400	REA.
Upon the Reformation here, they were required to subscribe to the following injunctions:—" Imprimis,—I shall not preach, or interpret, but only read that which is appointed by public authority :—I shall not minister the Sacraments or other public rites of the Church, but bury the dead, and purify women after their childbirth :—I shall keep the register book according to the injunctions : —I shall use sobriety in apparel, and especially in the church at Common Prayer:—I shall move men to quiet and concord, and not give them cause of offence:—I shall bring into my Ordinary, testimony of my behaviour, from the honest of the parish where I dwell, within one half year next following:—I shall give place upon convenient warning so thought by the Ordinary, if any learned minister shall be placed there at the suit of the patron of the parish:—I shall claim no more of the fruits sequestered of such cure where I shall serve, but as it shall be thought meet to the wisdom of the Ordinary :—I shall daily at the least read one chapter of the Old Testament, and one other of the New, with good advisement, to the increase of my knowledge :—I shall not appoint in my room, by reason of my absence or sickness, any other man; but shall leave it to the suit of the parish to the Ordinary, for assigning some other able man :—1 shall not read but in poorer parishes destitute of incumbents, except in the time of sickness, or for other good considerations to be allowed by the Ordinary :—I shall not openly intermeddle with any artificers' occupations, as covetously to seek a gain thereby; having in ecclesiastical living the sum of twenty nobles or above by the year."
This was resolved to be put to all readers and deacons by the respective Bishops, and is signed by both the Archbishops, together with the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, Sarum, Carlisle, Chester, Exeter, Bath and Wells, and Gloucester. Strype's Annals, v. I, p. 306.
By the foundation of divers hospitals, there are to be readers of prayers there, who are usually licensed by the .Bishop.
reading desk. The reading desk, or reading pew, appears to have been frequently erected at the same time as the pulpit, which was ordered by the Canons of 1603, to be placed in every church not already provided with