cipal sections, relative to doctrine; namely, those entitled-Of the Holy Trinity and the Catholic Faith,-Of Heresies,-and Of Sacraments. The references to the pages of this work, will point out where the intermediate chapters are introduced. But first it may be well to give, as it stands, SECT. The Table of Titles of the Contents. 1. Of the Holy Trinity and the Catholic Faith. 2. Of Heresies. 3. Of Judgments against Heresies. 4. Of Blasphemy. 5. Of Sacraments. 6. Of Idolatry. 7. Of Preachers. 8. Of Matrimony. 9. Of Prohibited Degrees. 10. Of Adultery and Di vorce. 11. Of Admission to Eccle siastical Benefices. 12. Of the Renunciation of Benefices. 13. Of the Exchange of Benefices. 14. Of Purgation. 15. Of Dilapidations. 16. Of Alienation of Church Property. 17. Of Election. SECT. 18. Of Conferring Benefices. 21. Of Church Wardens. 24. Of Visitations. 25. Of Wills. 26. Of Ecclesiastical Pun- 27. Of Suspension. 34. Of the Office of Judges. swer. 36. Of Oaths. 37. Of the Oath against Calumny. F SECT. SECT. Of the Holy Trinity and the Catholic Of the Christian Faith, that it is to be embraced and professed by all. Chap. 1. Inasmuch as the regal power, and right of administering the laws are delegated to us by God, the foundation of our work is to be laid in the same God. Concerning whose nature, when it shall have been rightly and orderly determined, the provision to be made for the remaining laws will be a more easy matter-those laws, which we have sedulously prepared, for the purpose of establishing the true worship of God in our dominions, and of preserving the state of the Church. Wherefore, we will and order, that all men, to whom, in any manner, our authority pertains, should embrace and profess the Christian religion. Against which obligation they who offend in thought or deed, alienate God by their impiety. But we, who are servants of the Divine adauctaque in hunc modum, atque nunc ad pleniorem ipsarum reformationem in lucem ædita." Printed by John Day, 1571. As it has never been entirely translated, the Latin title, or rather the beginning of it, has been retained in the annexed Extracts, to distinguish it from those works, which being originally in Latin, were contemporaneously translated. It is sufficiently evident in the very title-page, that much presumptive authority, but no positive sanction, either of the Legislature, or of the Church, is to be ascribed to this very remarkable and important compilation. In the first place, speech there mentioned this book, and propounded, that consideration should be had of it: And that Mr. Fox had taken pains about it, and printed it: Norton then and there producing it. And a committee was thereupon appointed for redress of sundry defects in religion. But, instead of reviewing and furthering the establishment of this excellent and elaborate book, the Parliament fell rather upon examining other matters of religion already established, which gave the Queen great offence." Strype, in his Memorials, Vol. II. B. II. ch. viii. con. eludes an account of the commission issued for the Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws, taken from Fox's Preface, in these words: "These commissioners finished at last this great work. And the King lived not long enough to get it enacted; and so it fell, and that great labour frustrated." Burnet (History of the Reformation, Part II. B. I. in the year 1552,) after mentioning the circumstances above recited, gives a brief abstract of the contents of the work, according to the order of the titles under which it is arranged. it may be presumed to contain not only the welldigested sentiments, on the points of doctrine and discipline which it embraces, of Cranmer, who is supposed to have been the first instigator and superintendant of it; but the general opinion also of the heads of the Church in the two later reigns; in the first of which it was revised, and in the second edited. That it never was constituted the authorized code of Ecclesiastical Law, is true; but this circumstance, which is to be accounted for, does not detract from its peculiar value-that of being, in the chapters relative to doctrinal matters, an expostion and paraphrase, as it were, of the Articles, written about the same period, and, most probably, by some of the same persons who were entrusted with the charge of drawing up the public formularies. Fox, the martyrologist, was at length appointed the editor of this work, which had passed through so many hands, and had been so often on the eve of publication. In his Preface to the Reader, after alluding to the corruptions and misrule of the Papal power, and the happy abolition of the Pope's supremacy in this land by Henry VIII., he says, that that King not satisfied with nominal freedom, determined to give to his subjects entire liberty from Romish tyranny. That for this purpose, by decree of the King and Parliament, thirty-two men were chosen, eminent for skill and learning, who were to substitute new laws in the place of the Papal Canon, in the name, and by the authority of the King. That this was not carried into effect, he attributes to a very probable cause, either the turbulence of the times, or the delay of those to whom the business was committed. He goes on to say, that Edward VI., following his father's example, ardently pursued the task of reforming the Ecclesiastical Law, and that the affair was again entrusted, if not to the very same persons, at least to the same number, and of equal qualifications, partly consisting of Bishops, partly of other Divines, and partly of Lawyers of both branches, of common and ecclesiastical lawyers: eight in each class;-that the work was then effected with equal facility and speed; that the thirty-two commissioners were divided into four classes, so that two of each denomination being put together formed a class; and the subject-matter referred to each, when finished by either class, was transmitted for approbation to the others. Thus, he adds, were these laws completed, under the supreme superintendance of Cranmer, and adorned by the learning and eloquence of Walter Haddon, with the assistance of Sir John Cheke. Fox declares, that too great praise could not be given to Edward, nor to the learned men who compiled these statutes, which were accepted with general applause and approbation. "Nor," says he, "is it to be doubted, that they would have received the sanction of Parliament, and have passed into active laws, if the life of the King |
