Mr Purvis introduces a classified selection of documents concerned with parochial life in Yorkshire in the days of Queen Elizabeth. The sources from which he selects are almost entirely unexplored and unpublished, namely a fine collection of the earlier Act Books of the Ecclesiastical Commission of York (which Mr Purvis himself discovered), Visitation Books, the Proceedings of the Archbishops' courts, and papers of the Consistory Court. Documents of this kind necessarily record the delinquent parishes (with which they were particularly concerned), and unless this is remembered would give an unduly dark picture. The texts of the documents are given, classified by subject, introduced by Mr Purvis, and glossed and annotated as needed. There is a foreword by the Archbishop of York.