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Necessary Doctrine and Erudition

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(for any Christian man) is the title of a book which the English people received from their sovereign, Henry VIII, in the year 1543, in connection with the legal prohibition of reading the Scriptures. In contradistinction to the Institution of a Christian Man (q.v.), which was called the "Bishops' Book," the present formulary was called the "King's Book." The Necessary Doctrine was not, like the other, sanctioned by the authority of Convocation, but was composed by a committee originally nominated by the king, their compositions receiving the stamp of his personal approbation. Henry himself had a considerable share in the execution of the work, the chief part of which was corrected by his own hand; and evidence still remains of the diligence with which he had collected and compared the opinions of his bishops and divines on the different points of discussion. The Preface was probably written by himself, and, among other matter, contains a vindication of the late prohibition of the Bible. Cranmer also wrote a portion of it-that concerning faith. But while it was evangelical in doctrine, it was popish in other things, affirming transubstantiation, calling marriage a sacrament, and maintaining the seven sacraments of Romanism. As an authorized formula it retained authority till the king's death. This work has occasioned in the present day much discussion and dispute, arising from the prejudices of its readers. One party has confidently appealed to it as a criterion of the opinions of the Reformers on many doctrinal points, in opposition to the Church from which they had separated; another party has condemned it in the most unqualified terms, as leaning even in doctrine towards popery rather than Protestantism. For a full account of the plan and contents of this work, see Carwithen, Hist. of the Church of England, volume 1, chapter 7; see also Palmer, On the Church, 1:468 sq., 481 sq.; Eadie, Eccles. Cyclop.; Eden. Theol. Dict.: Farrar, Eccles. Dict.; Burnet, Ref. 1:459, 586; 3, 624; Amer. Theol. Rev. February 1860, page 172; Bib. Sacra, 1865, page 350; 1863, page 891.