ABSTRACT
In considering Article XXXV of the Church of England it will be well to consider separately—the history of the Homilies and the nature of the assent demanded to them. The earliest mention of the Homilies is in 1542, when a certain number of them were introduced in Convocation with the design of having them promulgated and set forth by authority. In 1549, in order to render them more acceptable to the people, they were subdivided into thirty-two parts, and the Prayer Book, which had just been published, directed that “after the Creed ended, shall follow the Sermon or Homily, or some portion of one of the Homilies, as they shall be hereafter divided.” The writer who is supposed to have had the chief hand in the preparation of the book is Bishop Jewel, but a considerable number of the Homilies were only translations or adaptations of works that had previously been issue.
