Exhibit 505 ยท Statute
Act for thadvauncement of true Religion and for thabbolisshment of the contrarie, 34 & 35 Henry VIII c. 1
no woomen nor artificers prentises journeymen serving men of the degrees of yeomen or undre, husbandemen nor laborers shall reade within this Realme
Abolishes books of the Old and New Testament in English of Tyndale's translation and requires annotations in other English Bibles to be cut out; bars anyone not appointed by the king or an ordinary from reading or teaching the Bible in English in church; forbids women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, serving men of the degree of yeomen or under, husbandmen and laborers to read the Bible or New Testament in English, privately or openly, on pain of one month's imprisonment; exempts noblemen and gentlemen householders and merchant householders; gives half of penalties to those who detect and sue.
- Source
- Parliament of England (Henry VIII)
- Date
- 1543 (session 1542-43)
- Quoted from
- Statutes of the Realm III, pp. 894-96 (the reading clause is on p. 896; page numbers read from the OCR)
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://archive.org/details/the-statutes-of-the-realm-3
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Preamble also says the king had granted 'the greate libertie ... of having ... in theyre handes the Newe and Olde Testament' and that the lower sort had abused it.