526 
r 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
CANTABRIGIANA. 
NO. XLV.—SUBSCRIPTION /0 ARTICLES, 
and MR. ROBERT TYRWHITT, Of JE- 
SUS COLLEGE. ; 
 Gareaese honours pre - fuppofe 
y fome literary attainments; but, 
betdes a literary qualification, there is 
another requifite for taking a degree at 
Cambridge, to fubfcribe certain articles 
of faith. 
_ It is worthy of obfervation, that the 
colleges, confidered in their origin as dif- 
tinét focieties, or as incorporated after- 
wards into one body, were ticd to no fub- 
{cription of articles. The founders impofed 
no fuch fpecific- points of faith on their 
members, either at the time of admiffion, 
or of taking degrees: and indeed, what- 
ever the ftatutes of fome particular col- 
leges might enjoin on their own fellows, 
about the time of the Reformation, it 
amounted only to a declaration of Protef- 
tantifm, and the free ufe of the Scriptures, 
in oppofition to human authority. It was 
but in the beginning of the feventeenth 
century, that fubicription was firft re- 
quired on obtaining literary honours: an 
order for that purpofe was then fent by 
James I. in 1613; and this order was 
followed by what was called a grace on 
the part of the univerfity, perhaps, impro- 
perly called, for it pafled in mere confor- 
mity to the wifhes of that monarch. 
The cafe of fubfcription at Cambridge 
ftands at prefent as follows :—A fubfcrip- 
tion is required of a bachelor of arts in 
the following terms:—I, A. B. do de- 
clare, that I am bona fide of the church of 
England.—This bond fide fubfcription is 
coniidered by many as a milder form, 
than that more fpecific one required a 
few years ago, viz. of a belief in the 
Thirty-nineArticles; by others it has been 
confidered asthe fame. 
Ic may be noticed in paffing, that there 
is actually no grace or ftatute enjoining 
fub{cription for a mafter of arts” degree. 
Cuitom, however, has, in this cafe, ob- 
tained the force of law: for a mafter of 
arts’ degree, all the thirty-nine articles are 
fubfcribed in their literal and grammati- 
cal fenfe ; and no degree, either in law, 
phyfic, divinity, or mufic, can be obtain- 
ed, without a previous fub{cription. 
' A perfon, who takes a bachelor of di- 
vinity’s degree, or adoétor’s in any facul- 
ty, muft fubfcribe the three articles 
mentioned in the thirtieth canon, common- 
Cantabrigiana. 
[May 1, 
ly known as King James’s three darling 
articles. ‘Thefe articles relate to the 
King’s fupremacy, to the purity and law- 
ful ufe of the Common Prayer, and to the 
truth of all the thirty-nine articles, in- 
cluding the ratification. Thus ftands this 
matter at the Univerfity of Cambridge. 
Much has been written, and various 
opinions have been formed, on thefe fub- 
{criptions. Some confider them as a mere 
form, and the articles, not as articles of 
truth, or even opinion, but. as articles of 
péace. They fubfcribe them in no fix- 
ed fenfe, but in any fenfe the words will 
bear, fo far as they are agreeable to Scrip- 
ture, or in that fenfe in which they are 
agreeable to Scripture. Others view them 
as articles of truth, and fubfcription as 
the belt way cf fecuring them. But 
then again, what is the true fenfe of thefe 
articles? This point is not yet fettled, 
fome contending, that they are to be taken 
in the literal and grammatical fenfe; 
others, that the Hteral and grammatical 
fenfe is not the true fenfe. One party 
maintains, that whatare called the duétrinal 
articles are Arminian ; another, that they 
are Calviniftic ; others, that fuch articles 
have two fenfes, both true ; fo that an Ar- 
minian, no Jefs than a Calvinift, may con- 
{cientioufly fubfcribe them. Indeed, it 
has been afierted, that certain articles have 
three fenfes, all true. Till, at length, men 
of fome account, both in the univerfity 
and the church, have given a fill 
more liberal turn to this matter. Aware, 
that the articles, mn their literaland gram- 
matical fenfe, 1. e. the fenfe in which they 
are required to be fublferibed, have but 
few advocates, and that an almoft general 
difbelief of them prevails even among the 
clergy, they avow, thata TACIT REFOR- 
MATION has taken piace both in the 
churca and univerfity, fince the firk fram- 
ing of the Thirty-nine Articies ; that the 
perfons fub/cribing, and the perfons who 
officially demand fubfcription, keep pace 
with fuch improvements, and indulge each 
other in the moft liberal interpretations ; 
the articles now being, according to this 
reprefentation, a mere nothing, and men 
being at jiberty to lubicribe them, as 
well as to teach them, mecnanically, ina 
kind of philo/cphicai fenfe. This libera- 
lity they plead in behalf of the candidates 
for orders, and, a forticri, concede it to 
candidates for degrees. - 
Whichever way men‘determine as to 
the do&trinal articles, the articles of dif- 
cipline admit of lefs difpute. To require 
fubfcription to thefe neceflarily excludes 
'. from 
