A subordinate standard is a

Reformed confession of faith Calvinist confessions of faith are the confessions of faith of various Calvinist churches. These documents express consensus on doctrine for the church adopting the confession. A few confessions are shared as subordinate standards (i.e. authorit ...

, catechism or other doctrinal or regulatory statement subscribed to by a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

church, setting out key elements of religious belief and church governance. It is ''subordinate'' to the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

as the supreme standard, which is held as divinely inspired and without error. Examples of such standards are the

Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the " subordinate standard ...

, drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. It became and remains the subordinate standard of doctrine in the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

, and has been influential within

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

churches worldwide. The Westminster Confession of Faith was modified and adopted by

Congregationalists Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

in England in the form of the Savoy Declaration (1658). Likewise, the Baptists of England modified the Savoy Declaration to produce the

Second London Baptist Confession The Confession of Faith, also called the Second London Baptist Confession, was written by Particular Baptists, who held to a Calvinistic soteriology in England to give a formal expression of their Christian faith from a Baptist perspective. Be ...

(1689). The Three Forms of Unity (the

Belgic Confession The ''Confession of Faith'', popularly known as the Belgic Confession, is a doctrinal standard document to which many of the Reformed churches subscribe. The Confession forms part of the Three Forms of Unity of the Reformed Church, which are stil ...

, Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort) were adopted as subordinate standards in the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family a ...

, a practice which was embraced by most Dutch Reformed denominations and federations around the world. In

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, the

Scots Confession The Scots Confession (also called the Scots Confession of 1560) is a Confession of Faith written in 1560 by six leaders of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. The text of the Confession was the first subordinate standard for the Protestant c ...

of 1560, drawn up by

John Knox John Knox ( gd, Iain Cnocc) (born – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He was the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Born in Giffordga ...

and other leaders of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, was the first subordinate standard for the Protestant church in Scotland. Enacted in law in 1567, it was superseded by the Westminster Confession in 1648. While some churches identify only one key document as their subordinate standard, others specify several. For example, in 1789 the

Presbyterian Church in the United States of America The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was the first national Presbyterian denomination in the United States, existing from 1789 to 1958. In that year, the PCUSA merged with the United Presbyterian Church of North Amer ...

adopted the

, together with the Larger Catechism and the Shorter Catechism, but modified the Confession to bring its teaching on civil government in line with American practices and removed references to the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

as an

Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John ...

. The Presbyterian Reformed Church (North America) adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith along with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms and Directory of Public Worship, while the (separate) Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America considers as its constitution the same standards along with the ''Testimony, Directory for Church Government, and Book of Discipline''. In Australia, the Presbyterian Church of Australia accepts the Westminster Confession of Faith, read in the light of a

Declaratory Statement The Basis of Union of the Presbyterian Church of Australia is the document under which the constituent state churches agreed to unite at its first General Assembly on 24 July 1901, and is still a foundational text for the Uniting Church. The Basis ...

of 1901. The Presbyterian Church of Victoria, one of its constituent bodies, also subscribes to the "general principles" of the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Form of Presbyterial Church Government, the Directory of Public Worship, and the 1578 Second Book of Discipline. The Presbyterian Church in Canada produced a ''Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation'' deemed a "subordinate standard" of the PCC in 1954. Churches specifying only the Westminster Confession of Faith include the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The

United Free Church of Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; gd, An Eaglais Shaor Aonaichte, sco, The Unitit Free Kirk o Scotland) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and ...

specified the Westminster Confession while asserting the church's right to modify it.

References

{{Reformed confessions Reformed confessions of faith Christian terminology