'So in their Confessions witness the churches in Bohemia, Saxony, and Helvetia': Rogers and the Conformist vision of the Churches of the Reformation

One of the purposes of Rogers's The Catholic Doctrine of the Church of England (1586/1607) was to demonstrate that the Articles of Religion were - in the words of the original title -  "agreeable both to the written word of God, and to the extant Confessions of all the neighbour Churches, Christianly reformed". This was a key Conformist perspective: there was no need for 'further Reformation' of the Church of England precisely because the "confession of the Church of England" was "correspondent to the confessions of all reformed churches in Christendom".

Throughout the work, Rogers references parallels to the Articles in the various Confessions of the Reformation, Lutheran and Reformed.  This inclusion of the Lutheran Confessions - the Augsburg Confession and its restatements in the Saxon Confession (prepared by Melanchthon) and the Würtemberg Confession (the work of Brentius, and see here on these two later confessions) - is itself worthy of consideration, placing the Articles within a broader context than the Reformed confessions alone and thus emphasising that the churches of the Reformation were a broader grouping than the Puritans would have desired.  

It also echoes, for example, Jewel in his invocation of both Luther and Zwingli, of both the German and Swiss Reformations, stressing not a narrow Protestant orthodoxy defined by Geneva but a broader, shared Protestant unity:

Zwinglians and Lutherans ( [who] are indeed Good Christians, Friends, and Brethren,) do not disagree about the Principles or Fundamentals of our Religion, about God, about Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Means of Justification, or Eternal Life; but only about one Question, which is of no great moment neither.  Nor do we despair, or in the least doubt, but that we shall see it agreed on in a very short Time.

As Andre Gazal notes in his essay on Jewel in The Davenant Institute's excellent Reforming the Catholic Tradition (2019), this was central to Jewel's vision:

Jewel conceives of the "Catholic Church" as consisting of national churches with sundry polities (Lutheran and Reformed) whose common and hence unifying possession is the body of biblical truth expounded and applied by the early church.

Again the point must be made that this was a thoroughly Conformist stance, refuting those in England who had an exclusive focus on Geneva.

We get a sense of how Rogers works within the same understanding of Jewel in the references to the other confessions throughout his commentary on the Articles.  Consider, for example, his words on Articles I, III, XI, XVI, and XXV:

Article I:

God's people in their public Confessions from Augsburg, Helvetia, Bohemia, France, Flanders and Würtemberg testify the same.

Article III:

For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven , say our forefathers in their confessions; as do also our brethren throughout Christendom.

The side note refers to the Confessions of Helvetia, Basil, Bohemia, France, Belgium, Augsburg, Saxony, and Würtemberg.

Article XI:

 The churches of Christ by their public confessions give testimony unto this truth. 

The side note refers to the Confessions of Helvetia, Basil, Bohemia, France, Belgium, Augsburg, Saxony, and Würtemberg.

Article XVI:

So in their extant Confessions witness the churches in Bohemia, Saxony, and Helvetia.

Article XXV:

This truth do the churches reformed by their confession subscribe unto.

The side note refers to the Confessions of Helvetia, Saxony, Bohemia, France, Belgium, Augsburg, and Würtemberg.

Even on the matter of the Eucharist, mindful of the Lutheran-Reformed disputes, with the Articles clearly Reformed, Rogers yet says of his summary of Article XXVIII - "to such as receive the same worthily, and by faith, it is the partaking of the body and blood of Christ" - that this is a shared affirmation:

This is a truth openly both maintained and testified by the neighbour churches. 

He refers in his side note to the Confessions of Helvetia, Basil, Bohemia, France, Belgium, Augsburg, Saxony, and Würtemberg.

When it comes to Article XXVIII's teaching that this is a spiritual rather than carnal feeding, he cautiously states "And herein there is a goodly consent with the most of the reformed churches and us" (emphasis added), referring to the Confessions of Helvetia, Basil, Bohemia, and Belgium, the Lutheran confessions conspicuous by their absence.  The point is, however, that he begins with a shared Lutheran-Reformed affirmation that there is a true feeding on Christ in the Supper.

When it comes to Article XXXIV, 'Of the Traditions of the Church' - a particular stumbling block for Puritans - we see how Rogers uses the various confessions teaching on the legitimacy of diverse ceremonies according to "the diversity of countries and men's manners":

Of this judgement with us be all reformed churches.

Rogers here points to the Confessions of Helvetia, Bohemia, France, Belgium, Augsburg, Saxony, and Würtemberg.  Likewise, Rogers also uses the various confessions to support the Article's teaching on the need to conform to those ceremonies not "ordained and approved by common authority".  He states:

the church, and every member thereof, in his place is bound to the observation of all traditions and ceremonies, which are allowed by lawful authority, and are not repugnant to the word of God. For he that violateth them, contemneth not man, but God, who hath given power to his church to establish whatsoever things shall make unto comeliness, order, and edification.

This of our godly brethren, in their published writings, is approved.

It is possible that in this last sentence, referring to the confessions of the other churches, Rogers is mocking the Puritans.  In the Preface he notes that "godly brethren" is one of the terms by which the Puritans refer to themselves.  Here, instead, he uses it to refer to the Churches of the Reformation agreeing with the Conformists on the need for obedience and acceptance of duly authorised ceremonies.  His side note points to the Confessions of Helvetia, Bohemia, Augsburg, and Saxony (note the significance of the Lutheran confessions on the matter of ceremonies - more of which tomorrow).  

The use of the Lutheran and Reformed Confessions by Rogers gives us an important insight into the Conformist vision of the Church of England, as part of a broader unity of the Churches of the Reformation, challenging the narrow concern of the Puritans with Geneva.  As Gazal notes in his essay on Jewel, this was a vision of "all Protestant commonwealths of Europe" having restored apostolicity and catholicity, a catholicity in which the Church of England fully shared and exemplified.  The Puritans, by contrast, rejected this generous catholic vision, with their Geneva-ism and refusal to abide by the magisterial, confessional commitments of the Reformed Catholic churches.