The Irish Articles of Religion of 1615 were a series of 104 theological articles intended to serve as a standard of doctrine for the post-Reformation Church of Ireland. Adopted by the Convocation of Irish Protestant clergy that met in Dublin in 1615, and probably written by the future Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher, the Irish Articles defined the Church of Ireland in a largely Reformed theological direction, even exceeding the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England in this regard.
After the accession of Charles I, the appointment of William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Restoration in 1660, the Irish Articles of Religion were eventually superseded by the Thirty-nine Articles as the doctrinal standard for the Church of Ireland and largely fell out of prominence in Anglicanism. However, the Irish Articles would later influence the Westminster Confession drawn up in 1646, which was later adopted by the Church of Scotland and Presbyterian churches throughout the world.
Background
After King Henry VIII broke with the papacy, he was proclaimed the Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England by the English Parliament in 1534. In 1537, the Irish Parliament followed suit and proclaimed Henry VIII Supreme Head on earth of the Church of Ireland. Although the post-Reformation Church of Ireland retained most of the diocesan buildings and lands, most native Irish remained Roman Catholic, and by the early 17th century, a mostly Presbyterian settler population emerged in the province of Ulster.
Largely confined to an English-speaking minority in The Pale, the Church of Ireland adopted the use of the Book of Common Prayer in 1560 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and followed the lead of the Church of England in setting the standards for doctrine and worship for much of its early post-Reformation history. The Church of England after the English Reformation and the Elizabethan Religious Settlement had been moving towards forming a Calvinist consensus amongst its leadership, and certain bishops in the Church of England crafted the Lambeth Articles in 1595. Although never approved by Queen Elizabeth I, the Lambeth Articles were intended to supplement the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion finalised and adopted by the Church of England in 1571, supplementing Article 17 with clarified teaching on the doctrine of predestination.
Development
The Church of Ireland would hold its first convocation of archbishops, bishops, and other clergy beginning in 1613, held in conjunction with a session of the Irish Parliament in Dublin. The Calvinist consensus was even stronger in Ireland than in England, and the convocation of clergy decided to develop its own confession of faith along the lines of Reformed theology. The new articles of religion, modeled on the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and (in all likelihood) principally written by James Ussher, then Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, were adopted by the Irish convocation, and approved by the Viceroy of Ireland in 1615. In addition to incorporating much of the material in the Thirty-nine Articles, the Irish Articles also incorporated the content of the nine Lambeth Articles developed in 1595.
Content
While the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England were never intended to be a complete confession of the Christian faith, the Irish Articles of Religion, by contrast, aimed to be much more comprehensive and systematic, defining the Church of Ireland in a decidedly Reformed direction theologically. The Irish doctrinal articles number 104 in all, and while reproducing the content of 37 of the Thirty-nine Articles, the Irish articles also incorporate other material, including from the two Books of Homilies, commended in Article 35 of the Thirty-nine Articles. The Irish articles differ markedly in their order from the original Thirty-nine Articles, often following the lead of Reformed confessions produced earlier in continental Europe (such as the Second Helvetic Confession) in the structure. The Irish Articles also fail to incorporate Article 36 (which dealt with the consecration of bishops and ministers) of the earlier Thirty-nine Articles. This omission perhaps catered to Puritans who existed within both the Church of Ireland and the Church of England at the time (some of whom advocated other forms of church government besides episcopalianism).
The Irish Articles of Religion can be divided into nineteen sections based on their content: