The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Religious body

Church of England

Documented money flows

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • REL-2.2: The Constitutions of Archbishop Arundel, drafted in 1407 and promulgated in 1409, forbade anyone to translate a text of Scripture into English on his own authority and forbade reading any such translation until the diocesan or a provincial council approved it, under the greater excommunication.
  • REL-2.3: A royal proclamation of June 1530 forbade having the New or Old Testament in English except persons appointed by the king and the bishops to correct the translation, forbade printing English Scripture without the diocesan's approval, and stated that its distribution "dependeth onely vpon the discretion of the superiours."
  • REL-2.4: Between 1530 and 1543 the English Crown, by proclamation, injunction and statute, prohibited English Scripture, then required an English Bible in every parish church, then barred women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, servingmen of yeoman rank or under, husbandmen and laborers from reading it.
  • REL-2.5: In 1534 Parliament required cathedral chapters to elect the person the king named in his letter missive, declared the king supreme head of the Church of England and granted the Crown first fruits and an annual tenth of church income; in 1559 Parliament required clergy and royal officers to swear that the queen is "only supreme governor" and every minister to use the Book of Common Prayer.
  • REL-2.6: Between 1661 and 1673 Parliament required officeholders to receive the sacrament according to the Church of England and fined nonconforming ministers and attenders at conventicles with part of the fines going to informers, and the Toleration Act of 1689 excused Protestant dissenters from the attendance penalties while saving tithes, parochial duties and ecclesiastical-court prosecution.
  • REL-2.7: The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 converted tithe in each parish into a money rentcharge on the land recoverable by distress; church rates ended in 1868, tithe rentcharge was extinguished on 2 October 1936 with compensation to owners and redemption annuities charged on land, and the last annuities were extinguished from 2 October 1977.
  • REL-2.9: Innocent III in 1199 called the desire to understand the divine Scriptures "commendable" while condemning secret lay assemblies and usurped preaching; Thomas More wrote in 1529 that the clergy kept from the laity only translations not yet approved or already condemned; the 1559 Act of Supremacy limited what commissioners could adjudge heresy; and Anne Hudson reports about 250 surviving manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible, including a copy owned by Henry VI.
  • REL-2.10: How far vernacular Scripture was restricted in Europe and England before 1520, given licensing, noble and orthodox ownership and the limits of the Toulouse and Oxford texts, is disputed and is not settled by the documents cited here.
  • REL-3.9: England and Wales's Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found in 2020 that the Catholic Church and the Church of England each prioritized protecting their reputations over supporting victims. Its Catholic report counts more than 900 complaints from 1970 to 2015 with 133 convictions, and its Anglican report counts 390 convicted offenders associated with the Church of England from the 1940s to 2018.

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 487 6 October 2020. Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), England and Wales: The Anglican Church: Investigation Report
  • Exhibit 494 1407-1409 (Oxford 1407/8; ratified at St Paul's, London, 14 January 1408/9). Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, with the clergy of the Province of Canterbury: Constitutions of Archbishop Thomas Arundel against the Lollards (Constitutions of Oxford), 1407-1409
  • Exhibit 496 24 October 1526. Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London: Bishop Tunstall's mandate calling in English New Testaments
  • Exhibit 501 September-October 1538. Thomas Cromwell, vicegerent for Henry VIII: Second Royal Injunctions of Henry VIII (Cromwell), 1538
  • Exhibit 506 1534. Parliament of England (Henry VIII): Act for the Absolute Restraint of Annates and Election of Bishops, 25 Henry VIII c. 20
  • Exhibit 507 November 1534. Parliament of England (Henry VIII): Act of Supremacy, 26 Henry VIII c. 1
  • Exhibit 508 1534. Parliament of England (Henry VIII): Act concerning the payment of First Fruits and an annual tenth of the possessions of the Church, 26 Henry VIII c. 3
  • Exhibit 509 1559. Parliament of England (Elizabeth I): Act restoring ancient jurisdiction (Elizabethan Act of Supremacy), 1 Elizabeth c. 1
  • Exhibit 510 1559. Parliament of England (Elizabeth I): Elizabethan Act of Uniformity, 1 Elizabeth c. 2
  • Exhibit 511 1559. Elizabeth I: Injunctions of Elizabeth, 1559
  • Exhibit 513 1665. Parliament of England (Charles II): Act for restraining Non-Conformists from inhabiting in Corporations (Five Mile Act), 17 Charles II c. 2
  • Exhibit 515 1673. Parliament of England (Charles II): Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants (Test Act), 25 Charles II c. 2
  • Exhibit 516 24 May 1689. Parliament of England (William and Mary): Toleration Act, 1 William and Mary c. 18
  • Exhibit 518 18 August 1836. Parliament of the United Kingdom: Act for the Commutation of Tithes in England and Wales, 6 & 7 William IV c. 71
  • Exhibit 519 31 July 1868. Parliament of the United Kingdom: Compulsory Church Rate Abolition Act 1868, 31 & 32 Victoria c. 109
  • Exhibit 520 31 July 1936. Parliament of the United Kingdom: Tithe Act 1936, 26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8 c. 43
  • Exhibit 528 1529. Thomas More: Thomas More, A Dyaloge ... of the pestylent sect of Luther and Tyndale (1529), book 3, ch. 16
  • Exhibit 531 1571. Convocation of Canterbury, with royal authority: Articles of Religion of the Church of England (1571 English text), Articles XX and XXXVII
  • Exhibit 532 1548. Parliament of England (Edward VI): Act for the true payment of Tithes, 2 & 3 Edward VI c. 13