The Catholic
Religion
A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION
FOR MEMBERS OF THE
Anglican Church
11th Edition, A.D. 1900
By The Reverend Vernon Staley
Part Fourth
APPENDIX
CHAPTER I, THE XXXIX
ARTICLES, page 383-384
The
Thirty-nine Articles are not Articles of Faith like the Creeds, and they are
not imposed on members of the Anglican Church as necessary terms of
communion. The clergy only
subscribe them, and the sense in which the subscription is understood, has been
stated by Archbishop Bramhall as follows; “We do not hold our Thirty-nine
Articles to be such necessary truths, ‘without which there is no salvation;’
nor enjoin ecclesiastic persons to swear unto them, but only to subscribe them,
as theological truths, for the preservation of unity among us. Some of them are the very same that are
contained in the Creed; some others of them are practical truths, which come
not within the proper list of points or articles to be believed; lastly, some
of them are pious opinions or inferior truths which are proposed by the Church
of England as not to be opposed; not as essentials of Faith necessary to be
believed.” (1) Bishop Bull wrote
similarly, “The Church of England professeth not to deliver all her Articles as
essentials of faith, without the belief whereof no man can be saved; but only
propounds them as a body of safe and pious principles, for the preservation of
peace to be subscribed, and not openly contradicted by her sons. And, therefore, she requires
subscription to them only from the clergy, and not from the laity.” (2)
“The
Articles are to be subscribed to in the sense intended by those whose authority
makes the subscription requisite.” (3)
It must always be remembered that the same Convocation, in the same set
of Canons which first required subscription to the Articles, in 1571, enjoined
that preachers should only teach “that which is agreeable to the doctrine of
the Old and New Testaments, and that
which the Catholic fathers and ancient bishops have collected out of the
same doctrine.” “It seems” says
Mr. Keble, “no violent inference, that the appointed measure of doctrine
preached, was also intended to be the measure of doctrine delivered in the way
of explanation of doubtful passages in formularies.” (4)
It
is quite evident, therefore, that the Articles would be understood by the
clergy who first subscribed them as Articles of Peace for the preservation of
unity. They were not religious
tests, or Articles of Faith; they were made as comprehensive as possible, and
they were to be interpreted and understood in accordance with the general rule
of Catholic tradition, i.e., in the Catholic sense. (5)
(1) Works, vol. ii, pp.201, 476.
(2) A Vindication of the Church of England, xxvii.
(3) Keble’s Catholic Subscription to the xxxix.
Articles, p. 13.
(4) Ibid.,
p. 15.
(5) “I
understand by the Catholic sense, that sense which is most conformable to the
ancient rule, ‘Quod semper, quod
ubique, quod ab amnibus.’” Ibid., p. 14.
