Editing Thirty-nine Articles (section)

===Forty-two Articles (1553)===
{{main|Forty-two Articles}}
Henry VIII was succeeded by his son, [[Edward VI]], in 1547. During Edward's reign, the Church of England adopted a stronger Protestant identity. The [[Book of Common Prayer (1549)|''Book of Common Prayer'' of 1549]] authorised a reformed liturgy, and the [[Book of Common Prayer (1552)|1552 ''Book of Common Prayer'']] was even more explicitly Protestant. To make the English Church fully Protestant, Cranmer also envisioned a [[Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum|reform of canon law]] and the creation of a concise doctrinal statement, which would become the Forty-two Articles.{{sfn|MacCulloch|1996|p=500}} Work on a doctrinal statement was delayed by Cranmer's efforts to forge a doctrinal consensus among the various Protestant churches to counter the work of the Catholic [[Council of Trent]]. When this proved impossible, Cranmer turned his attention to defining what the Church of England believed.{{Sfn|Heal|2003|p=310}}

In late 1552 the first edition of the confession was produced in the form of the Forty-Five Articles that Cranmer submitted for comment and revision, and which were approved by Parliament in June of 1553 by which time their number had been reduced to the [[Forty-two Articles]] which were drafted by Cranmer and a small group of fellow Protestants. The title page claimed that the articles were approved by Convocation when in reality they were never discussed or adopted by the clerical body. They were also never approved by Parliament.{{Sfn | Marshall | 2017 | p = 353}} The articles were issued by Royal Mandate on 19 June 1553. All clergy, schoolmasters and members of the universities were required to subscribe to them.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|1997|p=625}} The theology of the articles has been described by some as a "restrained" [[Calvinism]].{{Sfn| Haigh | 1993 | p = 181}}{{sfn|Bray|2004|p=284}} Others point to a much stronger Lutheran influence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hall|first=Basil|date=1993b|editor-last1=Ayris|editor-first1=Paul |editor-last2=Selwyn|editor-first2=David|title=Thomas Cranmer: Churchman and Scholar|publisher=The Boydell Press|chapter=Cranmer, the Eucharist and the Foreign Divines in the Reign of Edward VI|isbn=0-85115-549-9}}</ref>