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Forty-Two Articles · 1553
Edward VI / Cranmer Forty-Two Articles of Religion (1553). Title-intrinsic count of doctrinal articles.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer drafted the Forty-Two Articles of Religion. The set was published in 1553 under Edward VI. A privy-council mandate of 19 June 1553 required clerical subscription. Under Elizabeth I the confession was reduced to the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563/1571).
What it supports
Exact hard 42 in the name and structure of a foundational English Reformation confession. Same grammar as the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters: the title encodes 42. The documented reduction from 42 to 39 is built-in anti-forcing. The later church deliberately ceased being a Forty-Two.
What it does not
Not the later Thirty-Nine Articles. Not uninterrupted force through Mary I. Not Methodist or Wesley Articles of Religion as the same card. Not Adams. Not sequential Article 42 shopping inside a longer instrument.
ExactnessExact
Form42
Unitarticles
Strengthhard
When1553
Hung25 September 2026