to the intent they may learn the same by Heart; And so from day to day, to give them one little lesson or sentence of the same, till they have learned the whole Pater Noster and Creed, in English, by rote. And as they be taught every sentence of the same by rote, ye shall expound and declare the understanding of the same unto them, exhorting all Parents and Housholders to teach their Children and Servants the same, as they are bound in Conscience to do. And that done, ye shall declare unto them the Ten Commandments, one by one every Sunday and Holy-day, till they be likewise perfect in the same.

Item; That ye shall in Confessions every Lent examine every Person that cometh to Confession unto you, whether they can recite the Articles of our Faith, and the Pater Noster in English, and hear them say the same particularly; wherein if they be not perfect, ye shall declare to the same, That every Christian Person ought to know the same before they should receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar; and monish them to learn the same more perfectly by the next year following, or else, like-as they ought not to presume to come to God's Board, without perfect knowledg of the same, and if they do, it is to the great peril of their Souls; so ye shall declare unto them, that ye look for other Injunctions from the King's Highness by that time, to stay and repel all such from God's Board as shall be found ignorant in the Premisses; whereof ye do thus admonish them, to the intent they should both eschew the peril of their Souls, and also the worldly rebuke that they might incur after by the same.

Item; That ye shall make, or cause to be made, in the said Church, and every other Cure ye have, one, Sermon every quarter of the year at least, wherein ye shall purely and sincerely declare the very Gospel of Christ, and in the same exhort your Hearers to the Works of Charity, Mercy, and Faith, especially prescribed and commanded in Scripture, and not to repose their trust or affiance in any other Works devised by Mens fantasies besides Scripture; as in wandering to Pilgrimages, offering of Mony, Candels, or Tapers, to Images, or Reliques; or kissing or licking the same over, saying over a number of Beads, not understanded or minded on, or in such-like superstition; for the doing whereof, ye not only have no promise of reward in Scripture, but contrariwise great threats and maledictions of God, as things tending to Idolatry and Superstition, which of all other Offences God Almighty doth most detest and abhor, for that the same diminisheth most his honour and glory.

Item; That such feigned Images as ye know in any of your Cures to be so abused with Pilgrimages or Offerings of any thing made thereunto, ye shall, for avoiding of that most detestable offence of Idolatry, forthwith take down, and without delay: and shall suffer from henceforth no Candles, Tapers, or Images of Wax to be set afore any Image or Picture, but only the Light that commonly goeth a-cross the Church by the Rood-loft, the Light before the Sacrament of the Altar, and the Light about the Sepulchre; which for the adorning of the Church, and Divine Service, ye shall suffer to remain: still admonishing your Parishioners, that Images serve for none other purpose, but as to be Books of unlearned Men, that ken no Letters, whereby they might be otherwise admonished of the lives and conversation of them that the said Images do represent; which Images if they abuse, for any other intent than for such remembrances, they commit Idolatry in the same, to the great danger of their Souls: And therefore the King's Highness graciously tendering the weal of his Subjects Souls, hath in part already, and more will hereafter, travail for the abolishing of such Images as might be an occasion of so great an offence to God, and so great a danger to the Souls of his loving Subjects.

Item; That in all such Benefices, or Cures, as ye have, whereupon ye be not your self Resident, ye shall appoint such Curats in your stead, as can both by their ability, and will also promptly, execute these Injunctions, and do their duty otherwise, that ye are bounden in every behalf accordingly, and may profit them, no less with good Examples of living, than with declaration of the Word of God, or else their lack and defaults shall be imputed unto you, who shall straitly answer for the same if they do otherwise.

Item; That ye shall admit no Man to preach within any your Benefices or Cures, but such as shall appear unto you to be sufficiently licensed thereunto by the King's Highness, or his Grace's Authority, by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of this Diocess; and such as shall be so licensed, ye shall gladly receive to declare the Word of God, without any resistance or contradiction.

Item; If ye have heretofore declared to your Parishioners any thing to the extolling or setting forth of Pilgrimages, feigned Reliques, or Images, or any such superstitions, that you shall now openly afore the same recant and reprove the same, shewing them (as the truth is) that ye did the same upon no ground of Scripture, but as one led and seduced by a common Error and abuse crept into the Church, VOL. I, PART II.

through the sufferance and avarice of such as felt profit by the same.

Item; If ye do or shall know any Man within your Pa rish, or elsewhere, that is a Letter of the Word of God to be read in English, or sincerely preached, or of the execution of these Injunctions; or a favourer of the Bishop of Rome's pretensed Power, now by the Laws of this Realm justly rejected and extirped; ye shall detect and present the same to the King's Highness, or his honourable Council, or to his Vice-gerent aforesaid, or the Justice of Peace next adjoining.

Item; That you, and every Parson, Vicar, or Curat within this Diocess, shall for every Church keep one Book or Register, wherein he shall write the day and year of every Wedding, Christening, and Burying, made within your Parish for your time, and so every Man succeeding you likewise; and also there insert every Person's Name that shall be so wedded, christened, and buried; and for the safe keeping of the same Book, the Parish shall be bound to provide, of their common charges, one sure Coffer with two Locks and Keys, whereof the one to remain with you, and the other with the Wardens of every such Parish wherein the said Book shall be laid up; which Book ye shall every Sunday take forth, and in the presence of the said Wardens, or one of them, write and record in the same, all the Weddings, Christenings, and Buryings, made the whole week afore; and that done, to lay up the Book in the said Coffer, as afore; And for every time that the same shall be omitted, the Party that shall be in the fault thereof, shall forfeit to the said Church 3s. 4d. to be employed on the reparation of the said Church.

Item; That ye shall every quarter of a year read these and the other former Injunctions, given unto you by the Authority of the King's Highness, open and deliberately before all your Parishioners, to the intent that both you may be the better admonished of your duty, and your said Parishioners the more incited to ensue the same for their part.

Item; Forasmuch as by a Law established, every Man is bound to pay the Tithes; no Man shall, by colour of duty, omitted by their Curats, detain their Tithes, and so redouble one wrong with another, or be his own Judg, but shall truly pay the same, as hath been accustomed, to their Parsons and Curats, without any restraint or diminution; and such lack or default as they can justly find in their Parsons and Curats to call for reformation thereof at their

Ordinaries, and other Superiors hands, who, upon complaint, and due proof thereof, shall reform the same accordingly.

Item; That no Person shall from henceforth alter or change the order and manner of any Fasting-day that is commanded and indicted by the Church, nor of any Prayer, or of Divine Service, otherwise than is specified in the said Injunctions, until such time as the same shall be so ordered and transported by the King's Highness's Authority; The Eves of such Saints whose Holy-days be abrogated be only excepted, which shall be declared henceforth to be no fasting-days; excepted also the commemoration of Thomas Becket, some-time Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, which shall be clean omitted, and in the stead thereof, the Ferial Service used.

Item; That the knolling of the Avies after Service, and certain other times, which hath been brought in and begun by the pretence of the Bishop of Rome's pardon, henceforth be left and omitted, lest the People do hereafter trust to have pardon for the saying of their Avies, between the said knolling, as they have done in times past.

Item; Where in times past Men have used in divers places in their Processions, to sing Ora pro nobis to so many Saints, that they had no time to sing the good Suffrages following, as Parce nobis Domine, and Libera nos Domine, it must be taught and preached, that better it were to omit Ora pro nobis, and to sing the other suffrages.

All which and singular Injunctions I minister unto you and your Successors, by the King's Highness Authority to me committed in this part, which I charge and command you by the same Authority to observe and keep upon pain of Deprivation, Sequestration of your Fruits, or such other coercion as the King's Highness, or his Vice-gerent for the time being shall seem convenient.

These are also in the Bp. of London's Register, Fol. 29, 30, with Bonner's Mandate to his Arch-Deacons for observing them, 30 Sept. 1541. Anno Regn. 32.

XII.

Injunctions given by Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, to the Parsons, Vicars, and other Curats in his Visitation, kept (sede vacante) within the Diocess of Hereford, Anno Domini 1538.

1. FIRST; That ye, and every one of you, shall, with all your diligence and faithful obedience, observe, and cause

to be observed, all and singular the King's Highness Injunctions, by his Graces Commissaries given in such places as they in times past have visited.

2. Item; That ye, and every one of you shall have, by the first day of August next coming, as well a whole Bible in Latin and English, or at the least a New Testament of both the same Language, as the Copies of the King's Highness Injunctions.

3. Item; That ye shall every day study one Chapter of the said Bible, or New Testament, conferring the Latin and English together, and to begin at the first part of the Book, and so to continue until the end of the same.

4. Item; That ye, or none of you, shall discourage any Lay-man from the reading of the Bible in English or Latin, but encourage them to that, admonishing them that they so read it, for reformation of their own Life, and knowledg of their Duty; and that they be not bold or presumptuous in judging of Matters afore they have perfect knowledg.

5. Item; That ye, both in your Preaching and secret Confession, and all other works and doings, shall excite and move your Parishioners unto such works as are commanded expresly of God, for the which God shall demand of them a strict reckoning; and all other Works which Men do of their own Will or Devotion, to teach your Parishioners that they are not to be so highly esteemed as the other ; and that for the not doing of them God will not ask any accompt.

6. Item; That ye, nor none of you, suffer no Friar, or Religious Man, to have any Cure or Service within your Churches or Cures, except they be lawfully dispensed withal, or licensed by the Ordinary.

7. Item; That ye, and every one of you, do not admit any young Man or Woman to receive the Sacrament of the Altar, which never received it before, until that he or she openly in the Church, after Mass, or evening Song, upon the Holy-day, do recite, in the vulgar Tongue, the Pater Noster, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments.

VIII. Item; That ye, and every one of you, shall two times in a quarter declare to your parishioners the Band of Matrimony, and what great danger it is to all men that useth their Bodies but with such Persons as they lawfully may by the Law of God. And to exhort in the said Times your Parishioners, that they make no privy Contracts, as they will avoid the extream pain of the Laws used within the King's Realm, by his Graces Authority.