John Keble on the 39 Articles

 

"Anglo-Catholics in the future will continue to regard the 1662 Prayer Book, the 39 Articles, liturgical practices, and the Councils of the patristic church just as the Oxford Movement did under Pusey, Keble, and Newman, our fathers in the faith"  [After the GAFCON (1) The Jerusalem Declaration] The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker, Bishop of Ft. Worth 

"The Articles are to be subscribed to in the sense intended by those whose authority makes the subscription requisite."(3) It must always be remembered that the same Convocation, in the same set of Canons which first required subscription to the Articles, in 1571, enjoined that preachers should only teach "that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments, and that which the Catholic fathers and ancient bishops have collected out of the same doctrine."  "It seems no violent inference, that the appointed measure of doctrine preached, was also intended to be the measure of doctrine delivered in the way of explanation of doubtful passages in formularies."(4) It is quite evident, therefore that the Articles would be understood by the clergy who first subscribed them as Articles of Peace for the preservation of unity. They were not religious tests, or Articles of Faith; they were made as comprehensive as possible, and they weere to be interpreted and understood in accordance with the general rule of Catholic tradition, i.e., in the Catholic sense.(5) Footnotes: (3) Keble's Catholic Subscription to the XXXIX. Articles, p. 13. (4) ibid., p. 15. (5) "I understand by the Catholic sense, that sense which is most comfortable to the ancient rule, `Quod semper, quod ubiqua, quod ab omnibus.'"