Religious body

Convocation of the Province of Canterbury

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-2.4: 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-2.9: 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.

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 504 January-February 1543. Convocation of the Province of Canterbury: Convocation of Canterbury on the Great Bible (Wilkins, Concilia III, 860), 1542-43
Exhibit 531 1571. Convocation of Canterbury, with royal authority: Articles of Religion of the Church of England (1571 English text), Articles XX and XXXVII