confession

Thirty-Nine Articles

39 Articles · 1571 · 39 chapters, 58 paragraphs

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By

Convocation of Canterbury

Dates

written 1563; first published 1563; adopted by the Convocation of Canterbury, 1571

Tradition

anglican, reformed

Also called

Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion; Articles of Religion; XXXIX Articles; The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England

Follows

Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Archbishoppes and Bishoppes of both prouinces and the whole cleargie, in the Conuocation holden at London in the yere of our Lorde GOD. 1562. according to the computation of the Churche of Englande, for the auoiding of the diuersities of opinions, and for the stablishyng of consent touching true religion, Richard Jugge and John Cawood’s printing, 1571, with the first clause of article 20 (London); STC 10038.9, ESTC S124523 · the scan (PDF) , from archive.org

Transcribed

From EEBO-TCP A72013Checked against a copy at archive.org: article 6’s canonical books, the Greek of article 9 (a gap in A72013), and every word in which A72013 and B13405 differ but spelling, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-28Checked against EEBO-TCP B13405: all, word by word, by Claude, for cco3, 2026-10-28

License

Public domain

Notes

The Church of England’s Articles of Religion: Matthew Parker’s revision of Cranmer’s Forty-Two Articles (1553), agreed in Latin by the Convocation of Canterbury in January 1563 (“1562”, the English year beginning in March), and printed that year in Latin and in English without article 29. In 1571 Convocation read them again, restored article 29, and the bishops and clergy subscribed them; the English was revised against the Latin, and Parliament’s Act of that year (13 Eliz. c. 12) bound the clergy to subscribe them. The English of 1571 is not a translation but the Articles themselves, of the same authority as the Latin. This is that English, in the Queen’s printers’ quarto of 1571, as EEBO-TCP transcribed it (A72013, from the Cambridge University Library copy). The other 1571 quarto the TCP has (STC 10039.3, ESTC S120358, EEBO-TCP B13405) is another setting, with its own spelling and slips, and without article 20’s first clause, “The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and aucthoritie in controuersies of fayth”, which the Latin of 1563 has, and the Articles as the Church of England has received them. The titles are the printing’s; the margin numbers the articles. Article 6’s canonical books, set in two columns, and article 35’s homilies run on in their paragraphs; the TCP read the second book of Kings into the wrong column, and it is put back. The printing’s spelling, abbreviations (“supererogatiō”, “tokēs”, “ye” for “the”) and slips (“clearey” in 15, “comdemned” in 16, “partrakyng” in 28) are kept; its long s is s, and its VV W. The Greek of article 9, which the TCP did not key, is read from the scan. The ratification is prose/ratification; the table of the articles’ short titles and the colophon are left out. The Royal Declaration of 1628, printed before the Articles since, is not in this printing.

Commentaries

Gilbert Burnet, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1699); Thomas Rogers, The Faith, Doctrine, and Religion, Professed, and Protected in the Realm of England, Expressed in Thirty-Nine Articles (1607), with each paragraph

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