hymnos cantemus triumphales. Quibus vos tantisper volumus immorari, quoad aliud a nobis inde habueritis in mandatis: vos etiam harum scire in domino hortamur. Quod si quid superiori anno in his orationibus decantandis et dicendis a vestris gregibus fuerit oscitanter omissum, id nunc resarcire et in melius reformare, habita hujus turbulentæ tempestatis congrua ratione, summo studio prout fieri confidimus curetis: bene valeatis, frater charissime. Ex ædibus nostris de Bekysborne nostræ Cant' dioc' 11o Aug. A. D. 1545. et nostræ consecr' an' 13.

XXIV.

A Preface made by the King's most excellent Majesty unto his

Primer Booka.

vol. iii.

HENRY the VIIIth, by the grace of God King of England, Wilkins, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and in earth Su- Concilia, preme Head of the Church of England and Ireland, to all and p. 873. singular our subjects, as well of the clergy as also of the laity, within any our dominions whatsoever they be, greeting. It is the part of kings (whom the Lord hath constituted and set for pastors of his people) not only to procure that a quiet and peaceable life may be led of all his universal subjects, but also that the same life may be passed over godly, devoutly, and virtuously in the true worshipping and service of God; to the honour of Him, and to the sanctifying of his name, and to the everlasting salvation of their own selves. But to godly devotion there belongeth many points, of which that same is not the least, the which doth purely, and with perfect understanding, make invocation to God the Father, and of the Author and Giver of all goodness earnestly craveth such things as be good, and for the soul health, for that part of the life that is behind, to be well ordered; and rendereth thanks for the bounteous giving of good things past, and also for the putting away of evils; and therefore doth sacrifice unto God with the calves and burnt offering of the lips. But the pureness thereof consisteth in this point, if the heavenly Father of Lights be worshipped and served according to the prescription and ap

[Some omission seems to have been made in these places by the clerk who entered the document in the register.]

a [See Preface.]

pointment of the word of God; if we be wary and circumspect in this behalf, that we talk with Him in our prayers according to his will: after whose appointing if we direct our prayers, we have assured trust and affiance (as the writing of the Apostle teacheth) that we be heard of Him. Now prayer is used or made with right and perfect understanding, if we sing with our spirit, and sing with our mind or understanding; so that the deep contemplation or ravishing of the mind follow the pithiness of the words, and the guiding of reason go before; lest when the spirit doth pray, the mind take no fruit at all, and the party that understandeth not the pith or effectualness of the talk that he frankly maketh with God, may be as an harp or pipe, having a sound, but not understanding the noise that itself hath made. And forasmuch as we have bestowed right great labour and diligence about setting a perfect stay in the other parts of our religion, we have thought good to bestow our earnest labour in this part also, being a thing as fruitful as the best, that men may know both what they pray, and also with what words, lest things special good and principal, being inwrapped in ignorance of the words, should not perfectly come to the mind and to the intelligence of men; or else things being nothing to the purpose, nor very meet to be offered unto God, should have the less effect with God, being the distributor of all gifts.

In consideration whereof we have set out and given to our subjects a determinate form of praying in their own mother tongue, to the intent that such as are ignorant of any strange or foreign speech, may have what to pray in their own acquainted and familiar language with fruit and understanding, and to the end that they shall not offer unto God (being the searcher of the reins and hearts) neither things standing against true religion and godliness, nor yet words far out of their intelligence and understanding.

Nevertheless, to the intent that such as have understanding of the Latin tongue, and think that they can with a more fervent spirit make their prayers in that tongue, may have wherein to do their devotion to God, being none acceptor neither of any person ne tongue, we have provided the selfsame form of praying to be set forth in Latin also, which we had afore published in English, to the intent that we should be all things to all persons, and that all parties may at large be satisfied, and as well the wills and desire of them that perceive both

tongues, as also the necessity and lack of them that do not understand the Latin.

And we have judged it to be of no small force, for the avoiding of strife and contention, to have one uniform manner or course of praying throughout all our dominions; and a very great efficacy it hath to stir up the ferventness of the mind, if the confuse manner of praying be somewhat holpen with the fellowship or annexion of understanding; if the ferventness of the prayer being well perceived do put away the tediousness or fainting of the mind, being otherwise occupied and turned from prayer; if the plenteousness of understanding do nourish and feed the burning heat of the heart; and finally, if the cheerfulness of earnest minding the matter put clean away all slothfulness of the mind tofore gathered.

Wherefore as great as our will and forwardness hath been to set forth and publish these things, so great ought your diligence and industry to be towards well and fruitfully using the same; that when all things hath been prepared and set forth to the glory of God and for your wealth, yourselves only may not be slack or negligent towards your own behoof, and toward your own benefits.

XXV.

Injunctions given by the most Excellent Prince, Edward the Sixth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and in Earth under Christ, of the Church of England and of Ireland, the Supreme Head: To all and singular his loving subjects, as well of the Clergy as of the Laity.

THE King's most royal Majesty, by the advice of his most Sparrow,

dear uncle the Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of all his Collection

p. 1.

realms, dominions, and subjects, and governor of his most royal of Records, person, and residue of his most honourable Council, intending Wilkins, the advancement of the true honour of Almighty God, the sup- Concilia, vol. iv. p.3. pression of idolatry and superstition throughout all his realms and dominions, and to plant true religion, to the extirpation of all hypocrisy, enormities, and abuses, as to his duty appertaineth; doth minister unto his loving subjects these godly In

junctions hereafter following; whereof part were given unto them heretofore, by the authority of his most dear beloved father, King Henry the Eighth, of most famous memory, and part are now ministered and given by his Majesty: all which Injunctions his Highness willeth and commandeth his said loving subjects, by his supreme authority, obediently to receive, and truly to observe and keep, every man, in their offices, degrees, and states, as they will avoid his displeasure, and the pains in the same Injunctions hereafter expressed.

The first is, That all deans, archdeacons, parsons, vicars, and other ecclesiastical persons, shall faithfully keep and observe, and, as far as in them may lie, shall cause to be kept and observed of other, all and singular laws and statutes, made as well for the abolishing and extirpation of the Bishop of Rome, his pretensed and usurped power and jurisdiction, as for the establishment and confirmation of the King's authority, jurisdiction, and supremacy of the Church of England and Ireland. And furthermore, all ecclesiastical persons, having cure of souls, shall, to the uttermost of their wit, knowledge, and learning, purely, sincerely, and without any colour or dissimulation, declare, manifest, and open four times every year at the least, in their sermons and other collations, that the Bishop of Rome's usurped power and jurisdiction having no establishment nor ground by the laws of God, was of most just causes taken away and abolished, and that therefore no manner of obedience or subjection, within his realms and dominions, is due unto him. And that the King's power, within his realms and dominions, is the highest power under God, to whom all men, within the same realms and dominions, by God's laws, owe most loyalty and obedience, afore and above all other powers and potentates in earth.

Besides this, to the intent that all superstition and hypocrisy crept into divers men's hearts, may vanish away; they shall not set forth or extol any images, relics, or miracles, for any superstition or lucre, nor allure the people by any enticements to the pilgrimage of any saint or image: but reproving the same, they shall teach, that all goodness, health, and grace, ought to be both asked and looked for only of God, as of the very Author and Giver of the same, and of none other.

Item, That they the persons above rehearsed, shall make or

cause to be made in their churches, and every other cure they have, one sermon every quarter of the year at the least, wherein they shall purely and sincerely declare the word of God: and in the same exhort their hearers to the works of faith, mercy, and charity, specially prescribed and commanded in Scripture; and that works devised by men's phantasies, besides Scripture, as wandering to pilgrimages, offering of money, candles, or tapers, or relics, or images, or kissing and licking of the same, praying upon beads, or such like superstition, have not only no promise of reward in Scripture for doing of them; but contrariwise great threats and maledictions of God, for that they be things tending to idolatry and superstition, which of all other offences God Almighty doth most detest and abhor, for that the same diminish most his honour and glory.

Item, That such images as they know in any of their cures to be or to have been abused with pilgrimage or offering of any thing made thereunto, or shall be hereafter censed unto, they (and none other private persons) shall for the avoiding of that most detestable offence of idolatry, forthwith take down, or cause to be taken down, and destroy the same; and shall suffer from henceforth no torches nor candles, tapers, or images of wax, to be set afore any image or picture, but only two lights upon the high altar, before the sacrament, which for the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world, they shall suffer to remain still: admonishing their parishioners, that images serve for no other purpose but to be a remembrance, whereby men may be admonished of the holy lives and conversation of them that the said images do represent: which images if they do abuse for any other intent, they commit idolatry in the same, to the great danger of their souls.

Item, That every holy day throughout the year, when they have no sermon, they shall, immediately after the Gospel, openly and plainly recite to their parishioners in the pulpit the Pater Noster, the Credo, and Ten Commandments in English, to the intent the people may learn the same by heart: exhorting all parents and householders to teach their children and servants the same, as they are bound by the law of God and in conscience to do.

Item, That they shall charge fathers and mothers, masters and governors, to bestow their children and servants, even from their