Charles Hardwick. "History of the Articles." Chapter Three, 30-50: "The English Articles of 1536"

Charles Hardwick. "History of the Articles." Chapter Three, 30-50: "The English Articles of 1536." An history of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England, a temperate history. This gives a history of the Ten Articles of 1536 and a portal view to the developments, restraints, and difficulties of progress towards reforming Christ's Churches in England, e.g. the King himself, the north, and many Churchmen, abbots, monks, etc. It is regrettable to see Latimer acquiesce while Tyndale and Coverdale were suffering for HM's Church on the Continent. Additionally, it is brief in contrasting the Augsburg Confession and the English Articles.

A few disparate notes: I think there is a political situation, at once, more large and more difficult than the German or Swiss context. (??) Fortunately, we don't have to deal with Erastianism; however, we do have to deal with ignorance of our Reformational past. Also, 98% of the nation was not involved in the discussion. Of note, the Lollards and Anabaptist opinions come into view...and complaints about "ale-house" theologians, akin to our Facebook and internet theological jockeys and hothouse revivalist clerics in America. Henry wanted order and stability throughout the nation. Hardwick helps to substantially qualify the oft-heard point that the English Reformation was a "political event." Sic et non.

http://www.archive.org/stream/ahistoryarticle00hardgoog/ahistoryarticle00hardgoog_djvu.txt

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CHAPTER III.

THE ENGLISH ARTICLES OF 1536.

We have seen already that the first grand triumph of the English Reformation was the orderly rejection
of the papal supremacy, in 1534. In carrying out that measure the intelligent members of the Church had very generally acquiesced. But notwithstanding so much harmony of action in the outset of the movement, there existed little or no ground for hoping that its progress would conciliate an equal share of public approbation.

The Church of England, like all other provinces of the two western Christendom, was then agitated by a number of hostile parties, widely differing in the details of their system, but reducible under one of two popular descriptions, as the friends of the ' old ' or of the 'new learning.' One school symbolized most fully with Stephen Gardiner, who was promoted to the see of Winchester in 1531 ; the other, on excluding the more violent and distempered, found a champion in archbishop Cranmer, who was con-
secrated in the spring of 1533.

In Gardiner we have a prelate of no ordinary powers; yet, like too many of his great contemporaries, he imagined that the work of reformation was well-nigh complete, when the encroachments of the foreign pontiff were successfully repelled. In that emancipation of the English Church he acted a conspicuous part ; but when he found that the established creed and ritual of his country were exposed to fierce assault, and not unfrequently to furious vituperation, he stood forward in the firont of the reactionary
(anti-reformation) party, and contested every inch of ground with equal courage and sagacity.

Cranmer, on the other hand, while ranking high above his rival, in the area and solidity of his learning and his deep religious earnestness, became the centre of the moral and doctrinal reformers. He was gradually made conscious of the errors and abuses in this province of the Christian Church, and, as befitted his exalted name of 'primate of all England,' was determined to promote the work of
purification and revival.

It is most unfair, however, to identify the principles of Cranmer and his party, with those of the more sweeping 'Gospellers,' — still less with the positions of a host of turbulent spirits both at home and on the continent, who were assailing the more cardinal doctrines of the Bible, and erecting their eccentric institutions on the ruins of the papal monarchy. We have seen already that the views of Luther and the Wittenberg divines, were quite incapable of sympathetic union with the bolder and less balanced theories of Zwingli ; and the same discrimination is still needed when we try to ascertain the attitude and
tendencies of men who led the way to reformation in this country. We discover that the conflict of a Cranmer and a Gardiner was only one important aspect of a many-sided struggle, which the Church of England had been destined to encounter in that stormy crisis.

Very soon after the rejection of the papal supremacy, a multitude of misbelievers, known by the generic name of 'Anabaptists,' but departing from the Church on almost every fundamental doctrine had begun to propagate their creed in England as in other parts of Europe. As early as Oct. 1, 1538, a royal commission 'contra Anabaptistas,' stigmatizes them as both pestiferous and heretical, and excites the primate and his comprovincials to devise immediate measures for their confutation or extermination.
The injection of these foreign elements could hardly fail to quicken and exasperate the feuds already raging in the Church of England. Everywhere was clamour, bickering and disquiet. ' Too many there be,' wrote the Homilist, ' which upon the ale-benches or other places, delight to set forth certain questions, not so much pertaining to edification, as to vain-glory, and shewing forth of their cunning; and so unsoberly to reason and dispute, that when neither part will give place to other, they fall to chiding and contention, and sometime from hot words to further inconvenience.' And examples of the taunts and
nicknames bandied round from mouth to mouth are added by the writer : 'He is a pharisee, he is a gospeller, he is of the new sort, he is of the old faith, he is a new-broached brother, he is a good catholic father, he is a papist, he is an heretic.'

The more minute consideration of this strife of tongues, which seemed to wax in virulence from day to day, has been reserved for an ulterior stage of our inquiry. It is only noticed here to illustrate the title of the earliest code of doctrine promulgated by the Church of England at the time of the Reformation. That document consists of articles to attain christen quietnes and unitie amonge tis, and to avoyde contentious opinions.'

The proximate causes of its compilation must be sought for in the history of the Church in 1536, and more particularly in proceedings of the southern Convocation which assembled on the 9th of June. The lower house at once determined to draw up a representation of errors 'then publicly preached, printed and professed;' and on the 23rd of June, Eichard Gwent, archdeacon of London and prolocutor, carried their gravamina into the upper house", requesting that order might be taken to stop the further
propagation of all such dangerous positions. In this report, they are divided into sixty-seven heads ; and though Fuller, who transcribed them from the records of convocation, is disposed to view them as 'the protestant religion in ore,' there is much justice in the criticism, which Collier passed upon his language, viz. that ' unless we had found a richer vein, it may yery well be questioned, whether the mine had been worth the working*.' Fuller indeed admits, that 'many vile and distempered expres-
sions are found therein;' nor is it possible to read the the oleargie preach one against another, teach one contrary to another, envying one against another, without charity or discretion. Some be too
stifle in their old mumpings, other be too busie and curious in their new nmptifhut. Thus all men, al-
mosty be in variety and discord, and none preach truely and sincerely the Word of God according
as they ought to do...without arriving at a clear conviction that profaneness and dogmatic misbelief were calling for a ' special reformation in this quarter also. The majority of the points adverted to are truly described by Carte, as 'erroneous opinions, which had been held by the Lollards formerly,
or started now by the Anabaptists and others .' At the same time, it must be acknowledged, that in more than one of the obnoxious propositions, we discern the rudiments of evangelic Christianity'; and in contemplating these both Cranmer and the more advanced of the reforming party may have felt a secret satisfaction. It is even probable that one of the concluding articles of the remonstrance had been levelled at the primate and his colleagues; for the lower house complain, that when heretofore divers books had been examined by persons appointed in the Convocation, and the said books found full of heresies and erroneous opinions, and so declared; the said books are not yet by like bishops expressly condemned, but suffered to remain in the hands of unlearned people, which ministreth to them matter of argument and much unquietness within this realm.

Cromwell, who attended in his capacity of vicar-general of the realm,' delivered a significant address, assuring the assembled prelates of the deep concern exhibited by his royal master for the speedy termination of "religious discord. The king studyeth day and nyght,' he says, to set a quietnesse in the Churche, and he cannot rest, until all such controversies be fully debated and ended, through the determination of you and of his whole parliament. For although his speciall desire is to set a stay for the unleamed people, whose consciences are in doubt what they may belue, and he himselfe, by his excellent learning, knoweth these controuersies wel enough; yet he will suffer no common alteration, but by the consent of you and of his whole parliament.' He next admonished them in the name of Henry, to conclude all thinges by the Woord of God, without all brawling or scolding,' since he would not suffer the Scripture to be wrasted and defaced by any gloses, any papisticall lawes, or by any authority of doctours or counselles, and muche lesse will he admitte any article or doctrine not conteyned in the Scripture, but approued onley by continuance of time and olde custome, and by unwritten
verities.'

A disputation then arose, in which the bishop of London, Stokesley, was the principal speaker on one side, and Cranmer on the other. The characteristic speech of the archbishop, which has been preserved with more or less of accuracy, commences with an exhortation to cease from debating about words, so long as agreement is obtained 'in the very substance and effect of the matter.' 'There be waighty controuersies,' he continues, 'nowe moved and put forth, not of ceremonies and light thinges,
but of the true understanding, and of the right difference of the lawe and of the gospell ; of the maner and waye how sinnes be forgiven ; of comforting doubtful and wavering consciences; by what meaues they may be certified, that they please God, seeing they feele the strength of the lawe, accusing them of sinne : of the true use of the sacramentes, whether the outward worke of them doth instifie men, or whether we receave our iustification by fayth. Item, which be the good workes, and the true
seruice and honour which pleascth God: and whether the choyce of meates, the difference of garmcntes, the vowes of monkes and priestes, and other traditions which haue no worde of God to confirme them, — whether these (I say) be right good workes, and suche as make a perfect Christian
man or no. Item, whether vayne service and false honouring of God, and mans traditions, doe binde mens consciences or no? Finally, whether the ceremony of confirmation, of orders, and of annealing, and such other (whiche cannot be proved to be institute of Christ, nor have anye worde in them to certifie us of remission of sinnes) ought to be called sacraments, and be compared with Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord, or no?'

Such statement of the questions more especially demanding the attention of the upper house, is an important illustration of the Articles, to which those questions led the way. We may credit the account of Fox, the principal debate now turned upon the meaning of the word ' sacrament,' and on the number of those Christian rites to which it is legitimately assigned. One speaker Alane, or Alesius, a canon of St Andrews and a refugee, whom Cromwell introduced to the assembly as a learned doctor, went so far as to argue that the term sacrament, though fairly capable of wider application, should in future be confined to those ordinances of the Gospel which have the manifest Word of God, and be institute by Christ to signify unto us the remission of our sinnes.' He grounded this restricted use of ' sacrament' on the authority of St Augustine: but Fox, bishop of Hereford, who had lately been commissioned to negotiate with the foreign reformers, urged the Scotchman to uphold his argument by simple reference to Holy Scripture ; declaring also that the Germans had made the text of the Bible so playne and easye by the Hebrue and Greeke tongue, that now many thinges may be better understand without any gloses at all, then by all the commentaries of the doctours. The chief spokesman of the Medieval party
on this question, as on others, was the bishop of London, Stokesley, who 'endeavoured himselfe with all his labour and industry, out of the old schoole gloses, to maynteyne the seven sacramentes of the Churche.' He was not indeed unwilling to regard the Bible as the written Word of God, but still asserted that the Bible had itself commanded us to receive a number of oral traditions, which may fairly be denominated the Word of God unwritten,' and may claim no less authority than that conceded to the
Holy Scriptures.

The destruction of the Convocation-records in the fire of 1666 prevents us from pursuing these debates through all their ramifications. It has also left us in complete uncertainty as to the way in which the spirited remonstrance of the lower house was handled by the prelates. Enough, however, is surviving to attest the sad disunion of the pastors of the Church as well as of the people, and to illustrate the urgent need of healing and pacific measures.

It is probable that the discussions in both houses were followed by a sort of compromise ; for the 'Ten Articles about Religion,' which grew out of the deliberation of that synod bear indubitable traces of conflicting principles, and must have, therefore, been the fruit of mutual concession. They seem to have been brought into the Convocation-house by Cromwel, and were probably drawn up by some committee appointed for the purpose; but the numerous variations and corrections existing in the several MS. copies of them leave no doubt that representatives of different schools of thought had been
employed if not in the construction, at least in the revision of them.

According to one of the present versions they are entitled 'Articles devised by the King 8 Highness &c., and are said to have been ' also approved by the consent and determination of the hole clergie of this realme:' while another copy' describes them as 'Articles about Religion, set out by the Convocation, and published by the King's authority.' The former of these titles has created a belief that the original document was fashioned by the king himself, when he had witnessed the inextricable feuds in
which the upper and lower houses were gradually entangled; nor is other testimony wanting which will give to such hypothesis an air of plausibility. In the royal Injunctions issued during the same year (1536) , it is stated that 'certain Articles were lately devised and put forthe by the King's highnesse authority, and condescended upon by the prelates and clergy of this his realme in Convocation.' In like manner he declares in a letter written at the same juncture, that the growing discord of the realm constrained him ' to put his own pen to the book, and to conceive certain Articles, which were by all the
bishops and whole clergy of the realm in Convocation agreed on as catholic;' and he proceeds to charge the bishops, whom he is addressing, openly in their cathedrals and elsewhere, to read and declare what he entitles our said Articles,' plainly and without additions of their own.

But though such passages appear to claim the authorship of the Articles absolutely for the king himself, it is most difficult to reconcile that supposition with what is stated in the royal Declaration prefixed to them in nearly all existing copies. Henry there states that being credibly advertised of the diversity of opinions which prevailed in all parts of England, he had 'not only in his own person at may times taken great pain, study, labours, and travails, but alao had caused the bishops, and other the most discreet and best learned men of the clergy to be assembled in Convocation.

After weighing all this evidence together, the most natural inference is, that a rough draft of the Articles was made by a committee, consisting of the moderate divines of each party, and presided over by the king himself, or placed in frequent communication with him by means of the 'vicar-general.' After various modifications had been introduced to meet the wishes of discordant members, and the censorship of the royal pen had been completed, the draft was probably submitted to the upper house of Convocation, and perhaps was made to undergo some further criticism at the hands of the remaining prelates who had not assisted in the compilation. There is also ample reason for concluding that the edition printed by Berthelet, in 1536, contains the most authentic record of the Articles ; partly on account of the correction, in that copy, of errors which are found in the Cotton Manuscript, and partly
from the subsequent incorporation of the Articles as there printed with the ' Institution of a Christian Man,' which was made public in the following year.

A further discrepancy of importance has been noticed in the different copies of the Articles, apart from certain minor points, to be exhibited hereafter. Of the two lists of subscriptions as preserved by Collier, one is considerably shorter than the other. The first was derived from a Manuscript in the State-Paper Office, from which also he has printed the copy of the Articles contained in his 'History of the Church.' It may have been intended a record for the single province of Canterbury, since we find in it the signatures of those members only who belonged to the southern jurisdiction. The second and much longer list of assentients is transmitted in the Cotton Manuscript alluded to above: and as that list includes the names of both the Archbishops, we are almost entitled to conjecture that in the final sanctioning of the manifesto, the convocations of Canterbury and York had learned for once to act
in concert', as a kind of national symod.

We may now pass forward from this sketch of the external history of the Articles, to a consideration of their purport and contents. From the position we now occupy, those Aticles belong to a transition-period. They embody the ideas of men who were emerging gradually into a different sphere of thought, who could not for the present contemplate the truth they were recovering, either in its harmonies or contrasts, and who consequently did not shrink from acquiescing in accommodations and concessions, which to riper understandings might have seemed like the betrayal of a sacred trust. It is ungenerous to suppose with Fox, that both the king and the reforming members of the council had deliberately consented to adulterate the Gospel, through false tenderness for 'weakelings, which were newely weyned from their mother's milke of Rome;' and yet we must allow, on a minute comparison of the fruits
of the discussion with the principles avowed in different stages of its progress, that the leading speakers on both sides were often willing to recast or modify their system. They were treading upon ground of which but few of them as yet had any certain knowledge, and we need not, therefore, wonder if the best among them sometimes stumbled, or completely lost his way.

A singular example of this want of firmness or consistency is traceable in the conduct of the honest Latimer. Although a sermon which he preached at the assembling of the Convocation is distinguished by a resolute assault on the received doctrine of purgatory, he was ultimately induced to sign a statement of the Articles, in which men are enjoined to 'pray for the souls of the departed in masses and exequies, and to give alms to other to pray for them, uihereby they may he relieved and holpen of some part of their pain.' In the same way, bishop Fox, according to his namesake, was disinclined to lay stress upon the testimonies of doctors and schoolmen, forsomuch as they do not all agree in like matters, neither are they stedfast among themselves in all poyntes;' — sentiment, in which he was but echoing the stronger speech of Cromwell. Nevertheless the names of both are found appended to the document,
wherein it is absolutely enjoined that all bishops and preachers shall construe the words of Holy Writ according to the Catholic Creeds, and as the holy approved doctors of the Church do entreat and defend the same.'

If these and other like examples all betray the not un-natural oscillation of men's minds, while contemplating the disputed questions of the Reformation-period, they evince still more completely both the magnitude and depth of the disturbing forces which then operated in all quarters. And the Articles of 1536 are a reflection and expression of the same internal struggles.

The first of them declares that 'the fimdamentals of religion are comprehended in the whole body and canon of the Bible, and also in the three Creeds or symbols: whereof one was made by the Apostles, and is the common creed which every man useth; the second was made by the holy council of Nice, and is said daily in the mass ; and the third was made by Athanasius, and is comprehended in the Psalm Quicunque vult. It adds that whosoever shall 'obstinately affirm the contrary, he or they cannot be the very members of Christ and His espouse the Church, but be very infidels and heretics and members of the devil, with whom they shall perpetually be damned.' It also recognises the authority of ' the four
holy councils, that is to say, the council of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedonense,' and repudiates the heresies condemned in all those synods.

This article was probably directed against the tenets of the Anabaptists,' many of whom denied (as we shall see hereafter) both the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and of the Saviour's Incarnation.

The second article relates to the Sacrament of Baptism, and was still more obviously intended to repel the same class of misbelievers, as we gather from internal evidence. It declares that baptism was instituted by our Saviour as 'a thing necessary for the attaining of everlasting life' (John iii.) ; that by it all, as well infants as such as have the use of reason, obtain ' remission of sins, and the grace
and favour of God ;' that infants and innocents ought to be baptized, because the promise of everlasting life pertains to them also; that dying in their infancy they 'shall undoubtedly be saved thereby, and else not;' that they must be ' christened because they be bom in original sin,'
and this sin can only be remitted 'by the sacrament of baptism, whereby they receive the Holy Ghost;' that re-baptization is inadmissible ; that the opinions of Anabaptists and Pelagians are 'detestable heresies ;' that in ' men or children having the use of reason,' repentance and faith are needed in order to the efficacy of baptism.

The third article is entitled 'The Sacrament of Penance.' By contrasting it with the propositions which were reprobated at the same time in the lower house of Convocation, its bearing on the actual circumstances of the Church is far more clearly seen. It begins by affirming that penance is a sacrament instituted by our Lord in the New Testament as a thing absolutely necessary to salvation, in the case of sins committed after baptism. According to it, penance consists of contrition, confession and
amendment of life. The first of these parts is made up of a sorrowing acknowledgment of sin and of a deep confidence in God's mercy, whereby the penitent must conceive certain hope and faith that God will forgive him his sins, and repute him justified and of the number of His elect children, not for the worthiness of any merit or work done by the penitent, but for the only merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ.' Respecting the second part of penance, it declares Hhat confession to the
minister of the Church is a very expedient and necessary mean,' and must in no wise be contemned, for that 'the words of absolution pronounced by the priest are spoken by authority given to him by Christ in the Grospel.' As to the remaining part of penance, — amendment of life, — it consists in prayer, fasting, almsdeeds, restitution in will and deed, and all other good works of mercy and charity.

These must be diligently performed in order to obtain everlasting life, and also to 'deserve remission or mitigation of pains and afflictions in this world;' for though 'Christ and His death be the sufficient oblation, sacrifice, satisfaction and recompense for the which God the Father forgiveth and remitteth to all sinners the eternal consequences of their sin, the temporal consequences are to be abated or rescinded by the efforts of the penitent himself.

Art.iv. The fourth article, entitled the 'Sacrament of the Altar,' had been similarly levelled at the 'mala dogmata' condemned in the lower house of Convocation. It declares, in emphatic language, that 'under the form and figure of bread and wine, which we there presently do see and perceive by outward senses, is substantially and really comprehended the very self-same body and blood of our Saviour,
which was bom of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the cross for our redemption:' that 'the very self-same body and blood of Christ, under the same form of bread and wine, is corporally, really, and in very substance, exhibited, distributed and received unto and of all them which receive the said sacrament;' and that as a consequence the holy sacrament is to be used with all due reverence and only after careful self-examination.

The fifth article defines 'justification' as 'remission of our sins, and our acceptation or reconciliation unto the grace and favour of God, that our perfect renovation in Christ.' This question had been very warmly controverted, not only in the continental schools, but also in our country; and the definition here adopted was most probably a compromise between the advocates of what is called the 'Lutheran' tenet and the tenet stereotyped as 'Roman' by the Council of Trent. For the ensuing paragraph asserts that justification is attained by contrition and faith, joined with charity, 'not as though our contrition or
faith, or any works proceeding thereof, can worthily deserve to attain the said justification,' but are required by the Almighty as accompanying conditions. He commandeth also, that after we be justified we must have good works of charity and obedience towards God, in the observing and fulfilling outwardly of His laws and commandments.'

The five articles immediately relating to points of faith, are followed by five other articles concerning the laudable ceremonies of the Church;' — a designation which included many topics of the deepest practical moment. Like the former series of decisions, these are also traceable directly to the special circumstances of the times, and illustrated in a greater or less degree by the long list of 'mala dog-
mata,' to which attention was before directed.

The first, '0f Images,' allows the use of statues and pictures as the representers of virtue and good example, as kindlers and stirrers of men's minds,' specifying the images of 'Christ and our Lady;' but at the same time commands the clergy to ' reform their abuses, for else,' it adds, 'there might fortune idolatry to ensue; which God forbid.' It also enjoins the bishops and preachers to instruct their flocks more carefully with regard to censing, kneeling and offering to images, 'that they in no wise do
it, nor think it meet to be done to the same images, but only to be done to God and in His honour.'

The next is entitled '0f honouring of Saints,' and while it sanctions a modified reverence of them, partly on the ground that 'they already do reign in glory with Christ,' and partly 'for their excellent virtues which He planted in them,' it is careful to guard against the supposition that the saints are worthy of the kind of honour which is due to God Himself.

The next article, '0f praying to Saints,' is favourable to the practice of invoking them, so long as they are viewed as intercessors, praying with us and for us unto God. It also adds a specimen of the kind of prayer then believed to be exempted from the charge of superstition. We are warned, however, that grace, remission of sin, and salvation,' can be obtained of God only 'by the mediation of our
Saviour Christ, which is the only sufficient Mediator for our sins ;' a farther caution being added against supposing that 'any saint is more merciful, or will hear us sooner than Christ, or that any saint doth serve for one thing more than another, or is patron of the same.

The next article embarks upon the general question of 'Rites and Ceremonies/ vindicating many of those in use from the prevailing accusations, on the ground that they are 'things good and laudable, to put us in remembrance of those spiritual things that they do signify of yet adding, as before, a sort of caveat or corrective, viz. that 'none of these ceremonies have power to remit sin, but only to stir and lift up our minds unto God, by whom only our sins be forgiven.

The last article, 'Of Purgatory,' commences by affirming that 'it is a very good and charitable deed to pray for souls departed,' resting the observance on 'the due order of charity,' on the Book of Maccabees, on the plain statements of ancient doctors, and the usage of the Church from the
beginning. It accordingly insists upon the duty of committing the departed to God's mercy in our prayers, and of causing others 'to pray for them in masses and exequies in order to facilitate their rescue from a state of present suffering. It adds, however, that we know but little either of their place or of the nature of their pains, and therefore that we must refer particulars respecting them to God Him
self, 'trusting that He accepteth our prayers for them.' In the mean time it denounces the more scandalous abuses * which under the name of purgatory hath been advanced,' — specifying in the number 'pope's pardons,' and 'masses said at Scala Coeli.'

It is now impossible to ascertain by what majorities these Articles were finally carried in the two houses of Convocation. In the longer series of subscriptions there are eighteen bishops (including Stokesley, but not Gardiner,) and forty abbots and priors : while the number of assentients in the lower house is fifty, all of them belonging to the province of Canterbury. They consist of four deans of cathedrals, twenty-five archdeacons, three deans of collegiate churches, seventeen proctors for the parochial clergy, and one master of a college'. If the two provincial synods were actually combined on this occasion, as the signatures of Lee, archbishop of York, and Tonstal, bishop of Durham, have been thought to indicate (at least with reference to the prelates), it would follow that the lower house of the
northern Convocation must have either dissented in a body, or else (what is not easy to conceive under all the circumstances) the record of their acquiescence was distinct from that belonging to the southern province.

We may readily imagine that some members of Convocation would be slow in setting out on a long journey to London, especially when they foresaw that it would end in disputations, if it did not actually involve them in fresh oaths and protests, which they could not cordially adopt. And there is reason to believe that in the northern province such reluctance did exist in a peculiar measure. The 'old learning' was there cherished with unreasoning fondness, so that few, as in the southern and midland counties, had abandoned their belief in the most central of the Romish dogmas, — the papal supremacy. An 'Opinion of the clergy of the north parts, in Convocation, upon Ten Articles sent to them,' is printed both in Strype and Wilkins; and although it is not certain that the articles adverted to were the identical document, which forms the subject of the present chapter, answers then elicited from the northern clergy in Convocation testify the deep repugnance of that district to the measures of their brethren
in the south. This hatred, based on Mediaeval theories and wounded superstition, was exasperated by the recent acts of the civil legislature, which had called upon the northern clergy to exhibit dispensations granted to them by the pope. No sooner therefore had the bishops given orders for circulating the new
'Articles about Religion,' than the disaffected of all classes flew to arms in vindiction of the ancient system. 'This booke,' as Hall observes, had specially mentioned but three sacramentes, with the
whiche the Lyncolneshyremen (I meane their ignoraunt priestes) were offended, and of that occasion depraved the Kinges doynges.' In the sketches left by him and others of the frightful insurrection which now blazed in every town and village to the north of the Trent, we see how strong and general was the feeling that the bishops would not rest until they had completely undermined the fundamental doctrines'.

One of the last incidents connected with the publication of the Ten Articles, grew out of this rebellion in the north. To do away with the suspicion of abetting heresy, to satisfy the formidable insurgents that the document in question had been duly sanctioned by the Church, and was accordingly no wanton innovation of the monarch or his council, printed copies of it were liberally dispersed by the commander of the royal forces, who had also with him the original work as signed and authorized in Convocation.

But this early set of Articles was virtually superseded in the course of the next year (1537), on the appearance of a second Formulary of Faith, entitled the 'Institution of a Christian Man.' On it, however, many of the Articles of 1536 had been substantially engrafted; and as the new work never gained the formal sanction either of Convocation or the crown, those Articles were really in force until supplanted by the 'Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man,' set forth as late as 1543.