Anglican Magisterium.

THE MAGISTERIUM within the Church Catholic, what does it mean? The term refers to the teaching authority with the Body of Christ, within which Anglican Catholics are a Communion of believers. The word Magisterium derives from the Latin, Magistra,which originally meant the office of a president, chief, director or superintendent. In particular it refers to the office of instructor of youth,tutorship or guardianship. In the Catholic Church it is held by the Bench of Bishops, collectively and it is expressed at its most solemn through the deliberations and pronouncements of the Seven Ecumenical Councils . Further, for Catholics, of which we Anglicans are probably the oldest group outside Palestine..... the Bishops are considered to be guided by the help and intervention of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 15.)
One of the astounding thing about about Anglicans today, is the dearth of knowledge amongst the rank & file about their own history! What has this to do with the Magisterium? The Catholic Religion is the Revelation of Christ once revealed to the Saints. (Ep, Jude.) Being recorded in scriptures and explained, interpreted and completed by the Holy Tradition, that is the same Bishops in the Seven Ecumenical Councils. This is the Canon of Faith stemming from the Catholic Fathers of the early centuries and it is our duty to follow and preserve what S. Paul referred to when he wrote,"O Timothy preserve the Deposit." It was held from the earliest time through two millennia, until today. S. Thomas More subscribed to the supremacy of the Church through the medium of the Councils over the papacy, as did Archbishop Cranmer & Ridley the two martyrs. This is our faith, it is what gives Anglicanism its Catholicity. In 1536/7-42 and 1572, Convocation, that is the English Church in Council, at the height of the English Reformation, AFFIRMED THE BELIEF OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH TO THE SEVEN COUNCILS, by asserting the supremacy of the first four councils and such other councils as was deemed necessary. In 1558, Parliament affirmed those same Councils to be authoritative with the state's support. This was at a time when the Anglican Church was under attack from both both Roman and Calvinist dissenters.
Bishop Field in his classic book,'Of the Church,' a 17th, Century masterpiece described the General Councils as,'The highest level of jurisdiction in the ~Church,'. he goes on,"They have supreme power, that is the bishops assembled in a general Council may interpret scripture and by their authority suppress all of them that shall disobey". Bishop Ken, the Non Juror, claimed that he died in the faith of the first thousand years, in effect the faith of the Undivided Church, of which the Anglican Church today is a living descendant!
Category:Anglicanism