made his assistance invaluable to the Archbishop. Professor Blunt gives a charming sketch of this holy man. "Ridley was well born, coming of good stock in Northumberland; his reputation was great in Cambridge, where he was first a student and then the Master of Pembroke College. Henry promoted him to the See of Rochester; and Edward translated him to that of London. He was a man of vast reading, ready memory, wise of counsel, deep of wit, and very politic in all his proceedings. Though abundantly kind to his kinsfolk, he declared, even to his brother and sister, that doing evil they should look for nothing at his hand; such was his integrity: and when the mother of Bonner was his near neighbour at Fulham, he gave her a welcome to his table (an attention which was afterwards but ill returned by her son), assigning to her a chair of her own; so that even when the king's council dined with him, he did not suffer her to be removed, saying, 'By your Lordships' favour this place, by right of custom, is for my mother Bonner;' such was his tenderness. His life, which is probably a picture of that of the higher ecclesiastics of his time, was conducted with great regularity. Every morning, as soon as he had put on his clothes, he prayed in his chamber for half an hour; thence to business or to study till ten; after which he assembled his household for family prayers; dinner came next, which, with chess, engaged him for an hour; when, if there were no suitors, or matters to be transacted abroad, he returned to his study till five; evening prayers followed, then supper and his favourite chess; again his books till eleven o'clock, and so, his private devotions performed as in the morning, he ended his peaceful day.” The publications by which Cranmer and Ridley endeavoured to reinvigorate the faith of the English Church were mainly the following Erasmus's Paraphrase of the New Testament, a copy of which, as well as of the Bible, was ordered to be set up in every parish church. A volume of Homilies, twelve in number, of which those on "salvation" and on "faith and good works" were probably written by Cranmer himself; others, more strongly flavoured with controversy, by his chaplain Becon and the homely pen of Latimer (now Bishop of Worcester). Soon after this first Book of Homilies, there appeared (in 1548) Cranmer's Catechism, a translation of a Catechism of Luther's friend Justus Jonas; soon followed by the far more excellent Catechism, which was of genuine English growth, and which we still retain (with Bishop Overall's addition on the Sacraments) in our Prayer Book. This latter Catechism seems to have been the work of Nowell' or Poinet, revised by Cranmer and Ridley. It was called in those days Edward the Sixth's Catechism. Then came, also in 1548, the Office of the Communion, carefully and reverently compiled from the Roman Missal. This, the most essential part of our divine Service, was followed in the following year by other offices, making up what is called The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1549). The chief compilers were Cranmer, Ridley, and Goodrich, Bishop of Ely. Their object seems to have been to restore as far as possible the Liturgy of the Primitive Church, cutting out of the Breviary all that was unscriptural. Melanchthon and I Colet's successor in the Deanery of St. Paul's. Bucer (the most learned of the Continental Reformers, —the latter Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge) had drawn up a very similar Liturgy for Hermann, Archbishop of Cologne; and from this some passages in our Prayer Book are borrowed, but the greater part is translated from the Liturgies of the fifth and sixth centuries, which Augustine brought with him into England in 597. In 1552 the English Liturgy was republished, with some alterations made under the influence of the followers of Calvin, with whom Cranmer and Ridley had little sympathy. This was called the Second Prayer Book of Edward the Sixth. In the same year (1552) appeared Cranmer's Fortytwo Articles. It seems to have been the earnest wish of the wisest and best of the Reformers,― Melanchthon, Bucer, Cranmer and Ridley,--that the Church's Scriptural Faith should be embodied in a series of Articles which all the Reformed Churches should adopt. This appeared to be the more needful, because the Divines of the Church of Rome were occupied in drawing up a series of Articles at their Council of Trent, embodying, and actually incorporating with the Nicene Creed, all that was most unscriptural in their mediæval theology. In opposition to this Creed of Pope Pius IV., as it came to be called, the Lutheran Reformers framed their Confessions of Augsburg and Wirtemburg, which they hoped the English Church would adopt. But there were points on which the more Catholic Church of England differed from the Lutherans; and the English Divines preferred to draw up Articles of their own. Cranmer's first draft was submitted to Sir William Cecil (Secretary of State) and Sir John Cheke (the King's tutor), and after careful revision by the Bishops, was published by royal authority, to be subscribed by all the Clergy. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign a further revision of the Articles was made by the Convocation of the Clergy under Archbishop Parker. Seven Articles were cancelled: those, namely, On Grace, On Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, On the Obligation of the Moral Law, Against Millenarians, That the Resurrection is not past, That the Soul does not sleep, That all Men are not saved. Four new Articles were added, namely, V. On the Holy Ghost; XII. On Good Works; XXIX. Of the wicked which eat not the Body of Christ; XXX. On Communion in both kinds. Thus the number was reduced to thirty-nine. They were signed in Latin by the Bishops and Clergy in Convocation, and ratified by the Queen in 1562; in 1571 an English translation was made under Jewel's editorship, was signed by both Houses of Convocation, and again ratified by the Crown; and by an Act of Parliament in the same year all the Clergy were required to subscribe them. When we examine this form of faith, so scriptural and so entirely in accord with the mind of the primitive Church, and reflect on the troublous times in which it was drawn up, we may well thank God for the wisdom and moderation of the men who had the courage to lay down so broadly and so simply the lines of doctrine on which they invited the nation to take its stand. It need hardly be said how deeply the writer of this Manual is indebted to Bishop Harold Browne's invaluable work. LESSON 11. OF THE THREE PERSONS OF THE GODHEAD. ARTICLE I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. THERE is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, 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. Notes.-"Without body, parts, or passions:" -or, as the Latin may be rendered literally, "incorporeal, indivisible, incapable of suffering." "Person" and "substance" differ in meaning: -A person is an individual moral agent to whom the words I, Thou, He, may be applied; substance, as here used, is the nature or essence whereof one or more persons subsist. This Article sums up the teaching of Scripture about the Being of God : : That He is One : Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord" (Mark xii. 29). |