+Source.+--Burnet's _History of the Reformation_; _Collection of Records_,
Part I., Book III. xi.
First: That ye shall truly observe and keep all and singular the
King's Highness' Injunctions, given unto you heretofore in my name, by
his Grace's Authority; not only upon the pains therein expressed, but
also in your default after this second monition continued, upon
further punishment to be straitly extended towards you by the King's
Highness' Arbitriment, or his Vice-Gerent aforesaid.
Item: That ye shall provide on this side the Feast of [words omitted]
next coming, one Book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in
English, and the same set up in some convenient place within the said
Church that ye have use of, whereas your Parishoners may most
commodiously resort to the same and read it; the charge of which Book
shall be ratably born between you, the Parson, and the Parishoners
aforesaid, that is to say the one half by you, and the other half by
them.
Item: That ye shall discourage no man privily or apertly from the
reading or hearing of the said Bible, but shall expressly provoke,
stir, and exhort every person to read the same, as that which is the
very lively word of God, that every Christian man is bound to embrace,
believe, and follow, if he look to be saved: admonishing them
nevertheless to avoid all contention, altercation therein, and to use
an honest sobriety in the inquisition of the true sense of the same,
and refer the explication of the obscure places to men of higher
judgement in Scripture.
Item: That ye shall every Sunday and Holy Day through the year openly
and plainly recite to your Parishoners, twice or thrice together or
oftener, if need require, one particle or sentence of the Pater
Noster, or creed in English, to the intent that 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 householders 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 knowledge 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
any 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 men's fantasies besides Scripture; as in wandering to Pilgrimages,
offering of Money, Candles, 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 or 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 same diminisheth most of his
honour and glory.
Item: That such feigned Images as ye know in any of Cures to be so
abused with Pilgrimages or offerings of anything made thereunto, ye
shall, for avoiding the 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 across 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
Parishoners, that images serve for none other purpose, but as to be
books of unlearned men, that ken no letters, whereby they might be
otherwised 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 you, and every Parson, Vicar or Curate within this Diocese,
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 persons 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 a
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 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 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' 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, sometime Archbishop of
Canterbury, which shall be clean omitted, and in the stead thereof the
Ferial[55] Service used.
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 _Pace 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 be 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 to the King's Highness, or his Vice-Gerent for
the time being shall seem convenient.
[Footnote 55: = festival.]