The Lacuna Project

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Exhibit 531

Articles of Religion of the Church of England (1571 English text), Articles XX and XXXVII

Exhibit 531 ยท Formulary

Articles of Religion of the Church of England (1571 English text), Articles XX and XXXVII

we geue not to our princes the ministring either of God's word, or of Sacraments

Article XX says the Church has power to decree rites and authority in controversies of faith but may not enforce as necessary for salvation anything besides Scripture; Article XXXVII says the Queen has the chief government of all estates, ecclesiastical or civil, and that this does not give princes 'the ministring either of God's word, or of Sacraments'.

Source
Convocation of Canterbury, with royal authority
Date
1571
Quoted from
Art. XXXVII, in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom III, pp. 512-13 (from Cawood 1571 as printed in Hardwick)
Grade
Primary record
Document
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3/creeds3.iv.xi.html
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit
Note
Used for the established church's own statement of the limits of its claim. Article XX: besides Scripture the Church 'ought it not to enforce any thing to be beleued for necessitie of saluation'.

Cited by

Finding REL-2.9
Reported Innocent III in 1199 called the desire to understand the divine Scriptures "commendable" while condemning secret lay assemblies and usurped preaching; Thomas More wrote in 1529 that the clergy kept from the laity only translations not yet approved or already condemned; the 1559 Act of Supremacy limited what commissioners could adjudge heresy; and Anne Hudson reports about 250 surviving manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible, including a copy owned by Henry VI.