| abstract
| - The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the defining statements of Anglican doctrine. They were issued by the Convocation of clergy of the Church of England in 1571 and are printed in the Book of Common Prayer and other Anglican prayer books. From 1673 to 1828, the Test Act made adherence to the Thirty-Nine Articles a requirement for holding civil office in England. The Articles were not intended as a complete statement of the Christian faith, but as a statement of the position of the Church of England over against the Roman Catholic Church and some continental Reformers. The Articles highlight some of the major differences between Anglican and Catholic doctrine, as well as more conventional declarations of a Trinitarian Christianity. The Articles also argue against some Anabaptist positions such as the holding of goods in common, and the necessity of believer's baptism. Outside the Church of England, Anglican views of the Thirty-Nine Articles vary. The Episcopal Church in the United States regards them as an historical document and does not require members to adhere to them. Anglican clergyman John Wesley adapted the Thirty-Nine Articles for utilization by Methodists in the 18th century. The adapted Articles of Religion remain official United Methodist doctrine. "Tract 90" was John Henry Newman's response to the Thirty-Nine Articles, written before his conversion to Roman Catholicism.
- The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were established in 1563 and are the historic defining statements of Anglican doctrine in relation to the controversies of the English Reformation; especially in the relation of Calvinist doctrine and Roman Catholic practices to the nascent Anglican doctrine of the evolving English Church. The name is commonly abbreviated as the Thirty-Nine Articles or the XXXIX Articles. The Church of England was searching out its doctrinal position in relation to the Roman Catholic Church and the continental Protestants. A series of defining documents were written and replaced over a period of 30 years as the doctrinal and political situation changed from the excommunication of Henry VIII in 1533, to the excommunication of Elizabeth I in 1570. Prior to King Henry's death in 1547, several statements of position were issued. The first attempt was the Ten Articles in 1536 which showed some slightly Protestant leanings; the result of an English desire for a political alliance with the German Lutheran princes. The next revision was the Six Articles in 1539 which swung away from all reformed positions, and the King's Book in 1543 which re-established almost in full the familiar Catholic doctrines. Then, during the reign of Edward VI in 1552, the Forty-Two Articles were written under the direction of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. It was in this document that Calvinist thought reached its zenith of its influence in the English Church. These articles were never put into action, due to the king's death and the reunion of the English Church with Rome under Queen Mary I. Finally, upon the coronation of Elizabeth I and the re-establishment of the separate Church of England the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were established by a Convocation of the Church in 1563, under the direction of Matthew Parker, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, which pulled back from some of the more extreme Calvinist thinking and created the peculiar English reformed doctrine. The articles, finalised in 1571, were to have a lasting effect on religion in the United Kingdom and elsewhere through their incorporation into and propagation through the Book of Common Prayer.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)