Article XXII

The 'doctrina Romanensium' or Roman Doctrine condemned in Article XXII exclsuively refers to the abuses and errors of the popularly-believed and practised Mass system of the Middle Ages in which Eucharistic Celebrations were often trafficked and purchased for the release of souls from purgatory. As opposed to the ancient and catholic practice of offering the Eucharistic Sacrifice for the repose of the faithful departed and in honour of the saints who have gone before us signed with the mark of faith, the Roman Doctrine condemned is clearly connected with the ideas of peculiarly Latin ideas of fire-purgatory and temporal punishment due for sins committed in this life to be expiated in purgatorial suffering after death, the concept of the individual value or merit of independent offerings of the Mass applied to the holy souls of the dead, and the sale and application of indulgences for the dead as well as for the living. Anglicanism is very careful not to divorce the offering of the Holy Eucharist from all-sufficent Sacrifice of Christ once-for-all upon the Cross or from the liturgical prayer of the whole Communion of Saints in heaven and on earth. All of the aforementioned popular medieval beliefs, subject as they are to grave superstition, abuse, and misinterpretation, fall squarely under the rubric of condemnation found in Article XXII. The Article is certainly not intended to condemn the substance of thr ancient catholic belief of the whole undivided Church of Christ, that is, the reality of the Intermediate State of the Faithful Departed in bewteen death and resurrection or of the sacrificial character of the Eucharist as the sacramental anamnetic re-presentation and making-present of the One Sacrifice of Christ. The Eastern Orthodox would agree as much with the spirit of the Article rightly interpreted in its historical context and origin as we do.