cluding a treaty of alliance, and of drawing up a joint Confession of Faith. Some progress in the business had been made by English embassies on the continent, particularly by one conducted by Fox and Hethe in the winter of 1535. Seckendorfu relates that several Articles of Religion were then agreed on by the two parties, and he recites the precise terms, in which they expressed their judgment of the Lord's Supper. But Henry was not satisfied with these deliberations at a distance: he was desirous that they should be transferred to his own dominions, and continually pressed the German princes to send ambassadors for the purpose. And his wishes were at length gratified; a mission being dispatched to England in the spring of 1538. It consisted of Francis Burcard, Vice-Chancellor to the Elector of Saxony; George à Boyneburg, a nobleman of Hesse; and Frederic Myconius, Superintendent of the Reformed Church at Gotha. On their arrival in London, Cranmer, with some other bishops and divines, was immediately directed to open conferences with them. The course of the present discussions, as well as of those which had been previously held in Germany, seems to have been regulated by the Confession of Augsburgh. According to the order of that Formulary it was arranged, that the representatives of the two nations. should first settle the chief articles of faith, and should then proceed to inquire into the abuses and corruptions alleged to have crept into the Church. They are known, from a letter by Myconius, to have brought the first division of their consultations to a happy issue; having decided on a form for declaring the principal points of Christian doctrine. But this concord was broken when they came

66

" Seckendorf, Comment. de Lutheran. lib. iii. §. xxxix. Add. (f.) "In articulis et in summa doctrinæ Christianæ eousque progressi sumus, ut de præcipuis jam conveniat: et quod de abusibus est reliquum, cum in eis rebus tam verbo quam scripto, nostrorum Princi“pum, Doctorum, Ecclesiarum, et nostram sententiam explicaveri

66

to examine the abuses: here Henry, who himself interfered in the proceedings, differed so widely from the Germans, as to cut off all hope of a satisfactory arrangement. The ambassadors persisted in asserting, that the three main corruptions of the Church of Rome were the denial of the cup to the laity in the administration of the Lord's Supper, the custom of private propitiatory Masses, and the prohibition of marriage to the clergy. The King was no less stiff in maintaining all these practices to be good and lawful; and either from his own strong feeling on these questions, or at the instigation of counsellors desirous of a rupture, he announced his resolution to undertake this part of the controversy in person w. The tract written by him in consequence, as well as the letter of the Germans to which it was a reply, is preserved in the Cotton Library, and has been printed by Burnet. But the Confession of Faith previously settled, has not hitherto been given to the world. Yet it seems strange, that while the memorials of their disunion have reached us, the Articles on which they agreed, should have MS. Book perished. And probably this is not the case. For a main the State nuscript among Archbishop Cranmer's papers in the State Paper Office, may be reasonably conjectured to be a copy of them. It is a thin folio, entitled, "A boke conteyning dyvers Articles De Unitate Dei et Trinitate personarum, "De peccato originali," &c. The documents tied up in the same bundle, relate chiefly to these negotiations with the foreign Reformers; and the "boke" itself is manifestly founded on the Confession of Augsburgh, often following

of Articles

Paper

Office.

"mus, et Episcopi atque Doctores jam sententiam nostram teneant, 66 poterunt etiam nobis absentibus illa expendere." Myconius to Crumwell, in Strype, Memorials, vol. i. App. No. 95. See also Cranmer's Letters, Vol. i. pp. 261. 263.

w This however must be understood with some allowance; for in the elaborate answer addressed in his name to the Germans, he was most materially assisted by Tunstal.

* Burnet, Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. Add. Nos. 7, 8.

it very closely, and departing from it exactly in those instances, where the mixture of English with German theology might have been expected to cause a variation. It is also in Latin, and this circumstance adds to the probability of its having been composed in concert with foreigners: for such other Formularies of this reign as were designed for domestic use, are in English. And lastly, the only Article, namely that on the Lord's Supper, which there is an opportunity of comparing with the conclusions approved by Fox and Hethe in Germany, is word for word the samey. There seems therefore to be a fair presumption, that this "boke" is a copy of the Articles of Faith arranged at London by the English and German Reformers in the summer of 1538.

But whatever may be the value of this conjecture, there can be no doubt, either that this Book of Articles was considered at that time of great importance, or that Cranmer was concerned in framing it. This is clear from the number of rough drafts for different parts of it still existing in the State Paper Office and the Cotton Library 2; one of which is corrected in the handwriting of the King, and several in that of the Archbishop. This document is interesting also in another point of view: it appears to have been the groundwork of Edward VI.'s Articles of 1552, and conse

y Seckendorf, Comment. de Lutheran. lib. iii. §. xxxix. Add. (f). z Six of these Articles have been printed from the drafts in the Cotton Library by Strype, who considered them to be part of a Formulary composed in 1540 by Commissioners then appointed under the authority of an Act of Parliament. This opinion, which has been adopted by Mr. Todd, and with some reserve by Archbishop Laurence, is in no respect inconsistent with the supposition advanced above. But no evidence has been adduced in support of it; and the Articles of 1540, even if they were ever completed, (which is doubtful,) being intended for the exclusive use of the English Church, were in all probability not drawn up in Latin. See below, p. xxx; Strype, Memorials, vol. i. p. 357. and App. N°. 112; Todd, Declarations of Reformers, &c. Introd. p. vi; Laurence, Bampton Lectures, p. 195.

It is not meant to

quently of the Thirty-nine, still in use. dispute the common statement, that the Formulary of Edward VI. owes much of its materials to the Confession of Augsburgh. But it is suggested, that it was probably taken more immediately from the Book of Articles just described, that this was the channel, through which the language of the German Confession was introduced into the English. At least such an inference is supported by the fact, that the expressions in Edward VI.'s Formulary, usually adduced to prove its connexion with the Confession of Augsburgh, are also found in this Book of Articles; while it contains others, which can be traced as far as the Book of Articles, but which will be sought for in vain in the Confession of Augsburgh. And to this Book, if it was in truth the result of the conferences of 1538, the framers of Edward VI.'s Articles would be likely to have recourse. They would naturally be anxious, in the execution of their undertaking, to meet, if possible, the views of their brethren on the continent, as well as of their countrymen at home; and they could scarcely pursue a surer method of attaining this object, than by borrowing from a form of doctrine already approved by both. Under these circumstances the reader probably will not be displeased at finding this Book of Articles printed in the Appendix a

The failure of these negotiations with the German princes, was one of the heaviest blows sustained by the English Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII. It both removed the salutary restraint hitherto imposed on the King's caprices by an unwillingness to break with those who were embarked in the same cause, and it also enlisted

a Vol. iv. Appendix, N°. XIII.

b Respecting some subsequent negotiations with the German princes, see Burnet, Hist. of Ref. vol. iii. pp. 277. 295. 311; Strype, Memorials, vol. i. pp. 339. 343. 367; State Papers, vol. i. p. 860.

!

Six Arti

his personal feelings on the side of the tenets he had so
zealously pledged himself to defend. It thus probably con-
tributed materially to the success of the great measure, by
which, in the following year, the men of the Old Learning
endeavoured to stifle the growth of the New, the memora-
ble Act of the Six Articles . In this example of theological Act of the
legislation, the dogmas lately upheld by Henry against the cles. 1539.
objections of the Germans, occupied a conspicuous place.
Cranmer however, timid as he is often represented to have
been, now combated his Sovereign's errors in public, no less
firmly and honestly than he had formerly done in private.
Though desired by a Royal message to absent himself, he
attended resolutely in his place in the House of Lords, and
opposed the bill" with great reasons and authorities d." As

< The Six Articles were: "First, That in the most blessed Sacrament
"of the Altar, by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty word, it
"being spoken by the priest, is present really, under the form of bread
"and wine, the natural body and blood of our Saviour Jesu Christ,
"conceived of the Virgin Mary; and that after the consecration there
"remaineth no substance of bread or wine, nor any other substance
"but the substance of Christ, God and man; Secondly, That commu-
"nion in both kinds is not necessary ad salutem by the law of God to
"all persons; and that it is to be believed, and not doubted of, but
"that in the flesh, under form of bread, is the very blood; and with
"the blood, under form of wine, is the very flesh, as well apart as
"though they were both together; Thirdly, That the priests after the
"order of priesthood received as afore may not marry by the law of
"God; Fourthly, That vows of chastity or widowhood by man or
66 woman, made to God advisedly, ought to be observed by the law of
"God, and that it exempteth them from other liberties of Christian
people, which without that they might enjoy; Fifthly, That it is
meet and necessary that private masses be continued and admitted
" in this the King's English Church and Congregation, as whereby good
"Christian people, ordering themselves accordingly, do receive both
'godly and goodly consolations and benefits, and it is agreeable to
"God's law; Sixthly, That auricular confession is expedient and ne-
cessary to be retained and continued, used and frequented, in the
"Church of God." Statutes of the Realm, 31 Hen. VIII. c. 14.

d Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. pp. 443. 508; Burnet, Reformat. vol. i. pp. 515. 518. vol. iii. p. 272; Strype, Cranmer, p. 73.