Boultbee on Article XXXV: Of the Homilies

Thomas Pownall Boultbee, 1877

Commentaries on Article XXXV: Rogers (1607)Ellis (1660)Burnet (1699)Beveridge (d. 1708)Welchman (1713)Practical Exposition (1716)Veneer (1725)Madan (1772)Hey (1796)Tomline (1799)Wilson (1821)Jones (1849)Trollope (1850)Browne (1850)Forbes (1867)Boultbee (1871)Maclear & Williams (1895)Green (1896)Gibson (1896)Jackson (1900)Bicknell (1919) · Article 35: text, context and Study

Article XXXV. Of the Homilies
The second Book of Homilies, the several titles whereof we have joined under this Article, doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine, and necessary for these times, as doth the former Book of Homilies, which were set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth; and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers, diligently and distinctly, that they may be understanded of the people.
Of the Names of the Homilies
1.Of the right Use of the Church. 2.Against peril of Idolatry. 3.Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches. 4.Of good Works: first of Fasting. 5.Against Gluttony and Drunkenness. 6.Against Excess of Apparel. 7.Of Prayer. 8.Of the Place and Time of Prayer. 9.That Common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministered in a known tongue. 10.Of the reverend estimation of God's Word. 11.Of Alms-doing. 12.Of the Nativity of Christ. 13.Of the Passion of Christ. 14.Of the Resurrection of Christ. 15.Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 16.Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. 17.For the Rogation-days. 18.Of the State of Matrimony. 19.Of Repentance. 20.Against Idleness. 21.Against Rebellion.
Text: Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Cleaned OCR; [...] marks passages cut for illegibility. See the scan. Text: A Commentary on the Thirty-nine Articles, forming an Introduction to the Theology of the Church of England, by T. P. Boultbee (first published 1871), edition of 1877 (London: Longmans). Cleaned OCR from the Internet Archive scan; [...] marks passages too garbled to recover. Boultbee treats Article XXXVI together with Article XXIII.

This Article was substituted in Elizabeth’s time for the previous one of Edward, which was very similar in its terms, but, as a matter of course, recognised the First Book of Homi- lies only.

The name is of Greek origin, o/iiXm, so called as being rather a familiar and instructive discourse than an oration. So also the Latin word sermo, which nearly corresponds.

Observations on Article XXXV.

The only question can be as to the degree of assent hereby given to the Homilies. A quibbler might satisfy himself by finding in them the least modicum of doctrine with which he could agi’ee, and say that they contained therefore * a godly and wholesome doctrine.’ But it would have been childish to insert such an Article, if it were not intended to affirm a general assent to the Homilies. They are popular discourses, and were not meant to be subjected to that verbal criticism and nicety of arrangement and expression required in a for- mulary of fe,ith. But if the Article has any use or force at all, it must imply a general approval of the doctrines, as distin- guished from any particular arguments used by the writers, or special illustrations or ideas adapted to those times. It will be remembered that the eleventh Article gives a yet higher authority to the Homily on Justification.

The great necessity for such volumes as the t^vo collections of Homilies will at once be manifest when it is remembered that on the restoration of the Reformation under Elizabeth

only eighty parish priests declined to conform. The great mass of the clergy, therefore, both in Edward’s reign and in the early part of Elizabeth’s, were those who had conformed to eveiy change of Henry VIII., of Edward, of Mary, and of Elizabeth, and were incompetent and unfit in every point of view to preach.

The authorship of the Homilies is obscure. Cranmer is credited with the greater part of the First Book, and Jewel with the Second. Some, however, were certainly by other hands. Two were written by Tavemer.

The two Books of Homilies are now usually published in one volume. It may be well to give here the list of the Homilies in the First Book.

A Fruitful Exhortation to the reading of Holy Scripture.
Of the misery of all mankind.
Of the salvation of all mankind.
Of the true and lively Faith.

Read at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/acommentaryonth00boulgoog