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From the journals of parliament it is plain that by the 'Articles of Religion' which were to be subscribed in accordance with this act was meant a little book printed in the year 1562' [1563].13 The 'little book' was a non-official English translation of the Latin thirty-nine articles of 1563 and contained only one of the two deviations of the published articles from those adopted by convocation. 14 For the better execution of the law at the southern convocation of 1571 the wording (Latin and English) of the articles was fixed, and the Latin text of 1571 was that to which subscription was afterwards enforced.15 This text agrees-some inconsiderable verbal alterations excepted-with the convocation copy of 1563; but not with the ratified and published articles of 1563 or with the 'little book.' 916 After the death of Elizabeth the articles were again approved by a resolution of the southern convocation of 1604.17

The act 14 Car. II (1662) c 4, Act of Uniformity, ss 13, 15 laid down, that certain officers of the universities and lecturers should also be bound to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles.

These thirty-nine articles formed a substitute for all confessions of faith previously in vogue in the English church. In them the three ancient creeds are recognized as binding.18 How far or

s 4: ; nor shalbe admitted to thorder of Deacon or Ministerie (=priesthood), unles he shall fyrst subscribe to the saide Artycles. With regard to the words in s 1 which onely, it was for some time disputed whether subscription was only required to those articles which relate to the doctrines of the church or to all. See more in Cardwell, Synodalia I, 60,

note.

13 For the statements of the parliamentary journals as to the debate on the bill see Cardwell, Syn. I, 56, after Lamb, Articles.

14 Cardwell, Synodalia I, 53.

15 Perry, Hist. of Engl. Ch. II, 301 c 17, notes and illustrations (B). The Latin text of 1571 is printed in appendix XI from Cardwell, Synodalia I, 73.— Whether the northern convocation in 1571 passed a final resolution is not known. Wilkins, Conc. IV, 270.

16 See Cardwell, Synodalia I, 38 ff., note; 54, note; 76, note (after Lamb, Articles). The Latin text of 1571 does not contain the clause of the 20th article added by the queen to the resolutions of the convocation of 1563: Habet ecclesia ritus statuendi jus et in fidei controversiis auctoritatem; but it does contain the present 29th article, which the queen had struck out of the resolutions of convocation: De manducatione corporis Christi et impios illud non manducare. In the 'little book' both passages are wanting (it contains only 38 articles); thus the Latin text of 1571 differs from the 'little book' in regard to the second point. (The English text of 1571 contains the addition in article 20 and also article 29.)

17 Acta Convoc. Cantuar. (printed in Cardwell, Syn. II, 583 and Wilkins, Conc. IV, 379): Decimo octavo die mensis Maii dominus rex articulos religionis anno 1562 promulgatos synodo mittit de novo approbandos et subscribendos : quod etiam factum est. It is not known that there was also a confirmation of the articles at this time by the provincial synod of York. This approval is distinct from the reference to the thirty-nine articles in canon 5 of 1604 (appendix XII).

18 Article 8 of the thirty-nine articles (appendix XI).

The two houses of the convocation of Canterbury passed on May 9th, 1873, the following resolution (Chron. of Conv. Cant. 1873, pp. 405, 435) :—

For the removal of doubts, and to prevent disquietude in the use of the Creed

whether the articles are to be supplemented from the prayer-book is a moot point.19 No other formularies of belief have since obtained binding force; thus the so-called 'Lambeth Articles' of 1595 remained a private expression of judgment.20 21

commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius, this Synod doth solemnly declare:

1. That the Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius, doth not make any addition to the faith as contained in Holy Scripture, but warneth against errors which from time to time have arisen in the Church of Christ.

2. That as Holy Scripture in divers places doth promise life to them that believe and declare the condemnation of them that believe not, so doth the Church in this confession declare the necessity for all who would be in a state of salvation of holding fast the Catholic faith, and the great peril of rejecting the same. Wherefore the warnings in this confession of faith are to be understood no otherwise than the like warnings in Holy Scripture, for we must receive God's threatenings even as His promises, in such wise as they are generally set forth in Holy Writ. Moreover, the Church doth not herein pronounce judgment on any particular person or persons, God alone being the Judge of all.

19 Compare, for instance, the judgment of the judicial committee of the privy council in the case of Gorham v. bishop of Exeter (1850).

20 Printed in Cardwell, Docum. Annals II, 30. They confirm the doctrine of predestination. The matter of them was incorporated in the Irish articles of 1615.

21 During the first revolution the thirty-nine articles were thrust aside by parliament's acceptance in 1643 of the covenant. The Westminster assembly, summoned by parliament, had already debated alterations of them, and on 11th Dec. 1646 laid before parliament the draft of a new confession of faith. Perry, Hist. of Engl. Ch. II, 454 c 29 § 6. A resolution of the English parliament (20th June, 1648) expressed agreement with the doctrinal part of the Westminster confession. Neal, Hist. of Puritans Ed. 1822 III, 318 ff. After the restoration all these measures were considered null and void as lacking the king's assent.

In Scotland the general assembly had by resolution of 27th Aug. 1647. adopted the whole of the Westminster confession (Acts of Gen. Assembly p. 158). That confession (printed in Neal, Hist. of Puritans Ed. 1822 V, pp. lxiii ff. appendix No. 8 and Acta Parl. Scotland IX, 117) was by act of 1690 No. 7 (Acta Parl. Scot. IX, 133) ratified and established as the public and avowed confession of the Scottish church. In 1879 the general assembly accepted a modified statement of the doctrine of predestination.

III. Relation of the Church of England to

other Christian Churches.

§ 17.

1. THE RELATION OF THE REFORMED CHURCH OF ENGLAND TO

THE

CHURCH IN ENGLAND BEFORE
THE REFORMATION.

IN English writers we are not seldom encountered by the contention that the development of the reformation period was in uninterrupted connexion with the past. For the most part such statements merely imply that the transition from old to new was effected in valid form. But frequently they are to be regarded as assertions that a material difference in character between the English church before and after the reformation does not exist.

In neither of the two senses can the contention in this general form be recognized as true: on the contrary, it needs considerable limitations:

1. As regards the form in which the change was made.

According to constitutional law as it prevailed before the reformation the state was not entitled to issue ordinances upon purely ecclesiastical matters; the exclusive right of the church to make such ordinances was not contested even by the civil powers.1 Nothing was in dispute between church and state before the reformation save, as it were, certain frontier-lands, and it was only as to these frontier-lands that the state made good a right to legislate independently of the church and indeed in conflict with it. The recognition by the state of the exclusive right of the church authorities to make laws in purely church matters rested, it is true, originally and principally on the ordinance of William I, that is, on an act of the secular power only. But we shall not be far astray if we assume that, in the centuries which ensued down to the reformation, that ordinance was regarded even by the civil powers not as

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a special concession revocable by the will of the sovereign, but as the confirmation of a right inherent in the church without any such ordinance and not dependent on the consent of the state.

Within the same limits as the independence of the ecclesiastical authorities in England, the power of the pope to govern and make rules had been recognized for centuries by decisive acts of the state, e.g. by the conclusion of agreements as to the exercise of such powers. England had, indeed, at latest with the declaration of independence of 1366,2 shaken off the yoke of the universal temporal monarchy which it was the aim of the popes to establish; with respect to spiritual affairs she had, however, still remained subject to the universal domination of Rome.

Now, seeing that at the beginning of the reformation England by resolution of her national representatives renounced for the future all acknowledgment of the papal authority, this step must be accounted revolutionary and indicative of a distinct breach with the past. A parallel case would be the declaration by a federal state that it would no longer obey the ordinances of the central power in matters as to which such ordinances had hitherto been valid.

Side by side with this legal breach (Rechtsbruch) in respect of a material point in the constitution as hitherto recognized is to be placed a whole series of smaller breaches of contract. Thus, for example, 24 Hen. VIII c 12 (restricting appeals to Rome) is in violation of the treaty of Avranches in 1172; similarly the abolition of Peter pence involved a breach of repeated and express engagements made by English kings to the popes.

But besides the breach with the central power at Rome, the reformation produced a change in the relations of the state to the local authorities of the church. It is true that this change was effected in part with the acquiescence of the latter; but in part it resulted from the isolated action of the civil authorities without the co-operation of the authorities of the church, who hitherto had enjoyed independence in the matters concerned. During the days of Henry VIII and Edward VI the government was extremely cautious in this direction; only in minor details did it ignore the absence of assent by the convocations or at least the convocation of Canterbury. But after the reaction under Mary, the revival in Elizabeth's reign of the most important reforming laws, and especially the introduction once more of the royal supremacy and of the reformed prayer-book, took place by the sole act of the civil powers, convocation being either not consulted or expressedly hostile to the measures adopted.

If then we admit that the reformation was accompanied in England as elsewhere by a disturbance of existing legal relations, yet ecclesiastical law as concerned with the English church of to-day by no means loses as a consequence its sure foundation. Ecclesiastical law serves the purpose of mediating between two powers, the

2 Compare § 4, note 117.

state and the church, each of which claims independence of the other. It must therefore, as in similar case international law, act upon the principle that a condition of affairs maintained by force, if it continues, becomes legal. In England the statutes upon which the reformation rests remained permanently operative. They must, therefore, be treated as fundamental in any estimate of English ecclesiastical law at the present day, whether their origin was in true legal form or not.

For the rest, the Rechtsbruch once made was rendered as imperceptible as possible by the power responsible for it: civil enactment permitted the execution of all ecclesiastical ordinances hitherto customary, in so far as they did not offend against the prerogatives of the crown or the laws and customs of the land.3 This provision concealed a rupture, which nevertheless remained: for the 'prerogatives of the crown' and the 'laws and customs of the land bore a totally different meaning after the reformation from that which they had before it, and the change in meaning had itself been brought about by a Rechtsbruch.

2. As regards the matter changed.

The constitution of the church was only changed at the reformation in England so far as seemed absolutely necessary to the attainment of the ends which the reformation proposed. Accordingly, the ecclesiastical offices in the country-except as affected by the dissolution of the monasteries-remained nearly unaltered. The real changes which ensued relate almost exclusively to the connexion of the national church with the pope; they consist in the complete abolition of all papal authority in England, and in the transference of almost all rights of government previously exercised by the pope to the English sovereign.

But herein was involved an alteration of the constitution of the church in the very point which must be regarded as decisive. The peculiarity of the Romish church as that church had developed with the progress of time, lay not so much in the distinctive. character of its offices and the determination of the rights and duties attached thereto, as in the existence of a central power outside the various nations, a power which claimed to stand above them and persistently sought to weaken all civil powers which did not yield to its ever-growing pretensions. Now, the reformation in eradicating this element of disunion and declaring all ecclesiastical interference from without to be inadmissible, must be regarded as having produced a fundamental change in the constitution of the church.

If then from the standpoint of legal history the doctrine of continuous development must be rejected, adherence to that doctrine was at the time deemed desirable as a matter of policy. Indeed, it was invented then to avoid as far as possible the appearance of innovation and to draw all imperceptibly into the new

3 Compare § 14, note 17.

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