A book belonging to, or used in connection with, a church; esp. a. a service-book; b. an official record of the proceedings of a church; c. a parish register.
c. 1025. Wulfstan, Hom. (Napier), xxxv. 171. Man hæfð on cyricbocum mæssan ʓesette.
1514. in Glasscock, Rec. St. Michael’s (1882), 34. Pd to the scriviner for mendyng of the cherch bokis.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., 221. Whiche the lymmers … paynte on the margentes of churche bookes.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. i. (1658), 3. And though the Church-book speak her fifty, they That say she can write thirty, more offend her.
1673. S. Dugard, Marr. Cousin Germans, 58. A Name … to live no where but on a Tombstone, or in the Church Book.
1888. Daily News, 30 Aug., 3/2. The Rev. John Brown, D.D., the present minister of the church at Bunyan Meeting, Bedford, gives … the following extracts from the church book, touching … their pastor’s death [31 Augt. 1688].
