The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, usually called the 39 Articles, are the historic doctrinal statement of the Church of England, finalised in 1571 at the end of a long process of revision during the English Reformation. They developed out of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's earlier Forty-Two Articles of 1553, and were substantially revised under Archbishop Matthew Parker during the reign of Elizabeth I before being approved by Convocation and Parliament.
The Articles were written to define the Church of England's position between Roman Catholic teaching and the more radical Protestant reformers on the European continent, and were deliberately worded, in places, to hold together as broad a range of English Christians as possible rather than settle every disputed point with maximum precision.
They are traditionally read in four sections: Articles 1–8 address the Trinity and the person and work of Christ; Articles 9–18 address sin, free will, and salvation; Articles 19–31 address the Church, its authority, and the sacraments; and Articles 32–39 address church discipline, order, and the relationship between the Church and civil authority.
The Thirty-Nine Articles are printed in the Book of Common Prayer and remain part of the historic doctrinal inheritance of Anglicanism, but how binding they are today varies considerably across the Communion — some provinces require clergy to formally assent to them, while others treat them as an important historical document rather than a strict test of current belief.