Resources on the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion
As a number of readers have probably already gathered, I am convinced that Anglican theology fell sharply downward in quality and orthodoxy after 1930. Indeed, it seems to me that books on the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion may have reached their zenith in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – and happily those books are largely in the public domain.
Consequently, again with the aid of Google Books (and subject to their terms of noncommercial use), I am assembling a group of these books in PDF format on this blog, in hopes that they will serve as a resource for people who are interested in Anglican theology and doctrine. One thing that will not come as a surprise to anyone who has given classical Anglican doctrine a look is the familiarity and respect these authors show the writings of the early Church Fathers, as well as Sacred Scripture.
- The Catholic Doctrine of the Church of England: An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles – Thomas Rogers, A.M. (1586 or thereabouts, although this reprint edited by J.J.S. Perowne, M.A., is dated 1854)
- An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England – Bp. Gilbert Burnet (1699, although this revision by James R. Page is dated 1842)
- The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England – Archdeacon Edward Welchman (1713 or shortly after that, although this reprint is dated 1842)
- A Familiar and Practical Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion - the Rev. H.C. O’Donnoghue, A.M. (1816)
- The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England – William Wilson, B.D. (1821)
- An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England – Bp. William Beveridge (1830)
- The Churchman’s Guide in Perilous Times, – the Rev. Thomas Pigot, A.M. (1835)
- A Catechism on the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England – the Rev. James Beaven, D.D. (1850)
- An Explanation of the Thirty-Nine Articles – Bp. A.P. Forbes (1871)
- A History of the Articles of Religion – Archdeacon Charles Hardwick, revised by the Rev. Francis Procter (1876)
- An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles, Historical and Doctrinal – Bp. Edward Harold Browne (1887)
- Notes on the Thirty-Nine Articles – the Rev. John Macbeth (1894)
- Introduction to Dogmatic Theology on the Basis of the XXXIX Articles – the Rev. E.A. Litton (1887)
- An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles – T.P. Boultbee, M.A. (1871)
- A Plain Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles – William Baker, D.D. (1883)
- The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England – Edgar C.S. Gibson, D.D. (1898)
- The Thirty-Nine Articles: Their History and Explanation – B.J. Kidd, B.D. (1899; this text actually comes from the Open Library Project.)
- An Introduction to the Articles of the Church of England, – the Rev. G.F. Maclear and the Rev. W.W. Williams. (1895)
- The Thirty-Nine Articles and the Age of the Reformation – the Rev. E.Tyrrell Green (1896)
- Lambeth and Trent – the Rev. F.E. Middleton (1900)
- Lecture Outlines on the Thirty-Nine Articles – Arthur J. Tait, B.D. (1910)
At least two of these books are back in print at Wipf and Stock Publishers, although the Gibson text is a different edition:
- A Commentary on the Thirty-Nine Articles by T.P. Boultbee
- The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, 2 Volumes by Edgar C.S. Gibson
I hope readers will find this useful, and I hope to add a few more texts as I have time.
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- Another new page: Resources on the Thirty-Nine Articles « Prydain
- Frs. Hart and Wells on Articles I and II of the Thirty-Nine Articles « Prydain
- Another text on the Thirty-Nine Articles: Maclear and Williams’ An Introduction to the Articles of the Church of England « Prydain
- Added to the Resources page: Bp. Forbes’ “An Explanation of the Thirty-Nine Articles” « Prydain
- Added to the Resources page: E. Tyrrell Green’s text on the Thirty-Nine Articles « Prydain





For those of us that don’t have the actual books, this is a big help. I note a couple of titles I didn’t previously know.
By the way, for those that want more titles and for those that prefer having their own CD-ROMs, the Prayer Book Society (US) carries a number of CD-ROMs on the 39, the BCP, and other useful writings by our old divines. These are reasonably priced,,
Even though I have the books themselves, and can now access many of them on-line, I find the PBS collections to be an excellent back-up. I keep them in my document safe just in case. Fire and flood, server being down but one still may have these collections.
In +,
Benton
You are certainly right about the CD-ROM from the Prayer Book Society. It is a treasure, and if anyone wants to order it, it can be found and ordered here.
Another is “The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England” by E. J. Bicknell, 1919. Third Edition revised by H. J. Carpenter, Bishop of Oxford, 1955.
Thanks for that recommendation! I had not realized Bicknell’s work was first published in 1919, so who knows – perhaps there is a version of it available online too. I’ll certainly look for a PDF of that one.
Browne is fantastic and I have used him often. He is exhaustive but really ties the historical and biblical together quite nicely. Good searchable resources for the BCP can be found here: http://footstoolpublications.com/Anglican/index.htm
Thanks for that link! I did not know all of those PDFs were available and they could be VERY helpful.