ARTICLE XXVI

Malos ministros" was substituted for "eos" in the last paragraph utentis."3, and in 1571 the English was brought into conformity with the

its first issue in 1553. It is drawn substantially from the fifth of the "Thirteen Articles of 1538,"1 which in its turn rested to some extent on the eighth of the Confession of Augsburg.2 Its object is to condemn the view maintained by the Anabaptists, that the ministry of evil ministers is necessarily inefficacious and ought to be rejected. The same view is expressly condemned in the Confession of Augsburg in the following words: "Damnant Donatistas et similes, qui negabant licere uti ministerio malorum in ecclesia, et sentiebant ministerium malorum inutile et inefficax esse.' Similarly the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum says that some of the Anabaptists "ab ecclesiæ corpore seipsos segregant, et ad sacrosanctam Domini mensam cum aliis recusant accedere, seque dicunt detineri vel ministrorum improbitate vel aliorum fratrum."

Latin by the alteration of "such" into "evil ministers." The title also in its present form only dates from 1571. In 1553 and 1563 it was "the wickedness of the ministers doth not take away the effectual operation of God's ordinances." "Ministrorum malitia non tollit efficaciam institutionum divinarum."

166 'Quamvis in ecclesia secundum posteriorem acceptionem mali sint bonis admixti atque etiam ministeriis verbi et sacramentorum non nunquam præsint; tamen cum ministrent non suo sed Christi nomine, mandato, et auctoritate, licet eorum ministerio uti, tam in verbo audiendo quam in recipiendis sacramentis juxta illud: 'Qui vos audit me audit.' Nec per eorum malitiam minuitur effectus, aut gratia donorum Christi rite accipientibus; sunt enim efficacia propter promissionem et ordinationem Christi, etiamsi per malos exhibeantur."

2 "Quanquam ecclesia proprie sit congregatio sanctorum et vere credentium; tamen cum in hac vita multi hypocritæ et mali admixti sint, licet uti sacramentis, quæ per malos administrantur, juxta vocem Christi Sedent Scribæ et Pharisæi in Cathedra Moisis, etc. Et sacramenta et verbum propter ordinationem et mandatum Christi sunt efficacia, etiamsi per malos exhibeantur.”

3 Confessio Augustana, Art. VIII. sub fine.

4 Ref. Legum Ecclesiast., De Hæres. c. xv. Cf. Rogers On the Articles (published in 1586). "The Anabaptists will not have the people to use the ministry of evil ministers, and think the service of wicked ministers

It has been sometimes thought that the Article may have also been aimed at the doctrine of " Intention." 1 This, however, is unquestionably a mistake. The language of the Article in no way bears on the doctrine, and it is difficult to see how it could ever have been thought to do so. Certainly when the Puritans at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 asked that a condemnation of the doctrine might be inserted in the Articles, it cannot have occurred either to them or to the Bishops who answered them that a condemnation. of it was there already. Moreover, when in 1633 Francis a Sancta Clara (Davenport) wrote his Commentary on the Thirty-Nine Articles, endeavouring to reconcile them with the Tridentine decrees, while some of the statements in the Articles were evidently stubborn facts which it was hard to manipulate, the Article before us gave him no trouble whatever. It appeared to him entirely satisfactory, and the only comment which he deemed necessary upon it was this: "This is the very doctrine of the Church and of all the Fathers." 8

Taking, then, the Article as aimed solely against the notions of the Anabaptists, it needs but little comment

unprofitable and not effectual; affirming that no man who is himself faulty can preach the truth to others. . The disciplinary Puritans do bring all ministers who cannot preach, and their services, into detestation. For their doctrine is that where there is no preacher, there ought to be no minister of the sacraments. None must minister the sacraments which do not preach, etc. . . So the Brownists: no man is to communicate (say they) where there is a blind or dumb ministry." Rogers On the Thirty-Nine Articles (Parker Society),

P. 271.

1 See Bishop Harold Browne On the Articles, p. 607.

2 Cf. Cardwell's History of Conferences, p. 185.

3 Davenport's book, which is more remarkable for ingenuity than for anything else, has been republished by the Rev. F. G. Lee (J. T. Hayes, 1872).

or explanation. The opinions condemned in it, which have found favour with Puritan sects from the days of the Donatists onward, would, if admitted, make all ministerial and sacramental acts utterly uncertain, for no man can see into the hearts of the ministers, and say who are in the sight of God "evil" and who are not. Besides this, there is ample support in Holy Scripture for the position maintained in the Article. The principle underlying our Lord's words, "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all things, therefore, whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe; but do not ye after their works" (S. Matt. xxiii. 2, 3), may fairly be applied to the case of "evil ministers" in the Christian Church. When the Twelve were sent forth two and two, and given "power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease," the ministry of Judas must have been effectual like that of the rest of the Apostles, or suspicion would have been directed towards him. Again, our Lord lays down the rule with regard to " the Seventy" which must apply to Christian ministers also: "He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that rejecteth you, rejecteth Me; and he that rejecteth Me, rejecteth Him that sent Me" (S. Luke x. 16); and S. Paul teaches that the minister is nothing. 'What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" (1 Cor. iii. 5, 6). Such passages when fairly considered seem sufficient to establish the position taken up in the Article, and to lead us to believe that even in an extreme case, when the evil have chief authority in the ministration of

1 The doctrine of "Intention" is noticed in connection with the question of the validity of Anglican Orders in the Commentary on Article XXXVI. See below, p. 755.

the word and sacraments, yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in Christ's, and do minister by His commission and authority, we may use their ministry, both in hearing the word of God, and in the receiving of the sacraments.

At the same time, important as it is that this principle should be established, it is no less necessary that the Church should guard herself with the utmost care from any suspicion of indifference to the character of the lives of her ministers, whom she charges before their ordination to the priesthood to "endeavour themselves to sanctify their lives, and to fashion them after the rule and doctrine of Christ, that they may be wholesome and godly examples and patterns for the people to follow "; and, therefore, it is well that the statement already considered should be followed by that in the last paragraph of the Article, which must commend itself to everyone, and seems to require no formal proof. It appertaineth to the discipline of the Church, that inquiry be made of evil ministers, and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences; and finally, being found guilty by just judgment, be deposed.