seen that traces are surviving of a partial disagreement between them and the committee of English theologians; yet we also know that union was effected to a very great extent, and that a number of Articles were actually compiled as the result of their deliberations on the leading points of Christianity. Result of the A manifesto embodying this agreement is of special interest Germans still to all students of the Reformation both in England and in Germany; and at length it has been, for the first time, placed within their reach by the researches of a living writer. In looking for remains of Archbishop Cranmer, Dr Jenkyns discovered among a bundle of papers belonging to that prelate, a thin folio manuscript, entitled, ‘A Boke, conteyning divers Articles de Unitate Dei et Trinitate Personarum, de Peccato Originali,' &c. He informs us that the other documents tied up in the same bundle relate chiefly to negociations with the Lutheran envoys in the year 1538; and believes that the Articles' were those agreed upon at the conference held in London at that time. "The "boke" itself is manifestly founded on the Confession of Augsburg, often following it very closely, and departing from it exactly in those instances, where the mixture of English and German theology might have been expected to cause a variation. It is also in Latin, and this circumstance adds to the probability of its having been composed in concert with foreigners: for such other Formularies of this reign as were designed for domestic use are in English. And, lastly, the only Article, namely, that on the Lord's Supper, which there is an opportunity of comparing with the conclusions approved by Fox and Heath in Germany, is word for word. the same'.' This argument is further strengthened by the circumstance, that the manuscript Articles do not embrace 1 Cranmer's Works, 1. xxii. xxiii. any of those topics on which the English and German delegates had failed to arrive at a perfect understanding; while three other separate papers1, also in Latin, of the same general form, and of nearly the same length, refer to points which were then actually disputed, and are probably the drafts of articles not accepted by the Lutheran divines. atten- The import They ance of the Articles of 1538. Articles of But other reasons may be urged for drawing the tion of the reader to the Thirteen Articles of 1538. will not only indicate the disposition of our leading reformers to acquiesce in the dogmatic statements which had been put forward in the Augsburg Confession, but have also a prospective bearing of still more importance, as, in many ways, the ground-work of Articles now in use. No one can deny that the compilers of the Forty-two Articles in the reign of Edward VI. drew largely from the Lutheran formulary of 1530; but the recent discovery of the Thirteen Articles has made it probable that such Basis of the derivation, instead of being, (as was hitherto supposed), 1553. direct, took place entirely through the medium of the Anglo-German channel. This conclusion is supported by the fact, that the expressions in Edward VI.'s Formulary, usually adduced to prove its connexion with the Confession of Augsburg, are also found in the Book of Articles: while it contains others, which can be traced as far as the Book of Articles, but which will be sought for in vain in the Confession of Augsburg.' From what is known. of their general character, the framers of the Edwardine Articles would be anxious, in the execution of their undertaking, to meet, if possible, the views of their brethren on the continent, as well as of their countrymen at home; and they could scarcely pursue a surer 1 Ibid. IV. 292 seqq. This bundle was re-examined for the benefit of the present work. It was found to contain, among other valuable pieces, the exposition of the 'Sacrament of Confirmation,' contained in the Institution of a Christian man (which is said to have been agreed upon communi consensu'): and also 'Cer- Connexion with other Articles exhibited. Art. i. Art. ii. Art. iii. Art. iv. method of attaining their object than by borrowing from a form of doctrine already approved by both1.' The Articles thus serving as a species of connectinglink between the formularies of the two countries, are distributed under the following heads: (1) De Unitate Dei et Trinitate Personarum; (2) De Peccato Originali; (3) De duabus Christi naturis; (4) De Justificatione; (5) De Ecclesia; (6) De Baptismo; (7) De Eucharistia; (8) De Poenitentia; (9) De Sacramentorum usu; (10) De Ministris Ecclesiæ; (11) De Ritibus Ecclesiasticis; (12) De Rebus Civilibus; (13) De Corporum Resurrectione et Judicio extremo. An opportunity of comparing this new series with the Augsburg Confession on the one hand, and the subsequent English Articles on the other, is provided in a separate Appendix to the present volume: but a cursory perusal of them is sufficient to convince the reader, with how much fidelity they have adhered, in their arrangement and their substance also, to the elder of those Formularies, and at the same time how distinctly they anticipate materials made available in the composition of the later. The first of the XIII. Articles, though bearing a different title, is almost a verbal copy of Art. I. of the Augsburg Confession, and includes the first of the XLII. Articles. The second corresponds with Art. II. of the Augsburg, but, like the eighth of the XLII. Articles, it speaks of 'peccatum originale' instead of 'peccatum originis,' and contains the expression 'originalis justitia,' which is not in the Augsburg series. The third is identical with Art. III. of the Augsburg, and includes the second of the XLII. Articles. The fourth is a much longer statement on the subject of justification than Art. IV. of the Augsburg; yet both affirm that men are accepted by God 'gratis propter Christum per fidem.' The English definition is, however, different in some measure, from the German, including, like the Articles of 1536, the thought of 'true renovation in Christ' as equivalent to remission of sins.' This Article also embodies a portion of Arts. V. and VI. of the Augsburg, but has no expressions in common with the corresponding Articles of 1553. The fifth is a considerable departure from Art. VII. Art. v. of the Augsburg, though manifestly copying some expressions from thence, as also from Art. VIII. It views the Church under two aspects, either as completely holy and as the mystical body of Christ, or as the congregation of those who have been baptized and not excommunicated. This latter it describes as the Catholic and Apostolic Church composed of all national and particular Churches, exactly in the spirit of the 'Institution of a Christian Man.' No trace exists in it of the twentieth Article of 1553 (the nineteenth of our present series); but, what is remarkable, it includes the thirty-third and the twenty-seventh of the Edwardine code, employing language in both cases which is not found in the Augsburg Confession. The sixth, on the subject of Baptism, is much fuller Art. vi. than Art. IX. of the Augsburg series, though stating precisely the same doctrine. It seems to have much in common with the Articles of 1536, and, so far as language is concerned, has no affinity whatever with the twenty-eighth of the Edwardine Articles. The seventh is also an expansion of Art. X. of the Art. vii. Augsburg series, and agrees verbatim with the statement on the Eucharist adopted in Germany during the Conferences of 1535. It has no terms in common with the twenty-ninth of the XLII. Articles. The eighth is a diffuse and for the most part an Art. viii. original essay on 'Penitence.' It may however be compared with Arts. XI. and XII. of the Augsburg. The ninth, respecting the efficacy of the sacraments, art. ix. has much in common with Art. XIII. of the Augsburg series, but far more with the twenty-sixth of the XLII. Articles, where the language is almost identical1. 1 A fuller example of this adoption of much older theology may be remarked in the Homilies for the Art. x. Art. xi. Articles drawn up in 1540 (?) The tenth, though bearing a different title, is based upon Art. XIV. of the Augsburg series, and agrees still further with the twenty-fourth of the XLII. Articles. The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, are long dissertations, in the main agreeing with Arts. XV. XVI. and XVII. of the Augsburg; but, if we except a few general sentiments, they have no parallels whatever in the later English Articles. It is worthy of a passing notice, that rough drafts of different parts of the above document exist in our public repositories; some exhibiting corrections in the handwriting of archbishop Cranmer, and one in the handwriting of the King himself. Until the recent discovery of the copy containing the XIII. Articles in their collected form, it had been usual to assign those drafts to labours of a select committee appointed in April, 1540, to prepare a 'Declaration of the principal Articles of the Christain belief'.' Henry had been now considerably propitiated by the burning of unhappy 'Gospellers,' who dared to speak against the 'Six Articles.' He had even manifested a fresh desire to mediate between the two rival schools, denouncing the 'rashness and licentiousness of some, and the superstition and stiffness of others2:' yet there is no satisfactory evidence to shew that the commissioners ever undertook a compilation such as that above described. . The patient Strype, who has collected six of the Articles, and who assigns them to this new committee, confesses, notwithstanding, that many of the accompanying papers were 'drawn up by the divines for the King's use' in the discussions with the German en had appeared almost verbatim in 2 Strype, Eccl. Mem. 1. 356. 3 'De ecclesia,''de justificatione,' 'de eucharistia,' 'de baptismo,' 'de pœnitentia,' 'de sacramentorum usu:' Eccl. Mem. I. App. No. CXII., where they are printed with notes of the King in the margin. They present considerable variations in language, but accord in doctrine (so far as they go) with the XIII. Articles. |