come to an agreement with the English bishops and divines on certain articles of faith :* and the "Boke" found among Cranmer's MSS. has, not without sufficient grounds, been supposed by Mr. Jenkyns to contain the articles in question. It is just such a document as we might conjecture would be written under the circumstances of the case. It is founded on the Augsburg Confession, following it most closely, yet departing from it where English and German theology might be expected to clash. It is written in Latin; a circumstance which adds to the probability of its having been drawn up in concert with foreigners. The MSS. with which it is tied up in the State Paper Office, chiefly relate to this negotiation with the Germans; while the article on the Lord's Supper is almost word for word the same as one which had been previously agreed upon at Wittemberg between the English embassy and the German divines, in A.D. 1535.

This "Boke" is of deep interest to the theological student, not only from the circumstance of its presenting him with the combined views of the English and German reformers on the subject of Baptism, but likewise from the very striking similarity in phraseology, as well as sentiment, between it and the Thirty-nine Articles subsequently drawn up by our own divines; of which the article below, De Sacramentorum Usu, may be adduced as an instance.

* Cranmer's Works, vol. i. p. 261. Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. Appendix, 259.

6. De Baptismo.*

De Baptismo dicimus, quod Baptismus a Christo sit institutus, et sit necessarius ad salutem, et quod per Baptismum offerantur remissio peccatorum et gratia Christi, infantibus et adultis. Et quod non debeat iterari Baptismus, et quod infantes debeant baptizari. Et quod infantes per Baptismum consequantur remissionem peccatorum et gratiam, et sint filii Dei, quia promissio gratiæ et vitæ æternæ pertinet non solum ad adultos, sed etiam ad infantes. Et hæc promissio per ministerium in Ecclesia infantibus et adultis administrari debet. Quia vero infantes nascuntur cum peccato originis, habent opus remissione illius peccati, et illud ita remittitur ut reatus tollatur, licet corruptio naturæ seu concupiscentia manet in hac vita, etsi incipit sanari, quia Spiritus Sanctus in ipsis etiam infantibus est efficax et eos mundat. Probamus igitur sententiam Ecclesiæ quæ damnavit Pelagianos, quia negabant infantibus esse peccatum originis. Damnamus et Anabaptistas, qui negant infantes baptizandos esse. De adultis vero docemus, quod ita consequuntur per Baptismum remissionem peccatorum et gratiam, si baptizandi attulerint pœnitentiam veram, confessionem articulorum fidei, et credant vere ipsis ibi donari remissionem peccatorum et justificationem propter Christum, sicut Petrus ait in Actis: "Pœnitentiam agite, et baptizetur unusquisque vestrum in nomine Jesu Christi in remissionem peccatorum, et accipietis donum Spiritus Sancti."

Cranmer's Works, vol. iv. p. 279.

9. De Sacramentorum Usu.*

Docemus, quod Sacramenta quæ per verbum Dei instituta sunt, non tantum sint notæ professionis inter Christianos, sed magis certa quædam testimonia et efficacia signa gratiæ, et bonæ voluntatis Dei erga nos, per quæ Deus invisibiliter operatur in nobis, et suam gratiam in nos invisibiliter diffundit, siquidem ea rite susceperimus, quodque per ea excitatur et confirmatur fides in his qui eis utuntur. Porro docemus, quod ita utendum sit sacramentis, ut in adultis, præter veram contritionem, necessario etiam debeat accedere fides, quæ credat præsentibus promissionibus, quæ per sacramenta ostenduntur, exhibentur, et præstantur. Neque enim in illis verum est, quod quidam dicunt, sacramenta conferre gratiam ex opere operato sine bono motu utentis; nam in ratione utentibus necessum est, ut fides etiam utentis accedat, per quam credat illis promissionibus, et accipiat res promissas, quæ per sacramenta conferantur. De infantibus vero cum temerarium sit eos a misericordia Dei excludere, præsertim cum Christus in Evangelio dicat," Sinite parvulos ad me venire, talium est enim regnum cœlorum :" et alibi, Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu Sancto, non potest intrare in regnum cœlorum :" cumque perpetua Ecclesiæ Catholicæ consuetudine, jam inde ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus, receptum sit infantes debere baptizari in remissionem peccatorum et salutem, dicimus quod Spiritus Sanctus efficax sit in illis, et eos in Baptismo mundet, quemadmodum supra in Articulo de Baptismo dictum est.

* Idem, p. 285.

CRANMER'S CATECHISM.

THIS Catechism, though bearing Cranmer's name, is only a translation of a Latin work published in A.D. 1539.* But the Latin work, of which it is a translation, is itself nothing more than a translation, made from the German by Justus Jonas, senior,† the friend of Luther and Melancthon, of certain catechetical addresses to the young, which were in use in the Church of Nuremburg and other parts of Germany.

Of the many German divines who fled to this country in consequence of the Interim, Justus Jonas jun., Gualter, Dryander, and Eusebius Menius, were hospitably entertained by Cranmer at Lambeth in A.D. 1548. Owing to this circumstance, it has been conjectured, that Justus Jonas might bring the work, of which his father was the author, as a present to the archbishop; but it is quite as probable, if not more so, that Cranmer received it, by the hands of one of these strangers, from Osiander, whose niece the primate had married, and who at that time was chief pastor of the Church

* Vid. the end of the dedication prefixed to the Latin edition. Title of the Latin work.

Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, p. 407. Cranmer's Works, vol. i. letter cclxxvi.

of Nuremburg, where the German original was in use.* But however this may be, the Latin work was translated into English, if not by Cranmer himself, at least by his special order, and was published before the close of A.D. 1548, under the sanction of his name, with the following title :-Catechismus. That is to say a shorte instruction into Christian Religion for the synguler commoditie and profyte of Childre and yong people. Set forth by the Moste Reverende father in God Thomas Archbyshop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitane.

A SERMON OF BAPTISME.

Oure Lorde Jesus Christe good children, in the gospell of John saith thus. Except a manne be borne again of the water and the spiret, he can not enter in to the kyngdome of heaven. Nowe we ought to direct our hole lyfe to come to the kyngedome of God, for the Lorde sayth, First seke the kyngdom of God. And you haue hearde heretofore. that we daylye make thys petition to God, thy kyngdome come. Wherfore it is verie necessarie for us, to knowe, howe we must be borne agayne, and what this second birth is without the whiche we can not entre into the kyng

* Gardiner, in his "explication touchyng the most blessed sacrament of the aulter," thus describes it: "Justus Jonas hath translated a Catechisme out of Douch into Latin, taught in the citie Noremberge in Germanye, where Hosiander is chiefe preacher— which Catechisme was translate into Englishe in this auctor's name." p. 8.

+ John C. 3.

Matt. vi.