Sacraments as well Archbishops and Bishops as other Pastors and Curates You shall also pray for the Queens most honorable Counsel and for all the Nobility of this Realm that all and every of these in their calling may serve truely and painfully to the glory of God and edifying of his people remembring the account that they must make Also ye shall pray for the whole Commons of this Realm that they may live in true faith and fear of God in humble obedience and brotherly charity one to another Finally let us praise God for all those that are departed out of this life in the faith of Christ and pray unto God that we may have grace for to direct our lives after their good example that after this life we with them may be made partakers of the glorious Resurrection in the life everlasting And this done shew the holy dayes and fasting dayes ALL and singular which Injunctions the Queens Majesty ministreth unto her Clergy and to all other her loving Subjects straightly charging and commanding them to observe and keep the same upon pain of deprivation sequestration of fruits and benefices suspension excommunication and such other correction as to Ordinaries or other having Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction whom her Majesty hath appointed or shall appoint for the due execution of the same shall be seen convenient charging and commanding them to see these Injunctions observed and kept of all persons being under their jurisdiction as they will answer to her Majesty for the contrary And her highnesse pleasure is that every Iustice of peace being required shall assist the Ordinaries and every of them for the due execution of the said Injunctions ARTICLES AGREED UPON By the ARCH-BISHOPS and BISHOPS of both Provinces and the whole CLERGIE In the Convocation holden at LONDON in the year 1562. For the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true RELIGION Reprinted by His MAJESTIES Commandment with His Royal Declaration prefixed thereunto LONDON Printed by Bonham Norton and John Bill Printers to the Kings most Excellcnt Majestie 1630. HIS MAJESTIES DECLARATION BEing by Gods Ordinance according to Our just Title Defender of the Faith and supream Governour of the Church within these Our Dominions We hold it most agreeable to this Our Kingly Office and Our own Religious zeal to conserve and maintain the Church committed to Our charge in the unity of true Religion and in the bond of peace and not to suffer unnecessary Disputations altercations or questions to be raised which may nourish faction both in the Church and Common-wealth We have therefore upon mature deliberation and with the advice of so many of Our Bishops as might conveniently be called together thought fit to make this Declaration following That the Articles of the Church of England which have been allowed and authorized heretofore and which our Clergy generally have subscribed unto do contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods word which We do therefore ratifie and confirm requiring all our loving Subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles which to that end We command to be new printed and this Our Declaration to be published therewith That we are supream Governour of the Church of England and that if any difference arise about the external policy concerning Injunctions Canons or other Constitutions whatsoever there to belonging the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them having first obtained leave under Our broad Seal so to do and We approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions providing that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customes of the Land That out of Our Princely care that the Church-men may do the work which is proper unto them the Bishops and Clergy from time to time in Convocation upon their humble desire shall have licence under Our broad Seal to deliberate of and to do all such things as being made plain by them and assented unto by Us shall concern the setled continuance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England now established from which We will not endure any varying or departing in the least degree That for the present though some Differences have been ill raised yet we take comfort in this that all Clergy-men within our Realm have alwayes most willingly subscribed to the Articles established which is an Argument to Us that they all agree in the true usual literal meaning of the said Articles and that even in those curious points in which the present differences lie men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them which is an argument again that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differences which have for so many hundred years in different times and places excercised the Church of Christ We will that all further curious search be laid aside and these disputes shut up in Gods promises as they be generally set forth to Us in the holy Scriptures and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them And that no man hereafter shall either print or preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof And shall not put his own sense or Comment to be the meaning of the Article but shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense That if any publick Reader in either Our Universities or any Head or Master of a Colledge or any other person respectively in either of them shall affix any new sense to any Article or shall publickly read determine or hold any publick disputation or suffer any such to be held either way in either the Universities or Colledges respectively or if any Divine in the Universities shall preach or print any thing either way other then is already established in Convocation with Our Royal assent he or they the offenders shall be liable to Our displeasure and the Churches censure in our Commission Ecclesiastical as well as any other and We will see there shall be due execution upon them ARTICLES OF RELIGION Of faith in the holy Trinity THere is but one living and true God everlasting without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodness the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 2. Of the Word or Son of God which was made very man THe Son which is the Word of the Father Haec notata non habentur in Edw. 6. begotten from everlasting of the Father the very and eternal God of one substance with the Father took mans nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin of her substance so that two whole and perfect natures that is to say the Godhead and manhood
the rod of Discipline 1 Cor. 4. ult By vertue of this Power Commission S. Paul delivers the incestuous Corinthian to Satan and casts him out of the Churches Communion 1 Cor. 5. and the same St. Paul not only exercises this Jurisdiction himself but also directs his son Bishop Timothy how to behave himself in the ordering of these Church censures 1 Tim. 5.19 not to receive an accusation against a Presbyter under two or three witnesses and when he hath heard to rebuke or censure as the cause requires without partiality or leaning to either side all which speak plainly a Tribunal erected in the Church and acknowledged by the Apostle enough to prove the power of Jurisdiction Then the Legislative of making Laws and Constitutions for regulating manners and determining doubts and controversies it cannot with reason be denied to be granted in that large Commission forecited St. John 20. As my father sent me so send I you For here committing the Government of the Church to his Apostles our Lord Commissions them with the same Power that was committed to him for that purpose when he was on earth with the same necessary standing power that he had and exercised as Man for the good of the Church Less cannot in reason be thought to be here granted then all power necessary for the well and peaceable government of the Church and such a power is this of making lawes this is a Commission in general for making lawes then in particular for making Articles and decisions of doctrines controverted the power is more explicit and expresse S. Matth. 28. All power is given to me Go therefore and teach all nations that is with authority and by vertue of that power that is given to me and what is it to teach the truth with authority but to command and oblige all people to receive the truth so taught and this power was not given to the Apostles persons only for Christ there promised to be with them in that Office to the end of the world that is to them and their successors in that Pastoral Office to the Apostles or Bishops that should succeed them to the end of the world This will appear still more clear by S. Paul Heb. 13. where after he had commanded them not to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines he prescribes this as the preservative against such errours and inconstancy Obey them that have the oversight over you and watch for your souls obey them in the guidance and conduct of your souls in their determinations and decisions about such divers and strange Doctrine all which supposes in those Guides a power to govern and rule us in such doubts and controversies about doctrines and matters of belief an authority to determine in controversies of faith as our Church teaches in her 20. Article adde to this that St. Paul tells us 1 Tim. 3.15 that the Church is the ground and pillar of truth And whither then should we go in doubts and controversies for the determination of what is truth but to the ground and pillar of truth For the clearer understanding of this power in the Church know that to this one holy Church our Lord committed in trust the most holy faith and the whole stock of necessary Christian truth therefore called the ground and pillar of truth This truth she must endeavour to preserve as by stopping the mouthes of obstinate gainsaiers so by guiding and governing the meek but weak doubters into the truth by determining their doubts and controversies Not that the Church can make Articles of faith and obtrude them upon the members but that she may and must if the true sense of faith and holy Scriptures be called in question declare and determine what that sense is which she hath received in trust from Christ and his Apostles commanding under penalties and censures all her children to receive that sense and to profess it in such expressive words and form as may directly determine the doubt Thus she did in the great NICENE Council venerable over all the Christian world when the Arrians had perverted by subtil controversies and questions the true sense of the Creed concerning our Saviours Divinity she first declared what sense of the Creed she had received by constant tradition from the Apostles and then enjoyned all Christians to profess that sense by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same substance with the Father a word directly determining the controversie in hand Nor did the Christian world ever question her Authority in this particular And in controversies about doctrines where she hath received no such clear determination of either part from Christ and his Apostles she hath power to declare her own sense in the controversie and to determine which part shall be received and profest for truth by her members and that too under Ecclesiastical penalty and censure which they accordingly are bound to submit to not as an infallible verity but as a probable truth and rest in her determination till it be made plain by as great or a greater authority that this her determination 〈…〉 our and if it shall appear to any of the members to be an errour or if they shall think it so to be by the weight of such reasons as are privately suggested to them yet are they still obliged to silence and peace where the Decision of a particular Church is against the Doctrine of the Universal not to profess in this case against the Churches determination because the professing of such a controverted truth is not necessary but the preservation of the peace and unity of the Church is This is not to assert infallibility in the Church but authority The sentence shall binde to submission though the Superiors may erre in the sentence Thus God ordered it Deut. 17. that in doubts the inferior were to stand to the decision and sentence of the Priests and the Judge and yet their judgement was not infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole assembly the chiefest Senate might erre sin through ignorance a sacrifice is appointed for the expiation of their error Lev. 4.13 Better that inferiours be bound to stand to such fallible judgement as to quiet submission in such kind of controversies as afore mentioned then that every man be suffered to interpret Laws determine controversies which will bring into the Church certain confusion Nor wil such submission in the Inferiors be damnable seeing in this submission to authority they follow Gods method obeying them that have the oversight over them Heb. 13. and keep order of which God is the Author 1 Cor. 14.33 God is not the Author of confusion but of order and peace as in all Churches of the Saints This Authority in determining doubts and controversies the Church hath practised in all Ages and her constant practice is the best interpreter of her right We read not onely of St. Pauls determining controversies about rites and circumstances 1 Cor. 14. but
otherwise then for their honest necessity there to drink and riot or to play at unlawful games Whether your Ministers be common brawlers sowers of discord rather then charity among their parishioners haukers hunters or spending their time idlely or coming to their benefice by Simony Whether your Ministers or any other persons have committed adultery fornication incest baudry or to be vehemently suspected of the same common drunkards scolds or be common swearers and blasphemers of Gods holy name Whether your Parsons and Vicars do maintain their houses and Chancels in sufficient reparation or if their houses be in decay whether they bestow yearly the fift part of the fruits of the benefice untill the same be repaired Whether your Parsons and Vicars absent from their benefice do leave their Cure to an able Minister And if he may dispend yearly xx.l. or above in this Deanry or else where whether he doth distribute every year among his poor parishioners there at the least the fourty part of the fruits of the same And likewise spending yearly C.l. Whether he doth finde one scholar at either of the universities or some grammar School and so for every other hundred pound one Scholar Whether every Dean Archdeacon and Prebendary being Priest doth personally by himself Preach twice every year at the least either where he is intitled or where he hath jurisdiction or in some place united or appropriate to the same Whether your Minister having licence thereunto doth use to preach or not licenced doth diligently procure other to preach that are licenced or whether he refuseth those offering themselves that are licenced or absenteth himself or causeth other to be away from the Sermon or else admitteth any to preach that are not licenced Whether any by preaching writing word or deed hath or doth maintain the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome Whether any be a letter of the word of God to be preached or read in the English tongue Whether any do preach declare or speak any thing in derogation of the book of Common prayer or any thing therein contained or any part thereof Whether any do preach and defend that private persons may make insurrections stir sedition or compel men to give them their goods Whether the Curate doth admit any to the Communion before he be confirmed or any that ken not the Pater Noster the articles of the faith and ten Commandments in English Whether Curates do Minister the Communion for mony or use to have trentals of Communions Whether any of the Anabaptists sect or other use notoriously any unlawful or private conventicles wherein they do use Doctrine or administration of Sacraments separating themselves from the rest of the parish Whether there be any that privatly in their private house have their Masses contrary to the form and order of the book of Communion Whether any minister doth refuse to use the Common prayers or minister Sacraments in that order and form as is set forth in the book of Common prayer Whether baptisme be ministred out of necessity in any other time then on the Sunday or holy day or in an other tongue then english Whether any speaketh against baptisme of Infants Whether any be married within degrees prohibited by Gods law or separate without cause lawful or is married without banes thrice first asked 3. several holy dayes or Sundayes openly in the Church at service time Whether any curate doth marry them of other parishes without that curates licence and certificate from him of the banes thrice solemnly asked Whether any saith that the wickedesse of the Minister taketh away the effect of Christs Sacraments Whether any saith that Christian men cannot be allowed to repentance if they sin voluntarily after baptisme Whether your Curates be ready to Minister the Sacraments visit the sick and bury the dead being brought to the Church Whether any minister useth wilfully and obstinately any other Right Ceremony Order Form or manner of Communion Mattens or Evensong Ministration of Sacraments or open prayers then is set forth in the Book of Common prayer Whether your Curate once in six weeks at the least upon some Sunday or holy day before Even-song do openly in the Church instruct and examine children not confirmed in some part of the Catechisme and whether Parents and Masters do send them thither upon warning given by the Minister Whether any useth to keep abrogate holy dayes or private holy dayes as bakers shoomakers brewers smiths and such other Whether any useth to hallow water bread salt bells or candles upon Candlemas day ashes on Ashwenesday Palms on Palmsunday the Font on the Easter even fire on paschal or whether there was any sepulchre on Good-Fryday Whether the water in the Font be changed every moneth once and then any other praiers said then is in the book of Common prayer appointed Whether there be any images in your Church Tabernacles Shrines or covering of Shrines candles or trindels of wax or feigned Miracles in your Churches or private houses Whether your Church be kept in due and lawful reparation and whether there be a comly pulpit set up in the same and likewise a coffer for almes for the poor called the poor mans box or chest Whether any legacies given to the poor amending high wayes or marrying poor maides be undistributed and by whom God save the King ARTICLES agreed upon by the BISHOPS and other Learned and Godly men In the Last CONVOCATION at LONDON In the year of our Lord 1552. to root out the discord of Opinions and establish the Agreement of true Religion Published by the Kings Majesties Authority 1553. Imprinted at LONDON by John Day ARTICLES agreed upon in the CONVOCATION and published by the KINGS MAJESTY Of Faith in the holy Trinity THere is but one living and true God and he is everlasting without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdom and goodnesse the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the holy Ghost That the word or Son of God was made very man THe Son which is the word of the Father took mans nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary of her substance so that two whole and perfect natures that is to say the Godhead and manhood were joyned together into one person never to be divided whereof is one Christ very God and very man who truely suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a sacrifice for all sin of man both original and actual Of the going down of Christ into hell AS Christ died and was buried for us so also it is to be believed that he went down into hell for the body lay in the Sepulchre until the Resurrection but his Ghost departing from him was with the Ghosts that were in prison or in Hell and did preach to the same as the place of St.
through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of Gods predestination is a most dangerous downfal whereby the Devil may thrust them either into desperation or into wretchlesnesse of most unclean living no less perillous then desperation Further more although the decrees of Predestination are unknown unto us yet we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God We must trust to obtain eternal Salvation onely by the Name of Christ THey also are to be had accursed and abhorred that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us onely the name of Iesu Christ whereby men must be saved All men are bound to keep the Moral Commandments of the Law THe Law which was given of God by Moses although it binde not Christian men as concerning the Ceremonies and Rites of the same neither is it required that the civil precepts and orders of it should of necessity be received in any Common-Weale yet no man be he never so perfect a Christian is exempt and loose from the obedience of those Commuadements which are called Moral wherefore they are not to be hearkned unto who affirm that holy Scripture is given only to the weak and do boast themselves continually of the spirit of whom they say they have learned such things as they teach although the same be most evidently repugnant to the holy Scripture Of the Church THe visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in the which the pure word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duely ministred according to Christs ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Ierusalem of Alexandria and of Antioch hath erred So also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living but also in matters of faith Of the authority of the Church IT is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a witnesse and a keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so beside the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation Of the Authority of general Councils GEneral Councils may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes And when they be gathered forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and word of God they may erre and sometimes have erred not onely in worldly matters but also in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture Of Purgatory THe Doctrine of Schoole Authors concerning Purgatory Pardons worshipping and adoration aswel of Images as of Relicks and also invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly feigned and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God No man may minister in the Congregation except he be called IT is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of publick preaching or ministring the Sacraments in the congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by men who have publick authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords vineyard Men must speak in the Congregation in such a tongue as the people understandeth IT is most seemly and most agreeable to the word of God that in the Congregation nothing be openly read or spoke in a tongue unknown to the people the which thing St. Paul did forbid except some were present that should declare the same Of the Sacraments OVr Lord Iesus Christ hath knit together a company of new people with Sacraments most few in number most easie to be kept most excellent in signification as is baptisme and the Lords Supper The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be Gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should rightly use them And in such onely as worthily receive the same they have a wholsome effect and operation and yet not that of the work wrought as some men speak which word as it is strange and unknown to holy Scripture so it engendreth no godly but a very superstitious sense but they that receive the Sacraments unworthily purchase to themselves damnation as S. Paul saith Sacraments ordained by the word of God be not onely badges and tokens of Christian mens profession but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signes of grace and Gods good will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not onely quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him The wickednesse of the Ministers doth not take away the effectual operation of Gods Ordinances ALthough in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good and sometime the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but do minister by Christs commission and authority we may use their ministery both in hearing the Word of God and in the receiving the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Gods ordinances taken away by their wickedness nor the grace of Gods gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be effectual because of Christs institution and promise although they be ministred by evil men Neverthelesse it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church that enquiry be made of such and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences and finally being found guilty by just judgement be deposed Of Baptisme BAptisme is not onely a signe of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christned but it is also a signe and seal of our new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptisme rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of forgivnesse of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God are visibly signed and sealed faith is confirmed and grace increased by vertue of prayer unto God The custome of the Church to Christen young Children is to be commended and in any wise to be retained in the
being hallowed Item Whether they have given open monition to their Parishoners that they should not wear beads nor pray upon them Item Whether they have moved their Parishoners lying upon their death-beds or at any other time to bestow any part of their substance upon Trentals Masses Satisfactory or any such blinde devotions Item Whether they take any Trentals or other Masses Satisfactory to say or sing for the quick or the dead Item Whether they have given open monition to their parishioners to detect and present to their Ordinary all adulterers and fornicators and such men as have two wives living and such women as haue two husbands living within their parishes Item Whether they haue not monished their Parishoners openly that they should not sell giue nor otherwise alienate any of their Churche goods Item Whether they or any of them do keep more benefices and other Ecclesiastical promotions then they ought to do not having sufficient licence and dispensations thereunto and how many they be and their names Item Whether they minister the Communion any otherwise then only after such form and manner as is set forth by the Kings Majesty in the book of the Communion Item Whether they hallowed and delivered to the people any Candles upon Candlemas-day and Ashes upon Ashe-Wednesday or any Palms upon Palm Sunday last past Item Whether they had upon Good-Friday last-past the Sepulchres with their lights having the Sacrament therein Item Whether they upon Easier-Even last past hallowed the Font Fire or Paschal or had any Paschal set up or burning in their Churches Item Whether your Parsons and Vicars have admitted any Curates to serve their Cures which were not first examined and allowed either by my Lord of Canterbury Master Arch-Deacon or their officers Item Whether you know any person within your parish or else where that is a letter of the word of God to be read in English or sincerely preached or of the execution of the Kings Majesties Injunctions or other his Majesties proceedings in matters of religion Item Whether every parish have provided a Chest with two locks and keyes for the book of Wedding Christining and Burying Item Whether in the time of the Letany or any other Common prayer in the time of the Sermon or Homily and when the Priest readeth the Scripture to the parishioners any person have departed out of the Church without a just and necessary cause Item Whether any bells have been knowled or rung at the time of the premisses Item Whether any person hath abused the Ceremonies as in casting holy water upon his bed or bearing about him holy bread St. Iohns Gospel ringing of holy bells or keeping of private holy dayes as Taylors Bakers Brewers Smithes Shoomakers and such other Item Whether the money coming and rising of any cattle or other movable stocks of the Church and mony given or bequethed to the finding of Torches lights tapers or lamps not paid out of any lands have not been employed to the poor mens Chest Item Who hath the said stocks and money in their hands and what be their names Item Whether any undiscreet persons do uncharitably contemn and abuse Priests and Ministers of the Church Item Whether they that understand not the Latine do pray upon any Primer but the English Primer set forth by the Kings Majesties authority and whether they that understand Latine do use any other then the Latine Primer set forth by like authority Item Whether there be any other Grammar taught in any other school within this Diocesse then that which is set forth by the Kings Majesty Item Whether any person keep their Church holy day and the dedication day any otherwise or at any other time then is appointed by the Kings Majesty Item Whether the service in the Church be done at due and convenient houres Item Whether any have used to commune jangle and talk in the Church in the time of the Common prayer reading of the Homily Preaching Reading or declaring of the Scripture Item Whether any have wilfully maintained and defended any Heresies Errors or false opinions contrary to the faith of Christ and holy Scripture Item Whether any be common drunkards swearers or blasphemers of the name of God Item Whether any have committed adultery fornication or incest or be common bands and receivers of such evil persons or vehemently suspected of any of the premises Item Whether any be braulers slanderers chiders scolders and sowers of discord between one person and another Item Whether you know any that use Charmes Sorcery Enchantments Witchcraft Southsaying or any like craft invented by the Devil Item Whether the Churches Pulpits and other necessaries appertaining to the same be sufficiently repaired Item Whether you know any that in contempt of their own Parish Church do resort to any other Church Item Whether any Inholders or Alehousekeepers do use commonly to sell meat and drink in the time of Common prayer Preaching or Reading of the Homilies or Scripture Item Whether you know any to be married within the degrees prohibited by the Laws of God or that be separated or divorced without a just cause allowed by the Law of God and whether any such have married again Item Whether you know any to have made privie contratts of matrimony not calling two or more thereunto Item Whether they have married solemnly the banes not first lawfully asked Item Whether you know any Executors or Administrators of dead mens goods which do not duely bestow such of the said goods as were given and bequeathed or appointed to be distributed among the poor people repairing of high wayes finding of poor Scholars or marrying of poor Maids or such other like charitable deeds Item Whether any do contemn married Priests and for that they be married will not receive the Communion or other Sacraments at their hands Item Whether you know any that keep in their houses undefaced any abused or feigned Images any Tables Pictures Paintings or other monuments of feigned miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry or Superstition ARTICLES to be enquired of IN THE VISITATION OF THE DIOCES of LONDON By the reverend Father in God NICOLAS BISHOP of LONDON In the fourth year of our Soveraign Lord King Edward the 6. by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland defender of the faith and in earth of the Church of England and also of Ireland the supreme head next and immediatly under our Saviour CHRIST Imprinted at LONDON by Reynold Wolfe M.DL St. PAUL I Testifie therefore before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ which shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing in his Kingdom preach thou the word be fervent in season or out of season Improve rebuke exhort withal long suffering and Doctrine 2. Tim. 4. Articles of Visitation by Bishop Ridley Anno 1550. WHether your Curates and ministers be of that cdnversation of living that worthily they can be reprehended of no man Whether your Curates and Ministers do haunt and resort to Taverus or Alesouses
Church Of the Lords Supper THe Supper of the Lord is not onely a signe of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our redemption by Christs death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the bread which we break is a communion of the body of Christ likewise the Cup of blessing is a Communion of the blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the Substance of Bread and wine into the substance of Christs Body and Blood cannot be proved by holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture and hath given occasion to many superstitions For as much as the truth of mans nature requireth that the body of one and the self same man cannot be at one time in divers places but must needs be in some one certain place therefore the body of Christ cannot be present at one time in many and divers places and because as holy Scripture doth teach Christ was taken up into heaven and there shall continue unto the end of the World a faithful man ought not either to believe or openly to confesse the real and bodily presence as they tearm it of Christs flesh and blood in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not commanded by Christs ordinance to be kept carried about lifted up nor worshipped Of the perfect oblation of Christ made upon the Cross THe offering of Christ made once for ever is the perfect redemption the pacifying of Gods displeasure and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both original and actual and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses in the which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or sin were forged fables and dangerous deceits The state of single life is commanded to no man by the word of God BIshops Priests and Deacons are not commanded to vow the state of single life without marriage neither by Gods Law are they compelled to abstain from matrimony Excommunicate persons are to be avoided THat person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and excommunicate ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Iudge that hath authority thereto Traditions of the Church IT is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversity of countries and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods word Whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be rebuked openly that other may fear to do the like as one that offendeth against the common order of the Church and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the consciences of weak brethren Of Homilies THe Homilies of late given and set out by the Kings authority be godly and wholsome containing Doctrine to be received of all men and therefore are to be read to the people diligently distinctly and plainly Of the book of Prayers and Ceremonies of the Church of England THe Book which of very late time was given to the Church of England by the Kings authority and the Parliament containing the manner form of praying and ministring the Sacraments in the Church of England likewise also the book of ordering Ministers of the Church set forth by the foresaid authority are Godly and in no point repugnant to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel but agreeable thereunto furthering and beautifying the same not a little and therefore of all faithful members of the Church of England and chiefly of the Ministers of the word they ought to be received allowed with all readinesse of minde and thanksgiving and to be commended to the people of God Of Civil Magistrates THe King of England is Supream head in earth next under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Civil Magistrate is ordained and allowed of God wherefore we must obey him not onely for fear of punishment but also for conscience sake The Civil Laws may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is Lawful for Christians at the commandment of the Magistrate to wear weapons and serve in lawful wars Christian mens goods are not common THe riches and goods af Christians are not common as touching the right title and possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give almes to the poor according to his ability Christian men may take an oath AS we confesse that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Iesu Christ and his Apostle Iames So we judge that Christian Religion doth not prohibit but that a man may swear when the Magistrate requireth in a cause of faith and charity so it be done according to the Prophets teaching in justice judgement and truth The Resurrection of the dead is not yet brought to passe THe Resurrection of the Dead is not as yet brought to passe as though it onely belonged to the soul which by the grace of Christ is raised from the death of sin but it is to be lookt for at the last day For then as Scripture doth most manifestly testifie to all that be dead their own bodies flesh and bone shall be restored that the whole man may according to his works have either reward or punishment as he hath lived vertuously or wickedly The Souls of them that depart this life do neither dye with the bodies nor sleep idly THey which say that the Souls of such as depart hence do sleep being without all sense feeling or perceiving untill the day of judgement or affirm that the souls dye with the bodies and at the last day shall be raised up with the same do utterly dissent from the right belief declared to us in holy Scripture Hereticks called Millenarii THey that go about to renew the Fable of the Hereticks called Millenarii be repugnant to holy Scripture and cast them selves headlong into a Iewish dotage All men shall not be saved at the length THey also are worthy of Condemnation who endeavour at this time to restore the dangerous opinion that all men be they never so ungodly shall at length be saved when they have suffered paines for their sins a certain time appointed by Gods Iustice The End of the Articles Imprinted by John Day 1553. ARTICULI de quibus in
Soveraign Lady Queen ELIZABETH London Printed 1559. INJUNCTIONS Given by the QUEENS MAJESTY Aswell To the Clergy as to the Laity of this Realm The QUEENS most Royal Majesty by the advice of her most honourable Councel intending the advancement of the true honour of Almighty God the suppression of superstition throughout all her Highness Realms and Dominions and to plant true Religion to the extirpation of all Hypocrisie enormities and abuses as to her duty appertaineth doth minister unto her loving Subjects these Godly Injunctions hereafter following All which Injunctions her Highness willeth and commandeth her loving Subjects obediently to receive and truly to observe and keep every man in their Offices degrees and states as they will avoid her Highnesse displeasure and the pains of the same hereafter expressed 1. THe first is That all Deans Archdeacons Usurped and forraign authority Parsons Vicars and all other Ecclesiastical persons shall faithfully keep and observe and as far as in them may lye shall cause to be observed and kept of other All and singular Lawes and Statutes made for the restoring of the Crown the antient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiastical and abolishing of all forraigne power repugnant to the same And furthermore all Ecclesiastical persons having cure of Souls shall to the uttermost of their wit knowledge and learning purely and sincerely and without any colour or dissimulation declare manifest and open foure times every year at the least in their Sermons and other Collations that all usurped and forraigne power having no establishment nor ground by the law of God is for most just causes taken away and abolished and that therefore no manner of obedience and subjection within her Highnesse Realms and Dominions is due unto any such forraigne power And that the Queens power within her Realms and Dominions is the highest power under God to whom all men within the same Realms and Dominions by Gods laws owe most loyalty and obedience afore and above all other powers and Potentates in earth 2. Besides this to the intent that all superstition and Hypocrisie crept into divers mens hearts Images may vanish away they shall not set forth or extol the dignity of any Images Relicks or Miracles but declaring the abuse of the same they shall teach that all goodness health and grace ought to be both asked and looked for only of God as of the very author and giver of the same and of none other 3. Item That they the Parsons above rehearsed shall preach in their Churches A Sermon every Moneth and every other cure they have one Sermon every moneth of the year at the least wherein they shall purely and sincerely declare the word of God and in the same exhort their hearers to the works of faith Works of faith as mercy and charity especially prescribed and commanded in Scripture and that the works devised by mans fantasies besides Scripture as wandring of Pilgrimages setting up of Candles Works of mans device praying upon Beads or such like superstition have not only no promise of reward in Scripture for doing of them but contrariwise great threatnings and maledictions of God for that they be things tending to Idolatry and Superstition which of all other offences God Almighty doth most detest and abhor for that the same diminish most his honour and glory Quarter Sermon or Homily 4. Item That they the Parsons above rehearsed shall preach in their own persons once in every quarter of the year at least one Sermon being licenced especially thereunto as is specified hereafter or else shall read some Homily prescribed to be used by the Queens authority every Sunday at the least unless some other Preacher sufficiently licenced as hereafter chance to come to the Parish for the same purpose of Preaching 5. Item That every Holiday through the year when they have no Sermon The Pater Noster they shall immediately after the Gospel openly and plainly recite to their Parishioners in the Pulpit the Pater Noster the Creed and the Ten Commandements in English Creed and Ten Commandements to the intent the people may learn the same by heart exhorting all Parents and Housholders to teach their Children and Servants the same as they are bound by the Law of God and conscience to do Also that they shall provide within three moneths next after this visitation at the charges of the Parish one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English and within one twelve moneths next after the said visitation the Paraphrases of Erasmus also in English upon the gospel and the same set up in some convenient place within the said Church that they have cure of whereas the Parishioners may most commodiously resort unto the same and read the same out of the time of common Service The charges of the Paraphrases shall be by the Parson or Propriatory and Parishioners born by equal portions and they shall discourage no man from the reading of any part of the Bible either in Latine or in English but shall rather exhort every person to read the same with great humility and reverence as the very lively word of God and the especial food of mans Soul which all Christian persons are bound to embrace believe and follow if they look to be saved whereby they may the better know their duties to God to their Soveraign Lady the Queen and their neighbour ever gently and charitably exhorting them and in her Majesties name straightly charging and commanding them that in the reading thereof no man to reason or contend but quietly to hear the Reader 7. Also Haunting of Ale houses by Ecclesiastical persons the said Ecclesiastical persons shall in no wise at any unlawful time nor for any other cause then for their honest necessities haunt or resort to any Taverns or Ale-houses And after their meats they shall not give themselues to drinking or ryot spending their time idly by day and by night at Dice Cards or Tables-playing or any other unlawful game but at all times as they shall have leasure they shall hear or read somewhat of the holy Scripture or shall busie themselues with some other honest study or exercise and that they alwayes do the things which appertain to honesty and endeavour to profit the Commonwealth having alwayes in minde that they ought to excell all other in purity of life and should be examples to the people to live well and christianly 8. Also Preachers not licenced that they shall admit no man to preach within any their cures but such as shall appear unto them to be sufficiently liceaced thereunto by the Queens Majesty or the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Archbishop of York in either their Provinces or the Bishop of the Diocess or by the Queens Majesties Visitors And such as shall be so licensed they shall gladly receive to declare the word of God at convenient times without any resistence or contradiction And that no other be
the Seas or on the other side because the diversity of them is great and that there needeth good consideration to be had of the particularities thereof her Majesty referreth the prohibition or remission thereof to the order which her said Commissioners within the City of London shall take and notifie According to the which her Majesty straightly chargeth and commandeth all manner of her Subjects and especially the Wardens and Company of Stationers to be obedient Provided that these orders do not extend to any prophane Authors and Workes in any Language that have been heretofore commonly received or allowed in any of the Vniversities and Schools but the same may be printed and used as by good order they were accustomed 52. Item Reverence of Prayers Although Almighty God is al times to be honoured withal manner of reverence that may be devised yet of all other times in time of Common prayer the same is most to be regarded Therefore it is to be necessarily received that in time of the Letanie and all other Collects and common Supplications to Almighty God all manner of people shall devoutly and humbly kneel upon their knees and give ear thereunto and that whensoever the name of Iesus shall be in any Lesson Sermon Honour to the name of Iesus or other wise in the Church pronounced that due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lownesse of courtesie and uncovering of heads of the menkinde as thereunto doth necessarily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed 53. Item That all Ministers and Readers of publick Prayers Curates to read distinctly Chapters and Homilies shall be charged to read leasurely plainly and distinctly and also such as are but mean Readers shall peruse over before once or twice the Chapters and homilies to the intent they may read to the better understanding of the people and the more encouragement of godlinesse An Admonition to simple men deceived by malitious THE Queens Majesty being informed that in certain places of the Realm sundry of her native Subjects being called to Ecclesiastical Ministery of the Church be by sinister perswasion and perverse construction induced to finde some scruple in the form of an Oath which by an Act of the last Parliament is prescribed to be required of divers persons for the recognition of their Allegeance to her Majesty which certainly never was ever meant nor by any equity of words or good sense can be thereof gathered would that all her loving Subjects should understand that nothing was is or shall be meant or intended by the same Oath to have any other duty allegeance or bond required by the same Oath then was acknowledged to be due to the most noble Kings of famous memory K. Henry the 8. her Majesties Father or K. Edward the sixt her Majesties Brother And further her Majesty forbiddeth all manner her Subjects to give ear or credit to such perverse and malicious persons which most sinisterly and maliciously labour to notifie to her loving Subjects how by words of the said Oath it may be collected that the Kings or Queens of this Realm possessors of the Crown may challenge authority and power of Ministery of divine service in the Church wherein her said Subjects be much abused by such evil disposed persons For certainly her Majesty â—…n either doth nor ever will challenge any authority then that was challenged and lately used by the said noble Kings of famous memory K. Henry the 8. and K. Edward the sixt which is and was of ancient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the Soveraignty and rule over all manner of persons born within these her Realms Dominions and Countries of what estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other forraign power shall or ought to have any superiority over them And if any person that hath conceived any other sence of the form of the said Oath shall accept the same Oath with this interpretation sense or meaning her Majesty is well pleased to accept every such in that behalf as her good and obedient Subjects and shall acquit them of all manner of penalties contained in the said Act against such as shall peremptorily or obstinately take the same Oath For Tables in the Church WHereas her Majesty understandeth that in many and sundry parts of the Realm the Altars of the Churches be removed and Tables placed for the administration of the holy Sacrament according to the form of the Law therefore provided And in some other places the Altars be not yet removed upon opinion conceived of some other order therein to be taken by her Majesties Visitors In the other whereof saving for an uniformity there seemeth no matter of great moment so that the Sacrament be duely and reverently ministred Yet for observation of one uniformity through the whole Realm and for the better imitation of the Law in that behalf it is ordered that no Altar be taken down but by oversight of the Curate of the Church and the Church-wardens or one of them at the least wherein no riotous or disordered manner to be used And that the holy Table in every Church he decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly Covered as thereto belongeth and as shall vs appointed by the Visitors and so to stand saving when the Communion of the Sacrament is to be distributed at which time the same shall be so placed in good sort within the Chancel as whereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his prayer and ministration and the Communicants also more conveniently and in more number Communicate with the said Minister And after the Communion done from time to time the same holy Table to be placed where it stood before Item The Sacramental bread Where also it was in the time of K. Edward the sixt used to have the Sacramental bread of common fine bread it is ordered for the more reverence to be given to this holy Mysteries being the Sacraments of the body and Blood of our Saviour Iesus Christ that the same Sacramental bread be made and formed plain without any figure thereupon of the same finenesse and fashion round though somewhat bigger in compasse and thicknesse as the usuall bread and water heretofore named singing Cakes which served for the use of the private Masse The form of bidding the prayers to be used generally in this uniform sort YE shall pray for Christs holy Catholick Church that is for the whole Congregation of Christian people dispersed throughout the whole world and specially for the Church of England and Ireland And herein I require you most specially to pray for the Queens most excellent Majesty our soveraign Lady Elizabeth Queen of England France and Ireland defender of the Faith and Supreme governour of this Realm as well in Causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal You shall also pray for the Ministers of Gods holy word and
known as a tree discerned by the fruit 13. Of works before Justification WOrks done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of faith in Iesu Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as School-Authors say deserve grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sin 14. Of works of Supererogation VOluntary works besides over and above Gods Commandments which they call works of Supererogation cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety For by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do but that they do more for his sake then of bounden duty is required Whereas Christ saith plainly When ye have done all that are commanded to you say We are unprofitable servants 15. Of Christ alone without sin CHrist in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things sin only except from which he was clearly void both in his flesh and in his Spirit He came to be a Lamb without spot who by sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sins of the world and sin as S. Iohn saith was not in him But all we the rest although baptized and born again in Christ yet offend in many things and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Blasphemia in Spiritum Sanctum EST cum quis verborum Dei manifestè perceptam veritatem ex malitia obfirmatione animi convitiis insectatur hostiliter insequitur Atque hujusmodi quia maledicto sunt obnoxii gravissimo sese astringunt scelere unde peccati hoc genus irremissibile à Domino appellatur affirmatur Artic. 16. Edvardi 6. 16. Of sin after Baptisme NOt every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptisme is sin against the holy Ghost and unpardonable Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denyed to such as fal into sin after Baptisme After we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives And therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here to deny the place of forgivenesse to such as truely repent 17. Of Predestination and Election PRedestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Wherefore they which be indued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made sons of God by adoption they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Iesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their minde to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth frequently kindle their love towards God so for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of Gods predestination is a most dangerous downfall whereby the Devil doth thrust them either into desperation or into wretchlesness of most unclean living no less perillous then desperation Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God Omnes obligantur ad moralia legis praecepta servanda LEx à Deo data per Mosen licet quoad ceremonias ritus Christianos non astringat neque civilia eis praecepta in aliqua Repub. necessario recipi debeant nihilominus ab obedientia mandatorum quae moralia vocantur nullus quantumvis Christianus est solutus quare illi non sunt audiendi qui sacras literas tantum infirmis datas esse perhibent spiritum perpetuo jactant à quo sibi quae praedicant suggeri asserunt quanquam cum S. Scripturis apertissime pugnent Art Edvard 6. 19. 18. Of obtaining eternal salvation only by the Name of Christ THey also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Iesus Christ whereby men must be saved 19. Of the Church THe visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in the which the pure word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duely ministred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Ierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred So also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of ceremonies but also in matters of faith 20. Of the authority of the Church THe Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is Contrary to Gods word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a witnesse and a keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation 21. Of the authority of general Councels GEneral Councels may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes and when they be gathered together for as much as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may erre and sometime have erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unlesse it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture 22. Of Purgatory THe Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons worshipping and adoration aswell of Images as of Reliques and also invocration of Saints is a fond
thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God 23. Of ministring in the Congregation IT is not lawful for any man to take upon him the Office of publick preaching or ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by men who have publick authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords vineyard 24. Of speaking in the Congregation in such a tongue as the people understandeth IT is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God Haec clausula non habetur in Edvard 6. Artic. and the custome of the Primitive Church to have publick prayer in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people 25. Of the Sacraments SAcraments ordained of Christ be not onely badges or tokens of Christian mens profession Dominus noster Iesus Christus Sacramentis numero paucissimis observatu facillimis significatione praestantissimis societatem novi populi colligavit sicut est Baptismus Coena Domini but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signes of grace and Gods good will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not onely quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments that is to say confirmation Penance orders Matrimony and extream Vnction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown Haec notata non habentur in Edv. 6 Artic. partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptisme and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible signe or ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duely use them And in such onely as worthily receive the same †Idque non ex opere ut quidam loquuntur operato quae vox ut peregrina est Sacris literis ignota sic parit sensum minimè pium sed admodum superstitiosum Artic. Edvard 6. they have a wholesome effect or operation but they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation as S. Paul saith 26. Of the unworthinesse of the Ministers which hinder not the effect of the Sacraments ALthough in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good and sometime the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but in Christs and do minister by his commission and authority we may use their ministery both in hearing the Word of God and in the receiving of the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Christs ordinance taken away by their wickednesse nor the grace of Gods gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be effectual because of Christs institution and promise although they be ministred by evil men Neverthelesse it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church that enquiry be made of evil Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences and finally being found guilty by just judgement be deposed 27. Of Baptisme BAptisme is not onely a signe of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christened but it is also a signe of Regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptisme rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin of our adoption to be the sons of God by the holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed faith is confirmed and grace increased by vertue of prayer unto God The Baptisme of yong children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable with the institution of Christ 28. Of the Lords Supper THe Supper of the Lord is not onely a signe of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christs death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the supper of the Lord cannot be proved by holy Writ Quum naturae humanae veritas requirat ut unius ejusdemque hominis Corpus in multis locis simul esse non possit sed in uno aliquo definito loco esse oporteat idcirco Christi corpus in multis diversis locis eodem tempore praesens esse non potest Et quoniam ut tradunt sacrae literae Christus in coelum fuit sublatus ibi usque ad finem seculi est permansurus non debet quisquam fidelium carnis ejus fanguinis Realem corporalem ut loquuntur praesentiam in Eucharistiâ vel credere vel profiteri R. Edvardi 6. Artic. but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many superstitions The body of Christ is given taken and eaten Haec notata non habentur in Reg. Edvard 9. Artic. in the Supper onely after an heavenly and spiritual manner And the meane whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs ordinance reserved carried about lifted up and worshipped 29. Of the wicked which eat not the body of Christ in the use of the Lords Supper Non habetur hie Artic. in R. Edv. sexti THe wicked and such as be void of a lively faith although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth as St. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the signe or Sacrament of so great a thing 30. Of both kindes THe Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs ordinance and commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian men alike 31. Of the one oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross THe offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both original and actual and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses in
know the Father most of might That of his dear beloved Son we may attain the sight And that with perfect faith also we may acknowledge thee The Spirit of them both alway one God in persons three Laud and praise be to the Father and to the Son equal And to the holy Spirit also one God coeternal And pray we that the onely Son vouchsafe his Spirit to send To all that do professe his Name unto the worlds end Amen And then the Arch-deacon shall present unto the Bishop all them that shall receive the Order of Priesthood that day the Arch-deacon saying REverend Father in God I present unto you these persons present to be admitted to the Order of Priesthood Cum interrogatione responsione ut in ordine Diaconatus And then the Bishop shall say to the people GOod people these be they whom we purpose God willing to receive this day unto the holy office of Priesthood For after due examination we finde not to the contrary but that they be lawfully called to their function and ministery and that they be persons meet for the same But yet if there be any of you which knoweth any impediment or notable crime of any of them for the which he ought not to be received into this holy ministery now in the name of God declare the same And if any great crime or impediment be objected Vt supra in Ordine Diaconatus usque ad finem Litaniae cum hac Collecta ALmighty God giver of all good things which by thy holy Spirit hast appointed divers Orders of Ministers in the Church mercifully behold their thy servants now called to the office of Priesthood and replenish them so with the truth of thy doctrine and innocency of life that both by word and good example they may faithfully serve thee in this office to the glory of thy Name and profit of thy congregation through the merits of our Saviour Iesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost world without end Amen Then the Bishop shall minister unto every one of them the Oath concerning the Kings supremacy as it is set forth in the Order of Deacons And that done he shall say unto them which are appointed to receive the said office as hereafter followeth YOu have heard brethren as well in your private examination as in the exhortation and in the holy lessons taken out of the Gospel and of the writings of the Apostles of what dignity and of how great importance this office is whereunto ye be called And now we exhort you in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ to have in remembrance into how high a dignity and to how chargeable an office ye be called that is to say the messengers the watchmen the pastors and the stewards of the Lord to teach to premonish to feed and provide for the Lords family to seek for Christs sheep that be dispersed abroad and for his children which be in the midst of this naughty world to be saved through Christ for ever Have alwayes therefore printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge for they be the sheep of Christ which he bought with his death and for whom he shed his blood The Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his Spouse and his body And if it shall chance the same Church or any member thereof to take any hurt or hinderance by reason of your negligence you know the greatnesse of the fault and also of the horrible punishment which will ensue Wherefore consider with your selves the end of your ministery towards the children of God towards the spouse and body of Christ and see that you never cease your labour your care and diligence until you have done all that lieth in you according to your bounden duty to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your charge unto that agreement in faith and knowledge of God and to that ripenesse and perfectnesse of age in Christ that there be no place left among you either of errour in religion or for viciousnesse of life Then for as much as your office is both of so great excellencie and of so great difficultie ye see with how great care and study ye ought to apply your selves as well that ye may shew your selves kinde to that Lord who hath placed you in so high a dignity as also to beware that neither you your selves offend neither be occasion that other offend Howbeit ye cannot have a minde and a will thereto of your selves for that power and ability is given of God alone Therefore ye see how ye ought and have need earnestly to pray for his holy Spirit And seeing that you cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work pertainig to the salvation of man but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the holy Scriptures and with a life agreeable unto the fame Ye perceive how studious ye ought to be in reading and in learning the Scriptures and in framing the manners both of your selves and of them that specially pertain unto you according to the rule of the same Scriptures And for this self-same cause ye see how ye ought to forsake and set aside as much as you may all worldly cares and studies We have good hope that you have well weighed and pondered these things with your selves long before this time and that you have clearly determined by Gods grace to give your selves wholly to this vocation whereunto it hath pleased God to call you so that as much as lieth in you you apply your selves wholly to this one thing and draw all your cares and studies this way and to this end And that you will continually pray for the heavenly assistance o the holy Ghost from God the Father by the mediation of our onely Mediatoâ— and Saviour Iesus Christ that by dayly reading and weighing of the Scriptures ye may so wax riper and stronger in your ministery and that ye may so endeavour your selves from time to time to sanctifie the lives of you and yours and to fashion them after the rule and doctrine of Christ And that ye may be wholsome and godly examples and patterns for the rest of the Congregation to follow and that this present Congregation of Christ here assembled may also understand your minds and wills in these things and that this your promise shall more move you to do your duties ye shall answer plainly to these things which we in the name of the Congregation demand of you touching the same Do you think in your heart that you be truely called according to the will of our Lord Iesu Christ and the Order of this Church of England to the Ministery of Priesthood Answer I think it The Bishop BE you perswaded that the holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Iesu Christ And are you determined with the said Scriptures to instruct the people
Obedience Item Whether they have exhorted the people to obedience to the Queens Majesty and Ministers and to charity and love one to another The Sacrament Item Whether they have admonished their Parishioners that they ought not to presume to receive the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ before they can say perfectly the Lords prayer the Articles of the faith and the ten Commandements in English Hospitality Item Whether they be resident upon their Benefices and keep hospitality or no whether they do relieve their Parishioners and what they give them Reparations Item Whether Proprietaries Parsons Vicars and Clarks having Churches Chappels and Mansions do keep their Chancels Rectories Vicarages and all other houses appertaining to them in due reparations Prayer in English Item Whether they do counsel or move their Parishioners rather to pray in a tongue not known then in English or put their trust in any certain number of prayers as in saying over a number of Beads Beads or other like Defamed persons Item Whether they have received any persons to the Communion being openly known to be out of charity with their neighbours or defamed with any notorious crime and not reformed Poor mens box Item Whether they have provided and have a strong chest for the poor mens box and set and fastned the same in a place of the Church most convenient Testament Item Whether they have diligently called upon exhorted and moved their parishioners and especially when they make their Testaments to give to the said poor mens Box and to bestow that upon the poor which they were wont to bestow upon Pilgrimages Pardons Trentalls and upon otherlike blinde devotions Sick Burial Item Whether they have denied to visit the sick or bury the dead being brought to the Church Simony Item Whether they have bought their Benefices or come to them by fraud guile deceit or Simony Adulterers Item Whether they have given open monition to their Parishioners to detect and present to their Ordinary all Adulterers and Fornicators and such men as have two wives living within their Parishes Item Whether they have monished their parishioners openly Church goods that they should not sell give nor otherwise alienate any of their Church goods Item Whether they Many Benefices or any of them do keep moe Benefices and other Ecclesiastical promotions then they ought to do not having sufficient licences and dispensations thereunto and how many they be and their names Item Whether they minister the holy Communion any otherwise Communion then onely after such form and manner as it is set forth by the common authority of the Queens Majesty and the Parliament Item Letters of the word or preaching Whether you know any person within your Parish or else where that is a letter of the word of God to be read in English or sincerely preached in place and times convenient Item Whether in the time of the Letany Goers out of the church or any other Common prayer in the time of the Sermon or Homily and when the Priest readeth the Scriptures to the Parishioners any person have departed out of the Church without just and necessary cause or disturbed the minister otherwise Item Whether the money coming and rising of any Cattel Church money or other moveable stocks of the Church and money given and bequeathed to the finding Torches Lights Tapers or Lamps not paid out of any lands have not been imployed to the poor mens chest Item Who hath the said stocks and money in their hands Keepers of the Church money and what be their names Item Contempt of Priests Whether any undiscreet person do uncharitably contemn and abuse Priests and Ministers of the Church Item The Kings Grammar Whether there be any other Grammar taught in any School within this Diocesse then that which is set forth by the authority of King Henry the eight Item The time of Service Whether the service of the Church be done at due and convenient houres Item Whether any have used to commune jangle Talkers in the Church and talke in the Church in the time of the prayer reading of the Homily preaching reading or declaring of the Scripture Item Heresies Whether any have wilfully maintained and defended any Heresies errors or false opinions contrary to the faith of Christ and holy Scripture Item Whether any be common drunkards Drunkards swearers or blasphemers of the name of God Adulterers Item Whether any have committed Adultery fornication or incest or be common Bawds or receivers of such evil persons or vehemently suspected of any of the premisses Brawlers Item Whether any be brawlers slanderes chiders scolders and sowers of discord between one person and another Sorcerers Item Whether you know any that do use Charmes Sorceries Inchantments Invocations Circles Witchcrafts Soothsaying or any like crafts or imaginations invented by the Devil and specially in the time of womens travel Pulpits Item Whether Churches Pulpits and other necessaries appertaining to the same be sufficiently repaired and if they be not in whose default the same is Resorters to other Churches Item Whether you know any that in contempt of their own Parish Church do resort to any other Church Inholders Item Whether any Inholders or Alehouse keepers do use commonly to sell meat and drink in the time of common prayer preaching reading of the Homilies or Scripture Divorce Item Whether you know any to be married within the degrees prohibited by the laws of God or that be separated or divorced without the degrees prohibited by the law of God and Whether any such have married again Privie contracts Item Whether you know any to have made privie contracts of Matrimony not calling two or moe witnesses thereunto nor having thereto the consent of their parents Banes Item Whether they have married solemnly the banes not first lawfully asked Executors Item Whether you know any Executors or Administrators of dead mens goods which do not onely bestow such of the said goods as were given and bequeathed or appointed to be distributed among the poor people repairing of High wayes finding of poor scholars or marrying of poor maidens or such other like charitable deeds Images Item Whether you know any that keep in their houses any undefaced Images Tables Pictures Paintings or other Monuments of feigned and false miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and superstition and do adore them and specially such as have been set up in Churches Chappels and Oratories Books Item What books of holy Scripture you have delivered to be burnt or otherwise destroyed and to whom ye have delivered the same Bribes Item What bribes the Accusers Promoters Persecutors Ecclesiastical Iudges and other the Commissioners appointed within the several Diocesses of this Realm have received by themselves or other of those persons which were in trouble apprehended or
also of the Churches determining controversies of doctrines and matters of belief in a full Council Act. 15. and requiring submission to those determinations from inferiour members The like did the Church afterwards in her general Councils of NICE CONSTANTINOPLE EPHESUS and CHALCEDON And not onely the General Councils have exercised this Authority but particular Churches also in National Councils in the Council of ORANGE MILEVIS and others have used the same power over their children whom they were bound to teach and govern and for whose souls they were to account to God and they did no more then was their right so long as they did it with submission to the general Church to whom they are subject Christ said to the Apostles and by this to all the guides of soules that should succeed them in a lawful Ordination He that heares you heares me and he that despises you despises me St. Cypr. ep 69 From these premises it plainly follows that our dear Mother the Church of England in making these Canons and Articles for determining of controversies in matters of belief which you may see in the ensuing Collection did no more then what was both her right and her duty to do both for the preservation of her peace and the guidance and conduct of the souls committed to her charge and what her care hath been in the exercise of this power for the good of her members ever since the Reformation will evidently to her honour appear by this following Collection made up not without great care and industry of the Publisher By which he hath done our Mother this farther right that now whosoever will may easily see the notorious slander which some of the Roman perswasion have endeavourd to cast upon her That her Reformation hath been altogether Lay and Parliamentary for by the Canons and articles following which were formerly scattered and hard to be seen by every one now gathered together into a body it easily appears to any that will but open their eyes and read that the Reformation of this Church was orderly and Synodical by the Guides and Governours of souls and confirmed by Supream Authority and so in every particular as legal as any reformation could or ought to be Anth. Sparrow Books sold by T. Garthwait THe Works of that Profound Divine Dr. Tho. Jackson president of Corp. Chr. Coll. Oxon. in Folio 3. Volumes The Scholastical History of the Canon of the Scripture by Dr. Cofin Ld. Bp. Duresme in 4o. An Introduction to the Oriental Languages by Dr. Walton Ld. Bp. of Chester in 12o. The English Case exactly set down by Hezekiahs Reformation in a Serm. at Paris before His Majesty by Dr. Steward Dean of Westminster in 12o. A Rationale upon the Book of Com. Prayer by Dr. Sparrow in 12o. A Defence of the Liturgy in answer to the Exceptions of divers Ministers in 12o. The Form of Consecration of a Church by Bp. Andrews Golden Remains of Mr. John Hales of Eton Colledge with His Letters touching rhe Synod of Dort in 4o. Dr. Pierce of the Positive being of sin with a Postscript touching Mr. Baxter in 4o. A Sermon of Lent preacht before his Majesty by Dr. Gunning c. in 4o. Bp. Andrews his Sermons in fol. INJUNCTIONS given by the most excellent Prince EDWARD the Sixt By the grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in earth under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland the supreme head To all and singular his loving subjects as well of the Clergy as of the Laitie Imprinted at LONDON by Richard Grafton 1547. Injunctions given by the most excellent Prince Edward the sixt by the grace of God King of England France and Ireland defender of the Faith and in earth under Christ of the Church of England and of Ireland the supreme head To all and singular his loving subjects as well of the Clergy as of the Laity THE Kings most Royal Majestie by the advice of his most dear uncle the Duke of Somerset Lord Protector of all his Realms Dominions and Subiects and Governour of his most royal person and the residue of his most honourable counsel intending the advancement of the true honour of almighty God the suppression of Idolatry and Superstition throughout all his Realms and Dominions and to plant true Religion to the extirpation of all hypocrisy enormities and abuses as to his duty appertaineth doth minister unto his loving subjects these godly Injunctions hereafter following Whereof part were given unto them heretofore by the authority of his most dear beloved father King Henry the viii of most famous memory and part are now ministred and given by his Majesty All which Injunctions his highnesse willeth and commandeth his said loving subjects by his supreme authority obediently to receive and truely to observe and keep every man in their offices degrees and states as they will avoyd his displeasure and the pains in the same Injunctions hereafter expressed 1. The first is that all Deans Archdeacons Parsons Vicars and other Ecclesiastical persons shall faithfully keep and observe and as far as in them may lye shall cause to be observed and kept of other all and singular laws and statutes made as well for the abolishing and extirpation of the Bishop of Rome his pretensed and usurped power and jurisdiction as for the establishment and confirmation of the Kings authority jurisdiction and supremacy of the Church of England and Ireland And furthermore all Ecclesiasticall persons having cure of souls shall to the uttermost of their wit knowledge and learning purely sincerely and without any colour or dissimulation declare manifest and open iiii times every year at the least in their Sermons ond other collations that the Bishop of Romes usurped power and jurisdiction having no establishment nor ground by the laws of God was of most just causes taken away and abolished and that therefore no manner of obedience or subjection whithin his Realms and Dominions is due unto him And that the Kings power within his Realms and Dominions is the highest power under God to whom all men within the same Realms and Dominions by Gods laws owe most loyalty and obedience afore and above all other powers and Potentates in earth Besides this to the intent that all superstition and hypocrisy crept into divers mens hearts may vanish away They shall not set forth or extol any Images Relicks or Miracles for any superstition or lucre nor allure the people by any inticements to the Pilgrimage of any Saint or Image but reproving the same they shall teach that all goodness health and grace ought to be both asked and looked for onely of God as of the very author and giver of the same and of none other Item that they the persons above rehersed shall make or cause to be made in their Churches and every other Cure they have one Sermon every quarter of the year at the least wherein they shall purely and sincerely declare the word
of God and in the same exhort their hearers to the works of faith mercy and charity specially prescribed and commanded in scripture and that workes devised by mens phantasies besides Scripture as wandering to Pilgrimages offering of mony candels or tapers or relicks or Images or kissing and licking of the same praying upon beades or such like superstition have not only no promise of reward in scripture for doing of them but contrariwise great threats and maledictions of God for that they be things tending to Idolatry and superstition which of all other offences God almighty doth most detest and abhor for that the same diminish most his honour and glory Item that such Images as they know in any of their cures to be or to have been abused with Pilgrimage or offering of any thing made thereunto or shall be hereafter censed unto they and none other private persons shall for the avoiding of that most detestable offence of Idolatry forthwith take down or cause to be taken down and destroy the same and shall suffer from henceforth no Torches nor candles Tapers or Images of wax to be set afore any Image or picture but onely two lights upon the high altar before the Sacrament which for the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world they thall suffer to remain still admonishing their Parishioners that Images serve for no other purpose but to be a remembrance whereby men may be admonished of the holy lives and conversation of them that the said Images do represent which Images if they do abuse for any other entent they commit Idolatry in the same to the great danger of their souls Item that every holy day throughout the year when they have no Sermon they shall immediately after the Gospel openly and plainly recite to their Parishioners in the pulpit the Pater noster the Credo and x. Commandments in English to the intent the people may learn the same by heart exhorting all parents and housholders to teach their children and servants the same as they are bound by the law of God and in conscience to do Item that they shall charge Fathers and Mothers Masters and governours to bestow their children and servants even from their childhood either to learning or to some honest exercise occupation or husbandry Exhorting and counseling and by all the wayes and means they may aswel in their sermons and collations as otherwaies perswading their said Fathers and Mothers Masters and other governours diligently to provide and foresee that the youth be in no manner of wise brought up in idlenesse least at any time afterward for lack of some craft occupation or other honest mean to live by they be driven to fall to begging stealing or some other unchriftinesse Forasmuch as we may daily see through sloth and idlenesse divers valiant men fall some to begging and some to theft and murder which after brought to calamity and misery do blame their parents friends and governours which suffered them to be brought up so idlely in their youth where if they had been well brought up in learning some good occupation or craft they would being rulers of their own houshold have profited aswell themselves as divers other persons to the great commodity and ornament of the Common wealth Also that the said Parsons Vicars and other Curates shall diligently provide that the Sacraments be duly and reverently ministred in their Parishes And if at any time it happen them in any of the cases expressed in the statutes of this Realm or of special licence given by the Kings Majesty to be absent from their benefices they shall leave their Cure not to a rude and unlearned person but to an honest well learned and expert Curate that can by his ability teach the rude and unlearned of their Cure wholsom doctrine and reduce them to the right way that do erre which will also execute these Injunctions and do their duty otherwise as they are bound to do in every behalf and accordingly may and will profit their cure no less with good example of living then with the declaration of the word of God or else their lack and default shall be imputed unto them who shall straightly answer for the same if they do otherwise And alwayes let them see that neither they nor their Curates do seek more their own profit promotion or advantage then the profit of the souls that they have under their Cure or the glory of God Also that they shall provide within three moneths next after this visitation one book of the whole Bible of the largest volumn in English And within one twelve moneths next after the said visitation the paraphrasis of Erasmus also in English upon the gospels and the same set up in some convenient place within the said Church that they have Cure of whereas their Parishioners may most commodiously resort unto the same and read the same The charges of which books shall be ratably born between the Parson or approprietary and parishiones aforesaid that is to say the one half by the Parson or proprietary the other half by the parishioners And they shall discourage no man authorised licensed thereto from the reading of any part of the Bible either in Latine or in English but shall rather comfort exhort every person to read the same as the very lively word of God and the special food of mans soul that all Christian persons are bound to embrace believe and follow if they look to be saved whereby they may the better know their duties to God to their sovereign Lord the King and their neighbour ever gently and charitably exhorting them and in his Majesties name straightly charging and commanding them that in the reading thereof no man to reason or contend but quietly to hear the Reader Also the said Ecclesiastical persons shall in no wise at any unlawful time nor for any other cause then for their honest necessity haunt or resort to any Taverns or Alehouses And after their dinner or supper they shall not give themselves to drinking or riot spending their time idlely by day or by night at dice cards or tables playing or any other unlawful game but at all times as they shall have leasure they shall hear and read somewhat of holy Scripture or shall occupie themselves with some other honest exercise and that they alwayes do the things which appertain to honesty with endeavour to profit the common weale having alwayes in minde that they ought to excel all other in purity of life and should be an example to the people to live well and Christianly Item that they shall in confessions every Lent examine every person that cometh to confession to them whether they can recite the Articles of their faith the Pater noster and the ten Commandments in English and heare them say the same particularly wherein if they be not perfect they shall declare then that every Christian person ought to know the said things before they