The doctrines of the Anglican church are to be found in the Book of Common Prayer (q.v.), which is based upon the second prayer-book of Edward VT., and was settled in its present form 1662 A.D. Her tenets are more legally defined in the thirty-nine articles, which were settled 1562 A.D. (see ARTICLES, THIRTY-NINE). As distinguished from Rome, she rejects tradition as a rule of faith,. though admitting it as to rites and cere monies, and bases all her teaching upon the books of the Old and New Testaments, reject ing from them as apocryphal certain which Rome receives as canonical. She recognizes only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper; whereas Rome allows five others— namely, confirmation, orders, penance, matrimony, and extreme unction; she denies the doctrines of transubstantiation and the propitiary sacrifice of the mass; she forbids what Rome practices—the adoration of the Virgin, saints, and angels, and the reverence of relics and images; she also denies the Roman doctrines of purgatory and the spiritual supremacy of the pope. It is not, however, to be forgotten that a great part of her liturgy is derived from the missals of the Roman church. As distinguished from the Presbyterian churches—e.g.. that of Scotland—she is episcopal, and holds the unbroken succession of her orders from the apostles, as one of her most esteemed privileges; whereas the Presbyterians, especially in Scotland, reject prelacy as a remnant of popery. These do not, however, differ from her materially in essential matters of faith, but chiefly as to the sacraments, form of administering them, and the grace conveyed in them; as to the observance of seasons, such as Christmas, Lent, Easter; and as to the forms of public worship, the Presbyterians using no set forms. Her differences with the Greek Catholics are less wide than with the Roman, and will be best seen by refer ring to the article GREEK CHURCIL From the Lutherans she differs on the doctrines of consubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. From the Calvinists she differs
radically as to the extent of the efficacy of Christ's death, they believing only in "partic ular," she in " universal," redemption (meaning, of course, not that all men will be actually saved, but that Christ died for all); nevertheless, some of her articles, as the 17th, are decidedly Calvinistic. The numerous sects of Wesleyans, Baptists, and Independents do not differ from her on what they themselves consider essential articles of faith, but chiefly as to the necessity of orders, the grace conveyed in the sacraments, and the forms of public worship and of church government. But since their separation from her, endless varieties of doctrine and worship have spread among them. Unfortunately, there remains no Gallo-Catholic church with which to compare her.
The Anglo-Catholic church embraces the church of England, the Protestant Episcopal church in Ireland, the Episcopal church in Scotland, all the colonial and the American Episcopal churches. All but the latter use the English Book of Common Prayer; in America this has been slightlyaltered. The American church is one of the most flour ishing offshoots of the Anglican. It was planted in Virginia, 1607 A.D., but for nearly two centuries the mother church in England withheld from her offspring the necessary boon of an episcopacy of her own. It was not till the close of the 18th century that the first three American bishops were ordained (one by the Scottish bishops in 1784, and two by the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of Bath and Peterborough in 1787); but now this branch of Anglo-Catholicism has spread over the greater part of the United States.