VISITATION ARTICLES AND RETURNS.
The visitation of the parishes by the Ordinary--the ecclesiastical person
who exercised spiritual jurisdiction over them[278]--was an important
feature of ecclesiastical administration.[279] We have seen that a canon
of the famous Council of Clovesho, in 747, directed bishops to make an
annual visitation of their dioceses. As time went on the duty, burdensome
alike to the bishops and clergy, fell into disuse, and seems to have been
resumed again in the twelfth century.
The Lateran Council of 1179 made a canon to check the costs of
visitations: it decreed that an archbishop visiting churches should be
content with forty or fifty horses; a bishop with twenty or thirty; an
archdeacon with five or seven; and a dean was not to exceed two.[280] The
Pontificals contain the “Order of Visiting Parishes:”[281] the bishop is
to be met by the clergy in procession outside the gates; Mass is to be
said; the bishop is to tell the people the purpose of his coming, viz. (1)
to absolve the souls of the departed; (2) to see how the Church is
governed, the condition of its vestments, the lives of the clergy, etc.;
(3) to inquire into the sins of the laity; (4) to take cognizance of
matters which belong to the bishop; (5) to confirm children; also he is to
preach a sermon on the sacraments, etc.[282]
From these visitations we obtain full and reliable information as to the
personal character and conduct of the parish clergy and their fulfilment
of their duties. Five or six of the parishioners, called _testes
synodales_,[283] or questmen, were sworn to give, besides a return of the
condition of the church and its furniture, a true answer to certain
questions about their clergy, viz. the rector or vicar, the chaplains, and
the clerk.
* * * * *
Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln (c. 1232), issued a paper of twenty-nine
questions to his clergy, which is perhaps the earliest of Visitation
Articles (“Lincoln,” p. 134, S.P.C.K.). Grostete issued Articles of
Inquiry about 1250; and similar articles were issued by Roger Weseham,
Bishop of Lichfield, in 1252. In the year 1253 these following inquiries
were made “in each and every diocese of the whole kingdom of England”
concerning the life and conversation of both clerks and laymen:--[284]
1, 2, 3, 4 are about sensual sins on the part of the laity. 5. Whether
any laymen are drunkards, or habitually frequent taverns, or practise
usury of any kind. 6. Receive the free land of any church to farm. 7.
Or receive in their fee the tithes of any church. 8. Whether rents
assigned to lights or other specified uses of the church are converted
to the use of the rector or vicar. 9. Whether any layman is compelled
to communicate and offer after mass on Easter Day.[285] 10. Whether
any layman or other of whatever condition or reputation (_famæ_)
_perierit conscio rectore vel vicario loci_. 11. Whether any layman is
notably proud, or envious, or avaricious, or slothful, or malicious,
or gluttonous, or luxurious [the seven deadly sins]. 12. Whether any
layman causes markets, or plays or pleas (_placita peculiaria_) to be
held in sacred places, and whether these things have been prohibited
on the part of the bishop. 13. Whether any laymen have played at
“Rams” (_elevaverint arietes_[286]), or caused scotales to be held,
or have contended for precedence with their banners in their
visitation of the mother church. 14. Whether any layman or woman
entertain as a guest the concubine of any man of whatever condition,
and keep a bad house. 15. Whether any sick person has lacked any
sacrament from negligence of the priest lawfully called. 16. Whether
any layman or other of whatever condition have died intestate, or
without partaking of the sacraments, by the negligence of the priest
or rector. 17. Whether any churches remain to be dedicated, or any
have been destroyed without licence from the bishop, since the Council
of London. 18. Whether Jews dwell anywhere where they have not been
used to dwell. 19. Whether any laymen have clandestinely contracted
marriage in cases forbidden by law or without banns. 20. Whether the
laity insist upon (_sunt pertinaces ut stent_) standing in the chancel
with the clergy. 21. Whether any layman causes Divine service to be
celebrated in any chapel without licence from the bishop. 22. In what
way lay servants and representatives of parsons, abbots, priors,
prioresses, and other parsons and religious persons, behave in their
granges, mansions, and possessions. 23. Let diligent inquiry be made
concerning the taxation of every church, and how much the rector of
every church has given to the subsidy of the Lord Pope. 24. Whether
any rectors or vicars or priests are very illiterate (_enormiter
illiterati_). 25. Whether the sacrament of the Eucharist is everywhere
carried to the sick with due reverence, and is kept in a proper
manner. 26. Whether any of the aforesaid or others in sacred orders
are incontinent, and in what kind of incontinence. 27. Whether the
incontinent have been corrected by the archdeacon of the place, and
how often and in what manner. 28. Whether any convicted or confessing
incontinence have bound themselves to resignation of their benefices
or other canonical punishment if they relapse, and whether any after
so binding themselves have relapsed. 29. Whether any men beneficed or
in sacred orders are married (_uxorati_). 30. Whether any clerics
frequent the churches of nuns without reasonable cause. 31. Whether
any of the clerks in holy orders keep (_tenent_) any woman related to
him, or any concerning whom evil suspicions may arise. 32. Whether any
are drunken, frequenters of taverns, or traders, or usurers, or
fighters or wrestlers, or notorious for any vice. 33. Whether any are
farmers, giving and receiving churches or vicarages to farm without
the licence of the bishop. 34. Whether any are viscounts (high
sheriffs) or secular judges, or hold bailywĩcks (stewardships) for
laymen, for which office they are obliged to give account (_unde
obligentur eisdem ad ratiocinia_). 35. Whether any rectors make a
bargain with their annual priests (_cum sacerdotibus annuis_) that,
besides the stipend received from the rector, they may receive
annualia and tricennalia from others. 36. Whether any is guilty of
simony, either in regard to ordination or preferment. 37. Whether any
parish priest has not sufficient maintenance from the rector. 38.
Whether any rector or vicar has built on a lay fee or cemetery out of
the revenues of the Church, or has placed tithes in a lay fee. 39.
Whether any carry weapons, or have not the tonsure, and fitting habit.
40. Whether any one has more than one cure of souls without
dispensation. 41. Whether any rector or vicar is the son of the last
incumbent. 42. Whether any priest extorts money for penance or other
sacraments, or enjoins lucrative penances. 43. Whether deacons hear
confessions or minister other sacraments committed to priests only.
44. Whether any rector or vicar does not reside on his benefice. 45.
Whether any church has not clerks or one honest clerk according to the
means of the church. 46. Whether the cemeteries are everywhere
enclosed, and the churches becomingly built and adorned, and the
ornamenta and sacred vessels properly kept. 47. Whether any priest
celebrates in sour wine (_aceto_). 48. Whether any beneficed men learn
or teach secular laws.[287] 49. Whether cartings are done (_fiant
cariagia_) on the Lord’s days or festivals, and by whom. 50. Whether
the canon of the mass is everywhere duly corrected. 51. Whether any
layman or cleric keeps as a guest the concubine of a cleric, and where
are there harbours of concubines. 52. Whether any priest celebrates
twice a day except in the conceded cases, and except in his own
church. 53. Whether any religious have appropriated to themselves any
tithes, or churches, or such like, or any additional pension or
portion has been given to religious, without the consent of the bishop
of the place. 54. Whether any vicars make themselves rectors, or the
converse. 55. Whether any illegitimates who have not a dispensation
hold ecclesiastical benefices, or are in sacred orders. 56. Whether
any act as rectors or vicars who have not been instituted by the
bishop. 57. Whether the super altars are proper (_honesta_), and not
used for grinding colours upon them. 58. Whether adulteries and public
and notorious crimes of laymen are duly corrected by the archdeacon,
and whether any one has celebrated marriage in a disallowed case. 59.
Whether in every deanery there have been appointed penitentiaries[288]
of rectors, vicars, and priests, and who they are. 60. What priests
were ordained in Ireland or elsewhere outside this diocese, and whence
did they come, and in what places have they ministered hitherto, and
by whom are they licensed to celebrate. 61. Whether in every
archdeaconry there are sufficient penitentiaries of the bishop (for
cases reserved to the bishop?). 62. Concerning the life and proper
conduct of archdeacons, deans, and clerics who minister in churches,
and concerning the agents and servants of parsons and others. 63.
Whether any anchorite has been made without the assent of the bishop.
64. Whether any monks or religious dwell in their granges or
possessions, and how the monks behave there in spiritual things, and
what is their reputation. 65. Whether the dean and others have entered
into a confederacy during the vacancy of the see to the prejudice of
the incoming bishop. 66. Whether any archdeacons have received more
for procuration than they ought to receive according to the new
constitution. 67. Enquiry is to be made concerning executors of wills,
whether they have acted well and faithfully in the performance of
their executorship, and if concerning the said executorship they have
paid the computum to the bishop. 68. Whether markets are held by any
one on the Lord’s day.
The answers show that the _testes synodales_ did not scruple to find fault
when they had cause, and perhaps sometimes when they had not much cause.
We gather a few of the returns from the diocese of Exeter at Bishop
Stapledon’s Visitation in 1301,[289] as examples--
_Sidbury._--Walter the Vicar, _optime se habet in omnibus, bene predicans,
et officium sácrum sacerdotale laudabiliter exercens. Similiter et Clerici
honestè se gerunt._
_Branscombe._--Thomas the Vicar conducts himself well in all things, and
preaches willingly (_libenter_), and diligently does all things which
belong to the office of a priest.
The returns from many parishes are equally satisfactory. We take more
interest, perhaps, in those in which the failings of the clergy are
pointed out. Here are some of them--
_Culmstock._--William the Vicar is a man of good life and honest
conversation, and his clerk likewise, and well instructs his parishioners.
In the visitation of the sick and baptizing the children, and in all
things which belong to his office, they know nothing to be found fault
with in him, with the exception that he makes too little pause between the
matins and mass on festival days.[290]
_Colyton._--Sir Robert the Vicar is a good man (_probus homo_), and
preaches to them so far as he knows (_quatenus novit_), but not
_sufficienter_, as it seems to them. They say also that his predecessors
were accustomed to call the friars to instruct them about their souls’
salvation, but he does not care for them; and if by chance they come he
does not receive them, nor give them entertainment (_viatica_); whereof
they pray that he may be admonished. Item, all the chaplains and clerks of
the church live _honestè et continentes_.[291]
At a later visitation, in 1330, the synodsmen of Colyton complain that
their vicar had been struck with leprosy, but continued to come to
communion with the parishioners at the risk of contaminating the whole
flock, which was a scandal. They report that they used to have one
sufficient vicar, one fit parochial chaplain, one deacon, and two clerks
serving in the said church of the alms of the parishioners, and that the
vicar used to find that number, out of whom they have now only one
chaplain and one clerk, and that the said vicar refuses to supply more.
They complain that the vicar chooses his parish clerk at his own pleasure,
and will not _manucipere pro eodem_. They say that the clerks of the
church used by custom to ring the curfew, and at the elevation of the
_corpus domini_.
They complain that John Prouz (lord of the manor of Gatcombe, in the
parish) is not willing to contribute with the other parishioners to the
church, nor to do other things which belong to him. They say that Sir Hugo
Prouz, father of the said John, knight, deceased, left 10 marks sterling
to the fabric of the church of Colyton, which the heirs refuse to
pay.[292]
_Colebrook._--Hugh de Coppelestone and other trustworthy men of the
parish, lawfully requisitioned and examined, say that Sir William the
Vicar preaches after his own fashion (_suo modo_); also he expounds to
them the Gospels on the Lord’s Days so far as he knows (_quatenus novit_);
but concerning the Articles of the Faith, the Commandments of the
Decalogue, and the mortal sins, he does not teach them much. And he does
not say his matins with note on the more solemn days, and only celebrates
on the week days every other day. He is defamed of incontinency with Lucia
de la Stubbe, a married woman (_conjugata_). All his houses, except the
hall and chamber, which were in a good state at his coming, are now
falling to pieces and threatening to come down, and could not be made good
for a hundred shillings. Also his gate is so far from the hall, which he
has lately lengthened, that one calling without is not heard in the hall,
which is dangerous for the sick parishioners.[293]
_St. Mary Church._--The parishioners have some complaints to make about
business matters between themselves and the vicar, but finally testify
that he preaches well and exercises his office laudably in all things when
he is present; but that he is often absent, and stays at Moreton sometimes
for fifteen days, sometimes for eight, so that they have not a chaplain,
unless when Sir Walter, the chaplain of the archdeacon, is present, or
some one can by chance be obtained from some other place.
_Dawlash._--In Bishop Stapledon’s Visitation, in 1301, the _synodales_ say
that the vicar, who has the reputation of being a good man, does not
reside in person, but has in his place Sir Adam, a chaplain, who conducts
himself _bene et honeste_, and teaches them excellently in spiritual
matters. But Randulphus the chaplain has had his concubine for ten years
or more, and, often corrected for it (_sæpius inde correptus_), remains
incorrigible. The clerk of the church is _continens et honestus_.
An important testimony to the estimation in which the clergy were
generally held by their parishioners, is afforded by the fact that it was
very usual for the people to seek their assistance in making their wills,
and also to appoint them as executors, to see to the due carrying out of
their testamentary arrangements.