Forty-two Articles: Difference between revisions

The '''Forty-two Articles''' were the official doctrinal statement of the [[Church of England]] for a brief period in 1553. Written by Archbishop [[Thomas Cranmer]] and published by King [[Edward VI]]'s [[Privy Council of England|privy council]] along with a requirement for clergy to subscribe to it, it represented the height of official church reformation prior to the reign of Queen [[Elizabeth I]]. It staked out a position among [[Protestant]] movements of the day, opposing [[Anabaptist]] claims and disagreeing with [[Zwinglian]] positions without taking an explicitly [[Calvinist]] or [[Lutheran]] approach.<ref name=AS>{{cite book Sfn|last=Ayris|first=Paul|date=1993|editor-last1pp=Ayris|editor-first1=Paul35–36, |editor-last2=Selwyn|editor-first2=David|title=Thomas147 Cranmer:& Churchman and Scholar154}}{{Sfn|publisher=The Boydell PressHall|chapter1993a|pp=God's Vicegerent and Christ's Vicar: the Relationship between the Crown and the Archbishopric of Canterbury, 1533-5335–36}}

[[File:Thomas Cranmer by Gerlach Flicke (cropped 7-9).jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Cranmer]], author of the Forty-two Articles.]]After earlier doctrinal declarations ([[Ten Articles]] of 1536 and [[Bishops' Book]] of 1537), Archbishop [[Thomas Cranmer]] authored Thirteen Articles in 1538 in hopes of attaining theological unity with [[Lutherans]] as [[King Henry VIII]] sought an alliance with the Lutheran [[Schmalkaldic League]]. This was not implemented, and Henry VIII instead imposed the [[Six Articles (1539)|Six Articles]] of 1539, mandating clerical subscription to them and requiring married clergymen to separate from their wives.<ref name=Hardwick>{{cite bookSfn|last= Hardwick|first= Charles 1851|titlepp= A History of the Articles of Religion|publisher=John Deighton|location= Cambridge|year=1851}}</ref>{{rp|74–79}}

After Henry VIII's death and [[King Edward VI]]'s 1547 accession, the [[English Reformation]] again picked up steam. The Six Articles were repealed, and an opening appeared for doctrinal standards which reflected the reformation's progress. However, it would take six years before the Forty-two Articles were issued. This delay occurred because, while there was sufficient support for repealing the Six Articles, it was not clear that a majority of bishops or the [[House of Lords]] would be willing to make a more definitively Reformation-aligned statement.<ref name=Hardwick/>{{rpSfn|Hardwick|1851|pp=74–79}} Furthermore, Cranmer may have held out hopes of a general [[ecumenical council]] bringing new unity among Christians under Reformation lines, or at the very least a common confession between continental [[Protestants]] and the [[Church of England]].<ref name=MacCulloch>{{cite bookSfn|last=MacCulloch|first=Diarmaid|date=1996|titlep=Thomas Cranmer: A Life|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-06688-0}}</ref>{{rp|503}} By 1551, it became clear that these were unlikely to occur in the short term, removing this objection.<ref name=Hardwick/>{{rpSfn|Hardwick|1851|pp=74–79}}

Cranmer had begun to require new ministers and theological instructors to subscribe to specific doctrinal articles by 1549. In 1551, he presented a draft collection of doctrinal articles to bishops for consideration. The articles which, that year, Bishop John Hooper required clergy under him to subscribe to may have drawn from Cranmer's draft.<ref name=MacCulloch/>{{rpSfn|MacCulloch|1996|pp=503–504}} But the Forty-two Articles were more ambitious in that they were intended as a definitive statement of doctrine for the Church of England, akin to the Lutheran [[Augsburg Confession]].<ref name=MacCulloch/>{{rpSfn|MacCulloch|1996|p=536}}

In 1551, the [[Privy Council of England|privy council]] instructed Cranmer to write Articles of Religion. The following year, his draft was sent to some bishops for comment,<ref name=MacCulloch/>{{rpSfn|MacCulloch|1996|p=536}} then to the king's six chaplains, and finally the privy council.<ref name=Hall2>{{cite book Sfn|last=Hall|first=Basil1993b|datepp=1993|editor-last1=Ayris|editor-first1=Paul |editor-last2=Selwyn|editor-first2=David|title=Thomas Cranmer: Churchman and Scholar|publisher=The Boydell Press|chapter=Cranmer, the Eucharist and the Foreign Divines in the Reign of Edward VI|isbn=0-85115-549-9}}</ref>{{rp|246–247}} At each point, its progress towards ratification was slowed by those less convinced of Reformation doctrines, but its text appears to have remained largely as Cranmer wrote it with the help of two laymen revisers, [[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|William Cecil]] and [[John Cheke]]. Although it was issued under the title “Articles agreed on by the bishops and other learned men in the synod at London, in the year of our Lord God 1552”, and some bishops did gather to discuss it, it does not appear that a synod actually was convened.<ref name=Loades>{{cite book Sfn|last=Loades|first=David|date=1993|editor-last1p=Ayris|editor-first1=Paul |editor-last2=Selwyn|editor-first2=David|title=Thomas Cranmer: Churchman and Scholar|publisher=The Boydell Press|chapter=Thomas Cranmer and John Dudley: an uneasy alliance, 1549-53|isbn=0-85115-549-9}}</ref>{{rp|169}} Nevertheless, the privy council received it from Cranmer on 24 November 1552 and issued a mandate in the king's name on 19 June 1553 that all clergy subscribe to it.<ref name=Hardwick/>{{rpSfn|Hardwick|1851|pp=74–79, & 106–112}}<ref name=Loades/>{{rpSfn|Loades|1993|p=169}} There was some resistance to subscription, led by [[Hugh Weston]], Rector of [[Lincoln College, Oxford|Lincoln College]].<ref name=MacCulloch/>{{rpSfn|MacCulloch|1996|pp=537–538}}

== The ArticlesContent ==

Shortly after their proclamation in 1553, [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]] ascended toAfter the throne1558 and promulgationaccession of the Articles ceased. But after the 1558 accession ofProtestant [[Queen Elizabeth I]], the [[Convocation of 1563]] reintroduced the articles (with revisions, particularly on the [[eucharist]]) as the [[Thirty-nine Articles]].<ref name=MacCulloch/>{{rpSfn|MacCulloch|1996|p=621}} These articles have remained part of editions of the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' and as doctrinal standards for the Church of England and the [[Anglican Communion]] (though their status varies within the Communion).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title= Thirty-nine Articles|encyclopedia= Britannica|url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thirty-nine-Articles|access-date= February 22, 2023}}</ref> Their influence is felt in [[Methodism]] as well through [[John Wesley]]'s [[Arminian]] revision of them as the [[Articles of Religion (Methodist)|Articles of Religion]].{{Sfn|Melton|2005|p=48}}

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[[Category:Edward VI of England]]