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book, called The button of 1 Corum Im tame this year. For the comping werd te Le out a commission as diven wure and star for as wherein most of the ducatues of riga att ant ments and ceremonies of the CURTE E TIMNÉT bated: each setting down in wing me get each point, digested moer severa quasinos."

See also Barnet's Eury of the Femica

Bishop's Book, in 1537. "Certain Articles of Christian doctrine for the Church of England," in 1540. These, through the fostering care of Cranmer, kept alive the pure seed of the Gospel, first sown by the hand of Providence, notwithstanding the Papal errors which remained to check it in its growth, and the violent hostility. of the Papal Bishops, who continually strove to pluck it up, and cast it forth out of the land.

It has been with some hesitation, that the Author has refrained from quoting a work, which came out in the year 1543, under the King's

"In the

* Strype's Memorials, Vol. I. B. I. ch. 48. year 1540 the King granted a commission (and got it confirmed by Act of Parliament,) to several Bishops and other Divines, to examine the doctrines and ceremonies then retained in the Church. Some of them were to draw up an exposition of such things as were necessary for the Institution of a Christian Man. And others to examine what ceremonies should be retained, and what was the use of them.......The matters of faith, some whereof I shall set before the reader, were drawn up as a form of doctrine, which should be esteemed as the public judgment, and the professed doctrine of the Church of England. As is plain from the phrases used in these writings, viz. Docemus: Credimus. We teach; We believe. Some of these I meet with in the Cotton Library. Which I have digested into six Articles. I. Of the Church. II. Of Institution. III. Of the Eucharist. IV. Of Baptism. V. Of Penance. VI. Of the Use of the Sacraments. Which may all be seen at length in the Appendix, (Num. CXII.) Under this title which I have prefixed to them, Quidam Doctrinæ Christianæ Articuli pro Ecclesia Anglicana."

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book, considering the small advance whichhad yet been made in the establishment of the reformed tenets; and a very valuable one, as containing, together with some alloy, a mass of the purest Protestant divinity.

Upon the whole, however, it has been deemed

now was called, that is, The Erudition of any Christian Man, spoken of before." The Archbishop wrote some Annotations on a corrected copy of the work; or, as they are called by himself, “ Animadversions upon the King's Book," which are still preserved, but it does not appear that all his suggestions were adopted.

66

Chap. xxv. By the Act above-mentioned, the generality of the people were restrained from reading the Holy Scriptures. But in lieu of it was set forth by the King and his Clergy, in the year 1543, a doctrine for all his subjects to use and follow; which was the book above said: and all books that were contrary to it, were by authority of Parliament condemned."

The Archbishop introduced and countenanced it in his diocese, on account of this authority, and of the good things in it, although there were others "foisted in," by the Bishop of Winchester, which he did not approve.

Strype's Memorials, Vol. I. B. I. ch. 1. "Another Session of a former Convocation began April 20, 1543. Now they were concerned, as it seems, on a diligent review of a former good book, called, The Institution of a Christian Man..... ......This produced a second edition, enlarged, of the Institution, and was called, A necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man. And this year (1543) it came forth, in print, with many alterations and additions, by a special commission from the King to Archbishop Cranmer, and divers other learned Bishops, and other Divines."

"This book was received in the Parliament that sat this year, as the Lord Herbert shews."

more advisable to avoid the objection, without discussing its validity, which might be made to any public work put forth during the reign of Henry VIII., namely, that all publications issuing from the press, under the royal authority, were subject to the jealous supervision of a Prince, who more cordially opposed the Papal power, than the doctrinal corruptions of the Roman Catholic religion, and that therefore no such book can be properly esteemed a Protestant work till after the accession of Edward VI.

The first document from which extracts are taken, is the first, in point of date, which we find after the accession of Edward VI.; when there was no longer any obstacle to the free dissemination of Anti-Catholic opinions; when Cranmer, with his colleagues, was set at liberty to prosecute the great and glorious work in which he was engaged, and which he had hitherto been compelled to pursue with the utmost caution, beset, as he was, with difficulties and enemies, and harassed by his royal master's fickleness.

THE SUM AND CONTENT OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE * was prefixed to some of the early

* The copy from which the “ Extracts" are transcribed, is printed in a very useful collection of the Works of the Reformers, entitled, "The Fathers of the English Church," and is said to be taken from Becke's Bible, of 1549. It has been collated with the " Sum and Content," in a copy of Cranmer's Bible, and found to vary in only a few very trifling instances.

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