and successors, for his first offence, the profits of such one of his spiritual benefices or promotions as it shall please the King's Highness to assign or appoint, coming and arising in one whole year next after his conviction. [The rest of this section deals with form of penalty for first, second, and third offences.]

II. And it is ordained and enacted by the authority abovesaid, That if any person or persons whatsoever, after the said feast of Pentecost next coming, shall in any interludes, plays, songs, rhymes, or by other open words, declare or speak any thing in the derogation, depraving, or despising of the same Book, or of any thing therein contained, or any part thereof; or shall by open fact, deed, or by open threatenings, compel or cause, or otherwise procure or maintain any parson, vicar, or other minister in any cathedral or parish church, or in any chapel or other place, to sing or say any common and open prayer, or to administer any Sacrament otherwise or in any other manner or form than is mentioned in the said Book; or that by any of the said means shall unlawfully interrupt or let any parson, vicar, or other ministers in any cathedral or parish church, chapel, or any other place, to sing or say common and open prayer, or to administer the Sacraments, or any of them, in any such manner and form as is mentioned in the said Book; that then every person being thereof lawfully convicted in form abovesaid, shall forfeit to the King our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, for the first offence ten pounds. [The rest of this section deals with forms of penalties.]

III. (Provides that justices of oyer may sit in judgment.) IV. (Provides that a bishop may at his pleasure join with the justices at the trial.)

V. Provided always, That it shall be lawful to any man that understandeth the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew tongue, or other strange tongue, to say and have the said prayers heretofore specified of matins and evensong in Latin, or any such other tongue, saying the same privately, as they do understand.

VI. And for the further encouragement of learning in the tongues in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford to use and exercise in their common and open prayer in their chapels (being no parish churches), or other places of prayer, the matins, evensong, litany, and all other prayers (the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass, excepted), prescribed in the said Book, in Greek, Latin, or

Hebrew; any thing in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

VII. Provided also, That it shall be lawful for all men, as well in churches, chapels, oratories, or other places, to use openly any psalms or prayer taken out of the Bible, at any due time, not letting or omitting thereby the Service, or any part thereof, mentioned in the said Book.

VIII. (Provides that Service Books shall be gotten by all churches before the next feast of Pentecost.)

IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII provide for procedure and jurisdiction under this Act.

(Ed. from Statutes at Large, ed. cit., III, p. 517.)

124. Against Books and Images

(3 EDW. VI, 1549)

Statutes at Large of England

The zeal of the Protestant party led to the issue of stringent acts against all practices that recalled the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Uniformity of worship was secured by careful suppression and drastic legislation.

Whereas the King's most excellent Majesty hath of late set forth and established by authority of Parliament an uniform, quiet, and godly order for Common and Open Prayer, in a book entitled, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the Church of England, to be used and observed in the said Church of England, agreeably to the order of the primitive Church, much more comfortable unto his loving subjects than other diversity of service, as heretofore of long time hath been used, being in the said book ordained, nothing to be read but the very pure Word of God, or which is evidently grounded upon the same; and in the other, things corrupt, untrue, vain, and superstitious, and as it were a preparation to superstition; which for that they be not called in, but permitted to remain undefaced, do not only give occasion to such perverse persons as do impugn the order and godly meaning of the King's said Book of Common Prayer, to continue in their old accustomed superstitious service, but also minister great occasion to diversity of opinions, rites, ceremonies, and services: Be it therefore enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in the present Parliament assembled, That all books called antiphoners, missals, grailes, processionals, manuals, legends,

pies, portuasses, primers in Latin or English, couchers, journals, ordinals, or other books or writings heretofore used for service of the Church, written or printed in the English or Latin tongue, other than such as are or shall be set forth by the King's Majesty, shall be by authority of this present Act clearly and utterly abolished, extinguished, and forbidden for ever to be used or kept in this realm, or elsewhere within any of the King's dominions.

II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons, of what estate, degree, or condition soever he, she, or they be, body politic or corporate, that now have or hereafter shall have in his, her, or their custody, any the books or writings of the sorts aforesaid, or any images of stone, timber, alabaster, or earth, graven, carved, or painted, which heretofore have been taken out of any church or chapel, or yet stand in any church or chapel, and do not before the last day of June next ensuing deface and destroy, or cause to be defaced and destroyed, the same images and every of them, and deliver or cause to be delivered all and every the same books to the mayor, bailiff, constable, or church-wardens of the town where such books then shall be, to be by them delivered over openly within three months next following after the said delivery, to the archbishop, bishop, chancellor, or commissary, of the same diocese, to the intent the said archbishop, bishop, chancellor, or commissary, and every of them, cause them immediately either to be openly burnt or otherwise defaced and destroyed; shall for every such book or books willingly retained in his, her, or their hands or custody within the realm, or elsewhere within any of the King's dominions, and not delivered as is aforesaid, after the said last day of June, and be thereof lawfully convict, forfeit and lose to the King our Sovereign Lord, for the first offence xx s., and for the second offence shall forfeit and lose (being thereof lawfully convict) iv li, and for the third offence shall suffer imprisonment at the King's will.

III. (Provides penalty in case of default of duty by any Mayor, etc.)

IV. (Provides for jurisdiction by Justices of the Assize.) V. Provided also, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That any person or persons may use, keep, have, and retain any primers in the English or Latin tongue, set forth by the late King of famous memory, King Henry the Eighth, so that the sentences of invocation or prayer to the saints in

the same primers be blotted or clearly put out of the same; any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

VI. Provided always, That this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to any image or picture set or graven upon any tomb in any church, chapel, or churchyard, only for a monument of any king, prince, nobleman, or other dead person, which hath not been commonly reputed or taken for a saint, but that such pictures and images my stand and continue in like manner and form as if this Act had never been had nor made; any thing in this Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

(Ed. from Statutes at Large, ed. cited, III, p. 565.

125. Journal of Edward VI.

Records, Burnet

The following extracts from the journal of Edward VI., a mere boy, are pathetic in their evidence of abnormal precocity. They are also important in that they foreshadow the attitude of Mary toward the Protestant religion.

March [1550]

18. The lady Mary, my sister, came to me at Westminster, where, after salutations, she was called with my council, into a chamber; where was declared how long I had suffered her mass, in hope of her reconciliation, and how now being no hope, which I perceived by her letters, except I saw some short amendment, I could not bear it. She answered, "that her soul was God's, and her faith she would not change, nor dissemble her opinion with contrary doings." It was said, "I constrained not her faith, but willed her not as a king to rule, but as a subject to obey; and that her example might breed too much inconvenience."

19. The emperor's ambassador came with a short message from his master of war, if I would not suffer his cousin, the princess, to use her mass. To this was no answer given at this time.

20. The bishops of Canterbury, London, Rochester, did consider to give license to sin, was sin; to suffer and wink at it for a time might be born, so all haste possible might be used.

23. The council having the bishop's answers, seeing my subjects taking their vent in Flanders, might put the whole realm in danger. The Flemings had cloth enough for a year in their hand, and were kept far under the danger of the papists;

the fifteen hundred cinquetales of powder I had in Flanders, the harness they had for preparation of the gendarmory, the goods my merchants had there at the Woolfleet, decreed to send an ambassador to the emperor, Mr. Wotton, to deny the matter wholly, and persuade the emperor in it, thinking, by his going, to win some time for a preparation of a mart, convenience of powder, harness, etc., and for the surety of the realm. In the mean season, to punish the offenders, first of my servants that heard mass, next of hers.

24. Sir Anthony Brown sent to the Fleet for hearing mass with serjeant Morgan, Sir Clement Smith, which a year before heard mass, chidden.

25. The ambassador of the emperor came to have his answer, but had none, saving, that one should go to the emperor within a month or two to declare the matter.

(Collection of Records, Burnet, ed. cit., clxvi.