bookes with annotations or Prologues, vnles such books before he examined by the kings priuy Counsell, or others appoynted by his highnesse, and yet not to put therto these wordes: Cum priuilegio Regali, wtout adding, Ad imprimen∣dum solum: neither yet to print it, without the kinges pri∣uiledge be printed therewith in the English tongue, that all men may read it. Neyther shall they print any transla∣ted booke, without the playne name of the translator be in it, or els the printer to be made the translatour, and to suf∣fer the fine and punishment therof at the kinges pleasure.
Item, that none of the occupation of Printing shall within the Realme, print, vtter, sell, or cause to be publi∣shed any Englishe bookes of Scripture, vnlesse the same be first viewed, examined, and admitted by the kings high∣nesse, or one of his priuy Counsell, or one Byshop with•••• the Realme, whose name shall therin be expressed, vpon payne of the kinges most high displeasure, the losse of their goods and cattels, and prisonment, so lōg as it shall please the king.
Item, those that be in any errours, as Sacramenta∣ries, Anabaptistes, or any other, or any that sell books, ha∣uing such opinions in them, being once knowne, both the bookes and such persons shalbe detected and disclosed im∣mediately vnto the kinges Maiesty, or one of hys priuye Counsell, to the intent to haue it punished without fauor, euen with the extremity of the law.
Item, that none of the kings subiects shall reason, dis∣pute, or argue vpon the sacramēt of the aulter, vpon paine of losing theyr liues, goodes and cattels, without all fauor, onely these excepted that be learned in Diuinitye: they to haue theyr liberty in theyr scholes and appoynted places, accustomed for such matters.
Item, that holy bread and holy water, procession, kne∣ling, and creeping on good Friday to the crosse and Easter day, setting vp of lights before the Corpus Christi, bearing of candles on Candlemas day, Purification of women de∣liuered of child, offering of Crisomes, keeping of the foure offering dayes, paying theyr tithes, and such like ceremo∣nyes must be obserued & kept, till it shall please the king to chaunge or abrogate any of them. This article was made for that the people was not quieted and contēted (many of them) with the ceremonies then vsed.
Finally, all those Priestes that be maryed, and openly knowne to haue theyr wiues, or that hereafter do intēd to marry, shall be depriued of all Spirituall promotion, & from doyng any duety of a Priest, and shall haue no man∣ner of office, dignity, cure, priuiledge, profit, or commodity in any thing appertaining to the Clergy, but from thence forth shalbe taken, had, and reputed as lay persons, to all purposes and intentes: and those that shall after thys pro∣clamation marry, shall runne in his graces indignatō, and suffer punishment and imprisonment at his graces will & pleasure.
Item, he chargeth all Archbishops, Bishops, Archdea¦cons, Deacons, Prouostes, Parsons, Uicars, Curates, & other Ministers, and euery of them in their own persons, within their cures diligently to preach, teach, open, and set forth to the people, the glory of God, & trueth of his word: and also considering the abuses & superstitions that haue crept into the hartes and stomackes of many, by reason of their fond ceremonies, he chargeth them vpon payn of im∣prisonment at his graces pleasure, not onely to preach and teach the word of God accordingly, but also sincerely and purely, declaring the difference betwene things commaū∣ded by God, and the ••ites and ceremonies in theyr church then vsed, least the people therby might grow into further superstition.
Item, for as much as it appeareth now clearely, that Thomas Becket sometime Archbishop of Caunterbury, stubbernely withstanding the wholesome lawes establi∣shed agaynst the enormityes of the Clergy, by the kynges highnesse noble Progenitour King Henry the second, for the common wealth, rest, and tranquility of thys Realme, of his froward minde fledde the Realme into Fraūce, and to the Bishop of Rome, maynteyner of those enormityes, to procure the abrogation of the sayd Lawes, (whereby a∣rose much trouble in this sayd Realme) and that his death which they vntruely called Martyrdome, happened vpon a rescue by him made, and that (as it is written) he gaue opprobrious wordes to the Gentlemen, which then coun∣selled him to leaue hys stubbernenesse, and to auoyde the commotion of the people risen vppe for that rescue, and he not onely called the one of them bawde, but also tooke Tracie by the bosome, and violently shook hym, and pluc∣ked hym in such maner, that he had almoste ouerthrowne him to the pauement of the church, so that vpon this fray, one of theyr companye perceiuing the same, strake him, and so in the thronge Becket was slayne: and further, that his canonization was made onely by the Byshop of Rome, because he had bene a champion to mayntayne his vsurped authority, and a bearer of the iniquitye of the Clergy.
For these and for other great and vrgent causes long to recite, the kinges Maiesty by the aduise of hys Coun∣sell, hath thought expedient to declare to hys louyng sub∣iectes, that notwithstanding the sayd canonization, there appeareth nothing in his life and exterior conuersation, wherby he should be called a Saynt, but rather estemed to haue bene a rebell and traytor to his Prince.
Therefore his grace straytly chargeth and commaun∣deth, that from henceforth the sayd Thomas Becket shall not be esteemed, named, reputed, and called a Saynt, but Bishop Becket, and that his Images and Pictures tho∣row the whole Realme shalbe pluckt downe and auoyded out of all Churches, Chappels, and other places, and that from henceforth the dayes vsed to be festiuall in his name, shall not be obserued, nor the seruice, office, Antiphons, Collectes, & prayers in his name read, but rased & put out of all the bookes: & that all their festiuall dayes already ab∣rogated, shalbe in no wise solemnized, but his graces ordi∣naunces, and iniunctions therupon obserued, to the intēt his graces louing subiectes shalbe no longer blindly ledde & abused to commit Idolatry, as they haue done in tymes passed, vpō payne of his maiestyes indignation, & imprisō∣ment at his graces pleasure▪
Finally his grace straightly chargeth and commaun∣deth that his subiects do keep and obserue all and singuler his iniunctions made by his maiesty, vpon the payn ther∣in conteined.