England Ecclesiastical Visitations (National Institute)

Ecclesiastical Visitations
The Church of England developed as an Episcopal one where bishops held the major responsibility for the moral welfare of their lay flock and clergy, as well as for the upkeep of the property and the church’s income. This they did by holding regular visitations either by touring their diocese or by officials coming to diocesan headquarters, usually in groups by rural deanery or archdeaconry. Visitations could also be delegated to episcopal commissioners, typically taking place annually, at which time the transcript of the parish register (bishop’s transcript) would also be given in. This event is often noted in parish registers as in the chart below. Chart: Parish Register Notations



The bishop’s superior, the archbishop, also held visitations for his province commonly every three or four years. The bishop’s assistants, the archdeacons and rural deans, held visitations their respective archdeaconries or deaneries, as frequently as the business of the court required, and perhaps every three or four weeks. The documentation regarding the organization of visitations may be collected in diocesan visitation books (also called libri cleri or call or exhibit books); Owen discusses these records.

Articles of Enquiry
Typically a visitation commenced with a set of written or printed questions (theArticles of Enquiry) to be answered in writing by representatives of the particular flock. Thus a bishop or archdeacon would require replies (detecta) from his parish clergymen, churchwardens, schoolteachers and others, such as the early questmen, whose names all appear in visitation books. Occasionally a note against a name reveals a lot, for example caecus (intellectually or morally blind) or insanus (of unsound mind, mad).

The term detecta is defined by Fitzhugh asthings of which people had been accused, or in the language of the courts, for which they had been presented at an Ecclesiastical Visitation.

The researcher will occasionally find one of the quite lengthyArticles of Enquiry amongst parish chest materials and Chapman has reproduced the entire 1741 edition. The set of questions varied little over several centuries and throughout the country, consisting of groups of questions concerning the provision and quality of items, as well as the character, environment and behaviour of the clergy (see below).

Chart: Summary of Articles of Enquiry

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