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The Thirty-Nine Articles · Article 33 of 39

Article XXXIII. Of Excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided

That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and Publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a Judge that hath authority thereunto.

Latin text (1563)

Articulus XXXII. Excommunicati uitandi sunt.

Qvi per publicam Ecclesiæ denuntiationem ritè ab unitate ecclesiæ præcisus est et excommunicatus, is ab uniuersa fidelium multitudine, donec per pœnitentiam publicè reconciliatus fuerit, arbitrio Iudicis competentis, habendus est tanquam Ethnicus et Publicanus.

  • Numbered XXXII in 1563, because Article XXIX was not printed until 1571.

Source: the first printed Latin edition (London: Reginald Wolfe, 1563), as given in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3 (1877), via CCEL. Original spelling kept.

Commentaries

Article-by-Article commentaries on Article XXXIII, oldest first.

  1. Thomas Rogers, The Faith, Doctrine, and Religion, Professed, & Protected in the Realme of England (first published 1585 as The English Creede; 1607 ed.)
  2. John Ellis, A Defense of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England (first published in Latin 1660; 1700 English ed.)
  3. Gilbert Burnet, An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England (first published 1699; 1700 2nd ed.)
  4. William Beveridge, Ecclesia Anglicana Ecclesia Catholica; or, The Doctrine of the Church of England Consonant to Scripture, Reason, and Fathers (written before 1708; 1846–47 ed.)
  5. Edward Welchman, The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, Illustrated with Notes (first published in Latin 1713; 1790 English ed.)
  6. Anonymous, A Practical Exposition upon the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1716)
  7. John Veneer, An Exposition on the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (first published 1725; 1734 2nd ed.)
  8. Martin Madan, A Scriptural Comment upon the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1772)
  9. John Hey, Lectures in Divinity, Book IV (1796–98)
  10. George Pretyman Tomline, Elements of Christian Theology, vol. 2 (first published 1799; 1818 ed.)
  11. William Wilson, The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, Illustrated by Copious Extracts from the Liturgy, Homilies, Nowell’s Catechism, and Jewell’s Apology (1821)
  12. Thomas R. Jones, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles by the Reformers (1849)
  13. William Trollope, Questions and Answers on the XXXIX Articles of the Church of England (1850)
  14. Edward Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Historical and Doctrinal (first published 1850–53; 1895 printing)
  15. Alexander Penrose Forbes, An Explanation of the Thirty-Nine Articles (first published 1867–68; 1871 2nd ed.)
  16. Thomas Pownall Boultbee, A Commentary on the Thirty-Nine Articles (first published 1871; 1877 ed.)
  17. George Frederick Maclear and Watkin Wynn Williams, An Introduction to the Articles of the Church of England (1895)
  18. E. Tyrrell Green, The Thirty-Nine Articles and the Age of the Reformation (1896)
  19. Edgar Charles Sumner Gibson, The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, Explained with an Introduction (1896–97)
  20. Bernard C. Jackson, The Thirty-Nine Articles: A Short Exposition (1900)
  21. Edward John Bicknell, A Theological Introduction to the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1919)

Historical context

Article XXXIII teaches that a person rightly cut off from the unity of the Church by open denunciation is to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as a heathen and publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance and received by a judge with authority. It stands substantially as in 1553. The Article affirms that the Church of England retained the discipline of excommunication, against those who denied the Church any power of discipline. In practice the use of excommunication through the church courts was later criticised by Puritans as too often applied to small causes. The Article reflects the older canon law of public denunciation and penance, which the English church courts retained.

Sources: C. Hardwick, A History of the Articles of Religion (1851); E. H. Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles (1865); E. C. S. Gibson, The Thirty-Nine Articles (1896).