york00orns

while,
REVISION OF EDWARD VI. 's ARTICLES. 337
revision of the Forty-two Articles of Edward VI.
finally agreed upon by the southern convocation, they
were, as we have them, thirty-nine in number. The
northern convocation does not seem to have had
any direct influence as regards the revision. The
Archbishop of York and his suffragans of Durham
and Chester, subscribed in the synod of the southern
province on the occasion, but there appears reason
to believe that the northern clergy were consulted by
their primate at the beginning of February, 1562-3.
Considerable modifications took place at this time
in Edward's Articles. " The statements of the Church
were amplified on certain doctrines, more especially
those in which her teaching had been misrepresented;
other subjects were omitted altogether, owing partly
to the disappearance of the forms of misbelief at
which they had been levelled, and partly to a manifest
anxiety of the compilers to abstain, as far as
might be, from scholastic questions : in reference
to the Eucharist, of which the statement may
in every case be taken as one of the best criteria
for deciding the special character of all confessions
issued at this period, the Church of England occupied
a more distinct and independent place than in the
previous list of Articles. The Romish theory of
transubstantiation was repudiated quite as strongly as
before : the theory, alike of Romanist and Lutheran,
touching the manducation of our Lord's Body by the
wicked, was no less obnoxious to the majority of the
synod : yet, in order to establish a position equally
removed from Zwingli's, they determined that the
Body of Christ is after a heavenly manner given,
z
As