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Two books articulating Anglican doctrine

The Books of Homilies (1547, 1562, and 1571) are two books together containing thirty three sermons developing the authorized reformed doctrines of the Church of England in depth and detail, as appointed for use in the 35th Article of the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion. The longer title of the collection is Certain Sermons or Homilies Appointed to Be Read in Churches. They belong to the basic formularies of the Church of England.

Following the secession of the Church of England from the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome in 1530, and the designation of the monarch, Henry VIII of England, as the chief power in both the civil and ecclesiastical estates of the realm, it was needed for the establishment of the English Reformation that the reformed Christian doctrines, theology, piety, and practice should be explained and taught as widely as possible among all congregations throughout the realm. Although the liturgy had formerly been conducted entirely in Latin, and holy communion (consisting only of the consecrated bread) was administered twice a year, the progress of reformed faith had long been developing unofficially among the populace at all levels, as much through the Wycliffite tradition, as through the new learning in the universities in its wider European context.

Attempts to reformulate the doctrine of the English Church, led by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer under Thomas Cromwell as Vicegerent, begun with the adoption of the (partly Lutheran) Ten Articles in 1536, was augmented in 1537 by a volume of disquisitions known as the Bishops' Book, or The Institution of a Christen Man. This book was divided into four sections as follows:* The exposition of the Apostles' Creed* The declaration of the Seven Sacraments* The exposition of the Ten Commandments* The exposition of the Pater noster and the Ave, with the articles of Justification and Purgatory. Dedicated by the bishops to King Henry, this was first ordered to be read from the pulpits, but then suppressed with a view to revision. In 1539 the Six Articles were enacted in law, a reactionary formula with severe penalties for violation. The revised work called the King's Book, or The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for Any Christen Man, was deliberated upon at the Convocation of 1540 (at the time of Cromwell's fall) and published in 1543. The King's Book contained sections as follows, as in the Bishops' Book giving lengthy paraphrases or expositions on each of the various articles within the sections, line by line:* The declaration of Faith* The articles of our belief, called the Creed* The seven sacraments* The ten commandments of almighty god* Our lord's prayer called the Pater noster* The salutation of the angel, called the Ave Maria* An article of free will* An article of justification* An article of good works* Of prayer for souls departed.

The First Book saw a new edition in 1562, the homilies divided into parts for better understanding: in its preface, the Queen's injunction for them to be read was given. This, and the editions of 1563, 1567 and of 1571, in which the Second Book of homilies and sermons was added, belong to the time of Matthew Parker as archbishop, from the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I until his death in 1575. They followed that interruption to the Reforms occasioned by Queen Mary I (ruled 1553–1558) and the Roman Catholic Archbishop Reginald Pole (1556–1558), and the execution of Thomas Cranmer (author of much of the first volume) as a heretic in 1556. The Forty two Articles had not been enforced during Mary's reign, during which the English Church was reunited with that of Rome, but at once regained importance in Elizabeth's religious settlement.

The Second Book, mainly written by Matthew Parker with Bishop John Jewel and others, was printed perhaps in two or more editions by Richarde Iugge and John Cawood, "printers to the Queenes Maiestie". According to Parker, the Homilies had already been printed in 1562 and only awaited the Queen's approval at Midsummer 1563 for final publication. Entitled Certayne Sermons appoynted by the Queenes Maiestie, it contained twenty sermons. Reprints appeared in succeeding years. The publication followed the Convocation's approval of Thirty Nine Articles, from which the Queen removed a further article to pacify objections from her Catholic subjects. These complete the promised scope of the Homilies as projected in the final notice of the First Book.

Many of the sermons are straightforward exhortations to read scripture daily and lead a life of prayer and faith in Jesus Christ; the other works are lengthy scholarly treatises intended to inform church leaders in theology, church history, the fall of the Byzantine Empire and those aspects of the Roman Catholic Church and doctrine from which the Reformed Anglican faith had turned away. Each homily is heavily annotated with references to holy scripture, the Church Fathers and other primary sources. The longest homily is the second of the second book, "Against Peril of Idolatry", which runs to about 136 printed pages (pp. 25–161 in the 1571 edition) and is divided into three parts. The first part elaborates the Mosaic law against the worship of images, and down to St Paul's condemnations: the second part follows the patristic writings on the same point, and traces from the Iconoclastic Controversy (which underlay the schism between Western and Eastern churches, and aroused Rome's hostility towards the parts of Christendom not under papal authority). The third part presents, from the perspective of the Reformed Church, a history of such Roman Catholic religious teachings and practices as were deemed to have led to idolatrous observances, as, for instance:"And where one saint hath images in divers places, the same saint hath divers names thereof, moste lyke to the Gentiles. When you heare of our Lady of Walsingham, our Lady of Ipswich, our Lady of Wilsdon, and suche other: what is it but an imitation of the Gentiles idolaters? Diana Agrotera, Diana Coriphea, Diana Ephesia, etc., Venus Cipria, Venus Paphia, Venus Gnidia. Whereby is evidently meant, that the saint for the image sake, shoulde in those places, yea in the images them selves, have a dwellyng, whiche is the grounde of theyr idolatrie. For where no images be, they have no such meanes" (at p. 99). The homilies contain many historical spellings, based on the Vulgate and Septuagint, of Biblical names such as Noe for Noah and Esay for Isaiah. The colourful expression "mummishe massyng" appears in the fifteenth sermon of the second book (Of the worthy receaving of the Sacrament), not to characterize the Mass itself, but (on the contrary) to describe those who come to the Lord's Supper "unreverentlye, not discerning the Lordes bodye" (like the Corinthians blamed by St Paul, I Corinthians, xi, 27–29), with "rude and unreverent ignoraunce", as if it were a mime show.

The Episcopal Church's version of the Articles endorses the content of the Homilies, but states that it suspends the order for reading them until they can be updated.