LAMBETH
Palace of the Anglican archbishop, primate of all England (v. CANTERBURY), from which are named: 1) the "Lambeth Articles"; 2) the Lambeth Conferences; 3) the "Lambeth Quadrilateral".
### I. LAMBETH ARTICLES
This is the name given to certain propositions published in 1595 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, G. Whitgift (1583–1604), in which Calvinist doctrine on predestination was proposed for inclusion in the Articles of Religion of the Anglican Church.
The articles are as follows:
1) From eternity, God has chosen some to life and others to death;
2) The efficient cause of salvation is not the foreknowledge of faith or good works in man, but the sole will of God;
3) The number of the elect is fixed and unalterable;
4) The non-elect are necessarily condemned;
5) The elect cannot lose the faith;
6) Whoever has justifying faith is absolutely certain of the forgiveness of sins and of eternal salvation;
7) Saving grace is not communicated to all men;
8) No one comes to the Son unless the Father draws him, but the Father does not draw all;
9) Salvation does not depend on the will or efforts of each individual.
These articles were neither approved by Queen Elizabeth nor by the English Parliament, so they had no official status. They remained for some time as an appendix to the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, and in the 17th century, during the strong anti-Calvinist reaction, they were suppressed. In Ireland, however, especially through the authority and influence of the Anglican archbishop James Ussher (1580–1656), they enjoyed for a time a semi-official or semi-symbolic authority and form the principal basis of the Westminster Presbyterian Confession (v. CONFESSIONS OF FAITH, PROTESTANT).
### II. LAMBETH CONFERENCES
This term refers to meetings to which all bishops of the Anglican communion are invited every ten years. From the first of these conferences, held on 22 February 1867, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Longley, declared that
such gatherings had no authority to make declarations or issue decrees on doctrinal points. They do, however, address doctrinal, ecclesiastical, missionary, social, and other questions, but solely for the purpose of providing clarifications, offering advice, and indicating norms, while individual dioceses remain free to accept or reject them. They are presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, however, has no authority over the assembled bishops.
The conferences held to date are seven in number:
1) The first, in 1867, under Archbishop Longley, with 76 bishops;
2) The second, in 1878, under Archbishop Tait, with 100 bishops;
3) The third, in 1888, under Archbishop Benson, with 145 bishops; at this conference the famous "Lambeth Quadrilateral" was proposed and accepted as a basis for union with other Churches;
4) The fourth, in 1897, under Archbishop Temple, with 194 bishops; among the topics proposed was the revision of the *Book of Common Prayer*;
5) The fifth, in 1908, under Archbishop Randall Davidson, with 242 bishops; among other matters, the question of revising the *Book of Common Prayer* was again discussed;
6) The sixth, in 1920, under Archbishop Randall Davidson, with 252 bishops; the main issue was the union of Churches, which was set out in the "Appeal to All Christian People," accompanied by the "Letter to All Who Bear the Name of Christ," in which the four points of the "Quadrilateral" were proposed as the basis for union, though with some modifications;
7) The seventh, in 1930, under Archbishop Lang, with 308 bishops; it admitted that a divorced person who had contracted a civil marriage might receive Communion; it also, in practice, permitted the use of contraceptives.
### III. LAMBETH QUADRILATERAL
This is the name given to the four articles accepted by the 1888 Lambeth Conference as a basis for the reunion of all Churches; they had originally been proposed in 1886 at the "General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America" as truths considered essential for the return to unity:
1) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, regarded as the revealed Word of God;
2) The Nicene Creed as a sufficient summary of the Christian faith;
3) The two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, administered with the same words used by Christ in their institution and with the same matter ordained by Him;
4) The historic episcopate, adapted in its methods of exercise to the various needs of nations and peoples called by God to the unity of the Church.
The articles, however, underwent the following changes:
1) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were described as containing "all things necessary to salvation" and as the ultimate rule of faith;
2) The Apostles’ Creed was accepted as the baptismal symbol, and the Nicene Creed as a sufficient summary of the Christian faith; articles 3 and 4 were retained almost unchanged. Later, in the "Appeal to All Christian People" of the 1920 Lambeth Conference, in order to facilitate reunion with nonconformists—some of whom rejected the Old Testament and all of whom rejected the episcopate—the Quadrilateral was modified so as to avoid mention of the episcopate and not to refer specifically to the Old Testament.