A little over a 130 years ago the erudite Philip Schaff in his A History of the Creeds of Christendom wrote that both Catholic and Protestant historians on the Continent ranked the Church of England among the Reformed Churches and distinct from the Lutheran Churches. The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England were found in every collection of Reformed Confessions. In his work Schaff remarked upon how English writers have largely conducted the theological interpretation of the Articles in a controversial spirit rather than a historical one:
“Moderate High-Churchmen and Arminians who dislike Calvinism, represent them as purely Lutheran; Anglo-Catholics and Tractarians, who abhor both Lutheranism and Calvinism, endeavour to conform them as much as possible to the contemporary decrees of the Council of Trent; Calvinists and evangelical Low-Churchmen find in them substantially their own creed.” [1]
Schaff went on to demonstrate that the Articles are, with the exception the shape of the link between Church and state (Article XXXVII) and the acceptance of episcopacy (Article XXXVI), clearly within the Reformed mainstream. Schaff expressed his conclusion as follows:
“…the Articles are catholic on the Trinity and the Incarnation, borrowing phrases from the Lutheran confessions of Augsburg (1530) and Wurtemberg (1552)l they are Augustinian, as are all early Lutheran and Reformed statements on freewill, sin and grace; they are Protestant and evangelical, with all other Reformation confessions on Scripture, justification, faith and good works, and the church; they are ‘Reformed and moderately Cavinistic” on predestination and the Lord’s Supper, against the Lutherans; they are Erastian on the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical matters; and they are ‘purely Anglican’ on bishops.” [2]
Schaff quoted the letter from Bishop John Jewel to Peter Martyr at Zurich in 1562:
“As to the matter of doctrine, we have pared everything away to the very quick, and do not differ from you by a nail’s breadth.” [3]
For more, see:
Anglicans Ablaze: R is for Reformed
No comments:
Post a Comment