The Irish Articles
Articles of the Church in Ireland
written and influenced by James Ussher. Link to the Actual Articles is
to the right. Below is a statement about the Articles by Phillip Schaff.
The actual Irish Articles of Religion are at the LINK TO THE RIGHT
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THE
IRISH ARTICLES
A.D. 1615.
by Phillip Schaff
The
Protestant clergy in Ireland accepted the English Prayer-Book in 1560.
Whether the Elizabethan Articles of Religion were also adopted is
uncertain.
At all events, they did not fully satisfy the rigorous Calvinism which
came to prevail there for a period even more extensively than in
England, and which found an advocate in an Irish scholar and prelate of
commanding character and learning.
The
first Convocation of the Irish Protestant clergy, which took place after
the model of the English Convocation, adopted a doctrinal formula of its
own, under the title 'Articles of Religion, agreed upon by the
Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of the clergy of Ireland, in the
Convocation holden at Dublin in the year of our Lord God 1615, for the
avoiding of diversities of opinions, and the establishing of consent
touching true religion.'
They
were drawn up by James Ussher,
head of the theological faculty and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College,
Dublin, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland. He
was born in 1580, died 1656, and was buried in Westminster Abbey by
order of Cromwell. He was the greatest theological and antiquarian
scholar of the Episcopal Church of his age, and was highly esteemed by
Churchmen and Puritans, being a connecting link between the contending
parties. He was elected into the Westminster Assembly of Divines, but
the King's prohibition and his loyalty to the cause of the crown and
episcopacy forbade him to attend. He had an extraordinary familiarity
with Biblical and patristic literature, and, together with his friend
Vossius of Holland, he laid the foundation for a critical investigation
of the ecumenical creeds. Whether formally commissioned by the
Convocation or not, he must, from his position, have had the principal
share in the preparation of those Articles. They are 'in strict
conformity with the opinions he entertained at that period of his
life.’
By
a decree of the Synod appended to the Dublin Articles, they were to be a
rule of public doctrine, and any minister who should publicly teach any
doctrine contrary to them, and after due admonition should refuse to
conform, was to be 'silenced and deprived of all spiritual promotions.'
The Viceroy of Ireland, in the name of King James, gave his approval.
James, with all his high notions of episcopacy and 664hatred of
Puritanism, was a Calvinist in theology, and countenanced the Synod of
Dort. It is stated that the adoption of this Confession induced
Calvinistic ministers of Scotland to settle in Ireland.
But
in the reign of Charles I. and his adviser, Archbishop Laud, a reaction
set in against Calvinism. An Irish Convocation in 1635, under the lead
of the Earl of Strafford, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and his chaplain,
John Bramhall (one of the ablest High-Church Episcopalians, who was made
Bishop of Londonderry, 1634, and Archbishop of Armagh, 1661—died,
1663), adopted the Thirty-nine Articles 'for the manifestation of
agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same
Christian faith and the doctrine of the sacraments.' This act was
intended quietly to set aside the Irish Articles; and hence they were
ignored in the canons adopted by that convocation.
Ussher, however, who continued to adhere to Calvinism, though on terms
of friendship with Laud, required subscription to both series, and in a
contemporary letter to Dr. Ward he says: 'The Articles of Religion
agreed upon in our former Synod, anno 1615, we let stand as we did
before. But for the manifestation of our agreement with the Church of
England, we have received and approved your Articles also, concluded in
the year 1562, as you may see in the first of our Canons.’
After the Restoration the Dublin Articles seem to have been lost sight
of, and no mention was made of them when, in the beginning of the
nineteenth century, the English and Irish establishments were
consolidated into 'the United Church of England and Ireland.’
The
Irish Articles are one hundred and four in number, arranged under
nineteen heads. They are a clear and succinct system of divinity, in
full harmony with Calvinism, excepting the doctrine of the
ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown (which is retained from the
English Articles). They incorporate the substance of the Thirty-nine
Articles and the Lambeth Articles, but are more systematic and complete.
They teach absolute predestination and perseverance, denounce the Pope
as Antichrist, inculcate the Puritan view of Sabbath observance, and
make no mention of three orders in the ministry, nor of the necessity of
episcopal ordination. In all these particulars they prepared the way for
the doctrinal standards of the Westminster Assembly. They were the chief
basis of the Westminster Confession, as is evident from the general
order, the headings of chapters and subdivisions, and the almost literal
agreement of language in the statement of several of the most important
doctrines.
Works
Cited:
Works
of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and
Primate of all Ireland. With a Life of the Author, and an Account of his
Writings. By Charles Richard Elrington, D.D. Dublin, 1847, 16 Vols. See
Vol. I. pp. 38 sqq. and Appendix IV.
Ch.
Hardwick: A History of the Articles of Religion, pp. 181 sqq., 351 sqq.
James
Seaton Reid, D.D.: History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
Belfast, 1834, 3 vols.
W.
D. Killen, D.D. (Presb. Prof. of Eccles. Hist. at Belfast): The
Ecclesiastical History of Ireland from the Earliest Period to the
Present Time. London, 1875, 2 vols. (Vol. I. pp. 492 sqq.; Vol. II. pp.
17 sqq.)
The
Irish Articles are printed in Vol. III. pp. 526 sqq. of this work, in
Dr. Elrington's Life of Ussher (Vol. I. Append. IV.), in Hardwick
(Append. VI.), and in Killen (Vol. I. Append. III.).
Dr. Elrington, Life of J. Ussher, pp. 43, 44. Comp. also the 'Body
of Divinity,' which was published in Ussher's name during the
sessions of the Westminster Assembly, and which, he admitted to have
compiled, in early life, from the writings of others.
Killen, Vol. II. p. 23: 'The silence of the canons in respect to the
Calvinistic formulary, now nearly twenty years in use, was fatal to
its claims, and thus it was quietly superseded. Heylin errs in
stating (Life of Laud) that the Dublin Articles were actually
'called in.'
This agreement has been proved by Professor Mitchell, D.D., of St.
Andrews, in his tract The Westminster Confession of Faith, 3d ed.,
Edinburgh, 1867, and in the Introduction to his edition of the
Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, 1874, pp. xlvi. sqq. We shall
return to the subject more fully in the section on the Westminster
Confession.
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