“So that each and every one, who under him had the charge of souls, do openly in English, upon Sundays teach and preach them, that they have cure of the law and the way to know God Almighty. And he commands and bids, in all that he may, that all who have keeping or cure under him, enjoin their parishioners and their subjects, that they hear and learn all these things, and oft, either rehearse them till they know them, and so teach them to their children, if they any have, when they are old enough to learn them; and that parsons and vicars and all parish priests inquire diligently of their subjects at Lent-time, when they come to shrift, whether they know these things, and if it be found that they know them not, that they enjoin them upon his behalf, and on pain of penance, to know them. And so there be none to excuse themselves through ignorance of them, our father, the Archbishop, of his goodness has ordained and bidden that they be showed openly in English amongst the flock.” To take another example: the Acts of the Synod, held by Simon Langham at Ely in A.D. 1364, order that every parish priest frequently preach and expound the Ten Commandments, etc., in English (_in idiomate communi_), and all priests are urged to devote themselves to the study of the Sacred Scriptures, so as to be ready “to give an account of the hope and faith” that are in them. Further, they are to see that the children are taught their prayers; and even adults, when coming to confession, are to be examined as to their religious knowledge. Even when the rise of the Lollard heretics rendered it important that some check should be given to general and unauthorized preaching, this did not interfere with the ordinary work of instruction. The orders of Archbishop Arundel in A.D. 1408, forbidding all preaching without an episcopal licence, set forth in distinct terms, that this prohibition did not apply “to the parish priests,” etc., who by the Constitutions of Archbishop Peckham were bound to instruct their people, in simple language, on all matters concerning their faith and observance. And further, in order to check the practice of treating people to such formal and set discourses, these simple and practical instructions were ordered to be adopted without delay in all parish churches. [Illustration: ARCHIDIACONAL VISITATION] [Illustration: SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY] To this testimony of the English Church as to the value attached to popular instruction may be added the authority of the Provincial Council of York, held in A.D. 1466 by Archbishop Nevill. By its decrees not only is the order as to systematic quarterly and simple instructions reiterated, but the points of the teaching are again set out by the Synod in great detail.