CONSTITUTIONS AND CANONS ECCLESIASTICAL.

A.D. 1603.

III.

The Church of England a true and Apostolical Church.

Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, That the Church of England, by law established under the King's Majesty, is not a true and an Apostolical Church, teaching and maintaining the doctrine of the Apostles: Let him be Excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, but only by the Archbishop, after his repentance and public revocation of this his wicked Error.

V.

Impugners of the Articles of Religion, established in the Church of England, censured.

Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, That any of the Nine and Thirty Articles agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces, and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred sixty-two, for avoiding diversities of Opinions, and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion, are in any part superstitious or erroneous, or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto: Let him be Excommunicated ipso facto, and not be restored, but only by the Archbishop, after his repentance and public revocation of such his wicked Errors.

IX.

Authors of Schism in the Church of England, censured.

Whosoever shall hereafter separate themselves from the Communion of Saints, as it is approved by the Apostles' Rules in the Church of England, and combine themselves together in a new brotherhood, accounting the Christians who are conformable to the doctrine, government, rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, to be profane and unmeet for them to join with in Christian profession : Let them be Excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, but by the Archbishop, after their repentance and public revocation of such their wicked Errors.

XXXVI.

Subscription required of such as are to be made Ministers.

No person shall hereafter be received into the Ministry, nor either by Institution or Collation admitted to any Ecclesiastical Living, nor suffered to Preach, to Catechize, or to be a Lecturer or Reader of Divinity, in either University, or in any Cathedral or Collegiate Church,

B

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CONSTITUTIONS AND CANONS ECCLESIASTICAL.

City, or Market-town, Parish Church, Chapel, or in any other place within this Realm, except he be Licensed either by the Archbishop, or by the Bishop of the Diocess (where he is to be placed), under their hands and seals, or by one of the two Universities under their seal likewise; and except he shall first subscribe to these three Articles following, in such manner and sort as we have here appointed.

1. That the King's Majesty under God, is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm, and of all other his Highness's Dominions and Countries, as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes, as Temporal: and that no Foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State or Potentate, hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Pre-eminence or Authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within his Majesty's said Realms, Dominions, and Countries.

2. That the Book of Common Prayer, and of Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God, and that it may lawfully so be used; and that he himself will use the Form in the said Book prescribed, in Publick Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and none other.

3. That he alloweth the Book of Articles of Religion, agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces, and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord God, one thousand five hundred sixty and two; and that he acknowledgeth all and every the Articles therein contained, being in number nine and thirty, besides the Ratification, to be agreeable to the Word of God.

To these three Articles whosoever will subscribe, he shall, for the avoiding of all ambiguities, subscribe in this order and form of words, setting down both his christen and sirname, viz. "I, N. N., do willingly, and ex animo, subscribe to these three Articles abovementioned, and to all things that are contained in them." And if any Bishop shall Ordain, Admit, or Licence any, as is aforesaid, except he first have subscribed in manner and form as here we have appointed, he shall be suspended from giving of Orders and Licences to Preach for the space of twelve months. But if either of the Universities shall offend therein, we leave them to the danger of the law, and his Majesty's censure.

XXXVII.

Subscription before the Diocesan.

None licenced, as is aforesaid, to Preach, Read, Lecture, or Catechize, coming to reside in any diocess, shall be permitted there to Preach, Read, Lecture, Catechize, or Minister the Sacraments, or to execute any other Ecclesiastical function (by what authority soever he be thereunto admitted), unless he first consent and subscribe to the three Articles before mentioned, in the presence of the Bishop of the Diocess wherein he is to Preach, Read, Lecture, Catechize, or Administer the Sacraments, as aforesaid.

ARTICLES

Agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces, and the whole Clergy, 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 Majesty's Commandment, with his Royal Declaration prefixed thereunto.

HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION.1

BEING by God's Ordinance, according to Our just Title, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Governor 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 Commonwealth. 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 God's Word: which We do therefore ratify 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 Supreme Governor of the Church of England: And that if any difference arise about the external Policy, concerning [the] Injunctions, Canons, and other Constitutions whatsoever thereto 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 Customs of the Land.

That out of Our Princely Care that the Churchmen 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

1 This Declaration was first issued 4 Charles I., 1628. See Bishop Pearson's Answer to Burges, Opusc. vol. II. pp. 220, 221.

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HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION.

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 settled 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 Clergymen within Our Realm have always 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 exercised the Church of Christ, We will that all further curious search be laid aside, and these disputes shut up in God's 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 sence or comment to the meaning of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical sence.

That if any publick Reader in either of Our Universities, or any Head or Master of a College, 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 Colleges respectively; or if any Divine in the Universities shall Preach or Print any thing either way, other than is already established in Convocation with Our Royal Assent; he, or they the Offenders, shall be liable to Our displeasure, and the Church's censure in Our Commission Ecclesiastical, as well as any other: And We will see that there shall be due Execution upon them.

In some copies, to be the meaning, &c.

SCRIPTURE PROOFS

AND PATRISTIC TESTIMONIES IN SUPPORT OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

I. The Phraseology of this Article.

1. As compared with its correspondent of the Articles of 1552. In the Latin both are the same. In the English the variation is but slight and of no importance. We have in the

2. In respect of various readings:

in the Unity-Hey. Bev. Rogers......in unity-Bennet, be three Persons-H. Bev. Ben. R....are three Persons