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Exhibit 503

Royal proclamation of 6 May 1541 ordering the Bible of the largest volume in every church

Exhibit 503 ยท Royal proclamation

Royal proclamation of 6 May 1541 ordering the Bible of the largest volume in every church

for euery moneth that they shall lacke and want the sayde Bybles, after the same feast of Alsayntes fourty shyllynges

Orders curates and parishioners to buy a Bible of the largest volume for each church at their own cost; readers are to read humbly and not aloud during the Mass or dispute the mysteries; a parish without the Bible forfeits forty shillings a month, half to the king and half to whoever first presents the default; the price is capped at ten shillings unbound and twelve bound.

Source
Henry VIII (printed by Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, 'Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum')
Date
6 May 1541
Quoted from
Pollard, Records of the English Bible (1911), Record XLIII, p. 264
Grade
Primary record
Document
https://archive.org/details/recordsofenglish00polluoft
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit
Note
Price cap: 'the pryce of ten shyllynges' unbound, 'twelue shyllynges' bound (p. 264).

Cited by

Finding REL-2.4
Primary record 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.