Clerical Subscription
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [1]
Subscription to articles of religion is required of the clergy of every established church, and of some churches not established. But it has been a matter of dispute whether it answers any valuable purpose as to religion, however necessary as a test to loyalty. All language is more or less ambiguous, so that it is difficult always to understand the exact sense, or the animus imponintis, especially when creeds have been long established. It is said that the clergy of the churches of England and Scotland seldom consider themselves as fettered with the Thirty-nine Articles, or the Confession of Faith, when composing instructions for their parishes, or the public at large. It is to be feared, indeed, that many subscribe merely for the sake of emolument; and though it be professedly ex animo, it is well known that it is not so in reality. How such will answer to the Great Head of the church, we must leave them to judge.
They who think subscription to be proper, should remember that it approaches very near the solemnity of an oath, and is not to be trifled with. "Great care, " says Doddridge, "ought to be taken that we subscribe nothing that we do not firmly believe. If the signification of the words be dubious, and we believe either sense, and that sense in which we do believe them is as natural as the other, we may, consistently with integrity, subscribe them; or if the sense in which we do believe them to be less natural, and we explain that sense, and that explication be admitted by the person requiring the subscription in his own right, there can be no just foundation for a scruple.
Some have added, that, if we have reason to believe (though it is not expressly declared) that he who imposes the subscription does not intend that we should hereby declare our assent to those articles, but only that we should pay a compliment to his authority, and engage ourselves not openly to contradict them, we may, in this case, subscribe what it most directly contrary to our belief; or that, if we declare our belief in any book, as, for instance, the Bible, it is to be supposed that we subscribe other articles only so far as they are consistent with that; because we cannot imagine that the law would require us to profess our belief of contrary propositions at the same time. But subscription upon these principles seems a very dangerous attack upon sincerity and public virtue, especially in those designed for public offices." If the reader be desirous of investigating the subject, he may consult, Paley's Mor. Phil. vol. 1: p. 218; Dyer on Subscription; Doddridge's Lect. lect. 70; Conybeare's Sermon on Subscription; Free and Candid Disquisitions relating to the Church of England; and the Confessional.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
Subscription to articles of religion is required of the clergy of every established Church, and of some churches not established.
"The most stringent and elaborate subscription probably ever enforced," says Dr. Stanley, "was that in the duchy of Brunswick, when duke Julius required from all clergy, from all professors, from all: magistrates, a subscription to all and everything contained in the Confession of Augsburg, in the Apology for the Confession, in the Smalcaldic Articles, in all the works of Luther, and in all the works of Chemnitz" (Letter on State of Subscription, p. 37). The Church of England only requires this kind of assent to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer. But it has been a matter of dispute whether it answers any valuable purpose as to religion, however necessary as a test to loyalty. All language is more or less ambiguous, so that it is difficult always to understand the exact sense, or the animus imponentis, especially when creeds have been long established. It is said that the clergy of the churches of England arid Scotland seldom consider theme: selves as fettered by the Thirty-nine Articles or the Confession of Faith, when composing instructions for their parishes or the public at large. It is to be feared, indeed that many subscribe merely for the sake of emolument; and though it be professedly exanimo, it is well known that it is not so in reality; for when any one appears to entertain conscientious scruples on the subject, he is told it is a thing of no consequence, but only a matter of form.
Stanley presents the following arguments in favor of repeal: 1. The first is, that there are signs of a growing reluctance, due in some part to the stringency of present subscriptions, on the part of thoughtful young men, to enter the ministry of the Church. 2. There is some recent evidence, especially at the universities, that the abolition of subscription has not tended to the injury of the Church or to any increased disbelief of her doctrines; 3. But, more especially, there is a growing disposition to interpret adhesion to formularies more narrowly than in former times. See Paley, Maor. Phil. 1, 218; Dyer, On Subscription; Doddridge, Lect. lect. 70; Conybeare, Sermon on Subscription; Free and Candid Disquisitions relating to the Church of England; The Confessional; Duncan and Miller, On Creeds; Stanley, A Letter to the Lord Bishop of London on the State of Subscription in the Church of England and in the University of Oxford.
