This is the first of two volumes which reproduce manuscript and printed documents for the years 1603-1642. The articles issued by archbishops, bishops, archdeacons and others exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction have been frequently used by historians as evidence of the priorities and concerns of church government, but until now there has been no systematic examination of the structure and contents of articles, nor the relationship between sets issued by different archbishops, bishops or archdeacons. These two volumes attempt to fill this gap. Volume 1, centring on the Church of James I, contains no less than sixty-six sets of articles, printed either in full or in collated form and includes injunctions or charges issued during or after visitations. Volume 2 extends the same treatment to the Caroline Church up to the Civil War. KENNETH FINCHAM is lecturer in history at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

"An important sourcebook for research about early seventeenth-century religious and social history. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTSets a standard of excellence which will gain the society a high reputation... A rich quarry for historians with a range of interests... a major achievement in the scholarly editing of a set of documents which have for much too long been inaccessible to ecclesiastical and social historians and which they cannot afford to ignore. JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY`Evidence on such matters as Laudianism, episcopal jurisdiction, recusancy and the church courts — also a rich source for information on the day-to-day life of Jacobean England.'CHURCH TIMES An important work... the introduction is especially valuable for its analysis of the authorship of the articles and for its detailed description of how the bishops used them. CHURCH HISTORY (US)An invaluable source for ecclesiastical history... a splendid forst volume in what promises to be a highly important record series. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW "