"If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God's Word; and if we be uncertain of God's Word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or a synagogue of Satan."
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Thomas Cranmer; On Holy Scripture
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2 comments:
Thank you for posting this. Very relevant to my current concerns.
Do you see any contradiction in Cranmer saying here that the Christian faith's foundation is Holy Scripture vs. the hymn that the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ the Lord?
Do you select the Olde Anglican Quotes of the Day you post from your own readings or do you get them from some one source?
Perpetua,
Cranmer in an attempt to discredit Papal innovation, writ and dogma, is invoking the main thought of all reformers of his era; Sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone). In this same letter, Cranmer points out that this was the weapon used by the Old Catholic Fathers to defend the faith against the heresies of their era.
Cranmer is not establishing bases but proving through Scripture that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.
To answer your second question, I select the quotes from various texts that I read, either in print or online. The online text libraries are linked to on this blog. This particular quote came from the book "The Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer".
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