Anglican "Short Catechism" of 1553

Under the guidance of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and the House of Bishops of the Reformed Church of England (Anglican Church), the Bishop of Winchester, John Ponet wrote the Short Catechism of 1553, which replaced the English translation of the German Reformer Justas Jonas' Lutheran Catechism which had been being used since 1548. The 1553 Short Catechism was usually bound together with the Articles of Religion, indicating the authority is was meant to have as a part of the Formularies of the Anglican Church (those Formularies being: the Book of Common Prayer, the Articles, the Ordinal, and the official Homilies of the Church).

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Rev. Dr. Mark Earngey is Head of Church History and Lecturer in Christian Thought at Moore Theological College in Sydney, and he has argued that as the Short Catechism may be considered a neglected Anglican formulary. Some portions of Dr, Earngey's article, John Ponet's Short Catechism, A Neglected Formulary?  published by Ad Fontes Theological Journal Aug. 15, 2023:

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"The degree of intellectual and political authority supporting Ponet’s Short Catechisme was extraordinary. It was authored by one of the foremost Reformed theologians of the period, driven by the impetus of King Edward and the Lord President of the Council, the product of various bishops and divines, and imprinted under the royal seal. Ponet was not simply the author of the catechism, but–as T.H.L. Parker rightly points out–he was speaking as the mouthpiece of Cranmer’s circle of Reformers. It was for this reason, that when Heinrich Bullinger received the Short Catechisme from John Cheke in the summer of 1553, the Antistes of Zürich excitedly sent copies to his network of fellow Reformers, including Peter Paul Vergerio, Simprecht Vogt, Philipp Gallicius, Ambrosius Blaurer, and even his own son Johannes... Thus, with respect to the authorities associated with its production, it was very much like the other key formularies of the reformed English church. Indeed, although the Forty-two Articles of Religion were sometimes printed as a standalone document by Richard Grafton, they were ordinarily appended to both the English and Latin editions of Ponet’s Short Catechisme. The combined publication was the principal version (probably on account of its size), and the whole book was commonly understood as the book of the Catechisme, rather than the book of the articles... 

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It is important to understand the proper relationship between the articles and the catechism itself, and their combined role in the Edwardian church. While the articles received the name of the catechism, the catechism received the character of the articles. In fact, the Short Catechisme complemented the Forty-two Articles such that we might even say that we may not expound one place of the book of the catechism that it be repugnant to another. Therefore, just like the articles, the teaching of the catechism was representative of the Church of England at the height of the Edwardian period. This was the view of Ponet himself, who in the context of the debate over clerical marriage, wrote in 1555:

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  Our whole doctrine wherein we consented touching fasting, prayer and marriage etc. is plainly and fully set forth in the books of common prayers, the Homilies, the Catechisms and the Articles whereupon the whole realm concluded. …. Our doctrine was not kept so secret but that it was not only preached but also printed & so printed that it hath the testimony of the whole realm.

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And although the formulary status of the Short Catechisme has escaped the attention of modern scholars, it has been rightly noted by others, such as Bishop Randolph in the nineteenth century:

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…a Catechism published in the time of king Edward VI and was the last work of the reformers of that reign; whence it may fairly be understood to contain as far as it goes their ultimate decision, and to represent the sense of the Church of England as then established.

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Thus, in the context of the whole publication (the “book of the catechism”), this makes the Short Catechisme an essential theological compendium for the interpretation of the reformed nature of the theology of the Articles of Religion... Dean Alexander Nowell of St. Paul’s Cathedral, had copied and pasted from the catechisms of both John Ponet and John Calvin to produce his own, more influential and more “Calvinistic” catechism under Elizabeth’s reign in 1570. In fact, Nowell’s catechism–which came in shorter and longer varieties–was wildly popular during the latter half of the sixteenth century and into the seventeenth century–so popular, that Canon 79 of the 1604 Canons required that all schoolmasters should teach, in English or Latin, either of Nowell’s shorter or longer versions. Thus, the spirit, while not every letter, of John Ponet’s Short Catechisme was eventually enshrined in Church of England canon law. 

 

From this brief survey, it should be evident that Ponet’s Short Catechisme carried the same–if not more–authority as the Forty-two Articles of Religion, and that its contents are of an impeccably–if not progressively–Reformed nature. On this basis, I suggest that it is inadequate to conceive of the original Anglican formularies as only the usual three documents: the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, and the Ordinal. Rather, since the Short Catechisme represents one of the most comprehensively Reformed positions that the Church of England has ever officially taken, the study of Ponet’s work is essential for the interpretation of the Articles of Religion and thus for understanding the roots of Reformation Anglicanism."

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Excerpt from the Short Catechism 1553: 

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Master: All these foundations that you have laid are most true, Now, therefore, let us go forward to His works, wherein lies our salvation and conquest against that old serpent.

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Scholar: It shall be done, good Master. After Christ Jesus had delivered that charge to His apostles, that most joyful and in all points heavenly doctrine, i.e., the gospel, which in Greek is called evangelion, in English “good tidings”; and had as by sealing established the same with signs and miracles innumerable, whereof all his life was full; at length was he sore scourged, mocked with potting. scorning, and spitting in His face; last of all His hands and feet were bored through with nails and He fastened to a cross. Then He truly died and was truly buried, that by His most sweet sacrifice He might pacify His Father’s wrath against mankind; and subdue him by His death, who had the authority of death, which was the devil; forasmuch not only the living, but also the dead, were they in hell or. elsewhere, all felt the power and force of this death: to whom lying in prison (as Peter says) Christ preached, though dead in body, yet relieved in Spirit. The third day after, He rose again, alive in body also and with many notable proofs, in the space of forty days, He abode among His disciples, eating and drinking with them. In whose sight He was conveyed away in a cloud, up into heaven, or rather above all heavens where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father being made Lord of all things in heaven or in earth; King of all kings, our everlasting and only high bishop, our only attorney, only mediator, only peacemaker between God and men. Now since He has entered into His glorious majesty, by sending down His Holy Spirit to us (as He promised), He enlightens our dark blindness, moves, rules, teaches, cleanses, comforts, and rejoices our minds; and so will He still continually do till the end of the world.

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“Anglican Catechism (1553),” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed. James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010), 2:23.