The authority for this ancient custom appears to be derived from an act of the Convocation which assembled in 1562. Strype informs us (Annals, vol. i. c. 27.) that at this Convocation the following injunctions were given:
"First, That a Catechism be set forth in Latin, which is already done by Mr. Dean of Paul's [Dean Nowell], and wanteth only viewing. Secondly, That certain Articles [the Thirty-nine Articles], containing the principal grounds of Christian religion, be set forth much like to such Articles as were set forth a little before the death of King Edward, of which Articles the most part may be used with additions and corrections as shall be thought convenient. Thirdly, That to these Articles also be adjoined the Apology, writ by Bishop Jewell, lately set forth after it, hath been once again revised and so augmented and corrected as occasion serveth. That these be joined in one book; and by common consent authorised as containing true doctrine, and be enjoined to be taught the youth in the Universities and grammar schools throughout the realm, and also in cathedral churches, and collegiate, and in private houses: and that whosoever shall preach, declare, write, or speak anything in derogation, depraving or despising of the said book, or any doctrine therein contained, and be thereof lawfully convicted before any ordinary, &c., he shall be ordered as in case of heresy, or else shall be punished as is appointed for those that offend and speak against the Book of Common Prayer, set forth in the first year of the Queen's Majesty's reign that now is: that is to say, he shall for the first offence forfeit 100 marks; for the second offence, 400 marks; and for the third offence, all his goods and chattels, and shall suffer imprisonment during life."
It is probable that this book found a place in churches as affording a standard of orthodoxy easy of reference to congregations in times not sufficiently remote from the Reformation, to render the preaching of Romish doctrines unlikely. This, if the surmise be correct, would be emphatically to bring the officiating minister to book. In Prestwich Church, the desk yet remains, together with the "Book of Articles," bound up as prescribed with Jewel's Apology (black-letter, 1611), but the chain has disappeared. The neighbouring church of Bingley has also its desk, to which the chain is still attached; but the "Book of Articles" has given place to some more modern volume.
John Booker.
Prestwich.
Mr. Simpson will find some account of the Paraphrase of Erasmus so chained (of which he says he cannot recal an instance) at Vol i., p. 172., and Vol. v., p. 332.
The following list (remains of which more or less perfect, with chains appended, are still extant) will probably be interesting to many of your readers:
"Books chayned in the Church, 25th April, 1606.
Dionisius Carthusian vpon the New Testament, in two volumes.
Origen vpon St. Paules Epistle to the Romanes.