Most gracious and dread sovereign:

Seeing it has pleased the divine majesty, to the great comfort of all good Christians, to advance your highness, according to your just title, to the peaceable government of this church and commonwealth of England, we, the ministers of the gospel in this land, neither as factious men affecting a popular parity in the church, nor as schismatics aiming at the dissolution of the state ecclesiastical, but as the faithful servants of Christ and loyal subjects to your majesty, desiring and longing for the redress of divers abuses of the church, could do no less in our obedience to God, service to your majesty, love to his church, than acquaint your princely majesty with our particular griefs, for as your princely pen writeth: The king as a good physician must first know what peccant humours his patient is most naturally subject unto, before he can begin his cure', and although divers of us that sue for reformation have formerly, in respect of the times, subscribed to the book - some upon protestation, some upon exposition given them, some with condition rather than the church should have been deprived of their labour and ministry - yet now we, to the number of more than a thousand of your majesty's subjects and ministers, all groaning as under a common burden of human rites and ceremonies, do with one joint consent humble ourselves at your majesty's feet, to be eased and relieved in this behalf. Our humble suit then, unto your majesty is that these offences following, some may be removed, some amended, some qualified:

In the church service:

1. That the cross in baptism, interrogatories ministered to infants, confirmation, as superfluous, may be taken away;

2. Baptism not to be administered by women, and so explained;

3. The cap and surplice not urged;

4. That examination may go before the communion;

5. That it be ministered with a sermon;

6. That divers terms of priests, and absolution, and some other used, with the ring in marriage and other such like in the book, may be corrected;

7. The longsomeness of church service abridged, church songs and music moderated to better edification;

This appendix contains a list of visitation articles for the early Stuart Church, both printed and manuscript, which survive for twenty-six dioceses in England and Wales. Enquiries for cathedrals, dioceses, archdeaconries, peculiars and exempt colleges and hospitals are included, though not for the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. Articles are listed in alphabetical order of dioceses, first for the province of Canterbury, then for the province of York, accompanied by the full name of the ordinary or official issuing each set, information which is not always recorded on the titlepage of articles. Often archbishops of both sees issued a single set of articles for a number of dioceses during their metropolitical visitations, and these have been entered as separate items for each diocese in which the set was known to have been used. The appendix is as complete as possible, though I am certain that other sets await discovery; in total, and excluding printed variants or duplicate editions of the same enquiries, it records 401 sets of articles for the years 1603-1642: 59 of them relating to cathedrals, 195 to dioceses, 127 to archdeaconries, and 20 to peculiars.

The location of manuscript items appears in the footnotes; sets without footnotes are all printed, and their whereabouts can be traced through The Revised Short-Title Catalogue of Books…1475-1640, i. nos. 10133.7-10382, iii. nos. 10137.3C-10382, and Wing, Short-Title Catalogue of Books… 1641-1700(revised 2nd edition, 1994), i. nos. C4015BA-C4080A.

Where possible, printed enquiries are listed by date of use rather than date of publication. The former usually appears on the titlepage, in print or in manuscript, or else can be established from ecclesiastical records. Most of these manuscript additions are recorded in RSTC, and a few more are supplied in the footnotes here; the latter also note occasions when the date of visitation on the titlepage is inaccurate, and when a set of enquiries appears to have been recycled, or amended, for a forthcoming visitation. My inspection of the extant articles has not been exhaustive - though I have examined over 60 per cent of the 600+ sets, including duplicates, listed here, in RSTC and in Wing - and fiirther study will no doubt reveal more cases of annotated or modified sets of printed enquiries.

Finally, the footnotes list modern reprints or collations of these visitation articles, both in these two volumes and elsewhere.

Articles on doctrine.

1. That the people shall be taught, as much as possible, by preachers. That four sets of sermons shall be appointed in English, and where preachers are lacking, they shall be read to the people on Sundays and other holidays by the rectors, vicars and curates.

2. The first set of sermons shall cover the eucharist, penance, auricular confession and the other sacraments which the heretics of our time have especially attacked. Also, free will, justification, good works, the church and its authority, unity and ministers.

3. The second set of sermons shall expound the articles of the creed, the Lord's prayer, the angels’ greeting, the ten commandments and the seven sacraments of the church.

4. The third set shall be short sermons about the Christian year and the saints.

5. The fourth set of sermons shall cover the nature, use and significance of the ceremonies which are most frequently used in church. Also virtues and vices, such as charity, obedience, the fear of God, the last judgment, adultery, greed, perjury, sloth, etc.

6. That a brief catechism shall be published in Latin and English, by which the youth may be instructed in the basics of the faith.

7. There shall also be some sound and godly texts for priests to use when hearing confessions and visiting the sick.

Things pertaining to prayer.

1. That a book of prayers containing the hours of the Blessed Mary, the penitential psalms, the vigils for the dead, the commendations, the psalms of suffering and complectens, Latine et Anglice edatur, quo a populo in ecclesia uniusmodi precandi modus observetur.

2. Sit formula quaedam gratiarum in prandio et in coena Deo agendarum, patrum sermone composita, qua laici per totum regnum utantur.

3. Ut dum contio vel summa missa, quam vocant, ас solemnis peragitur, nullus sacerdos celebret, sed omnes tam sacerdotes quam laici earn attentis animis pariter audiant.

4. Ut breviaria ас libri missales recognoscantur et repurgentur, et uniusmodi per totum regnum habeantur.

5. Ut in omnibus dioecesibus eaedem ceremoniae omnino teneantur.

6. Ut festum dedicationis uno certo ac statuto die in omnibus ecclesiis celebretur.

Definitions

Stated as simply as possible, canon law is the law made by the Christian church(es) in order to deal with legal matters within their competence. It must be distinguished from ‘ecclesiastical law', which is a broader concept that includes secular legislation and unwritten laws relating to the church, as well as canon law. At earlier times in our history, there were some matters (e.g. matrimony and the probate of wills) which were regarded as the province of the church and were therefore governed by canon law. On the other hand, there were also a number of ostensibly ecclesiastical issues, like the ownership of church buildings and property, which lay within the competence of the secular courts. A further complication is that many things overlap, such as the regulations governing the appointment of ordained clergy to benefices. The church has always tried to keep control over the qualifications needed for ordination and the terms of service required, especially the vexed questions of residence and pluralism (i.e. holding more than one benefice at a time). But the state has consistently maintained that the advowson, or right of presentation to a living, is a property question and that disputes concerning it should be reserved to the secular courts.’ Finally, there are some matters (such as defamation) where it was long possible for cases to be heard in either the secular or the ecclesiastical courts.

In the history of canon law and of the ecclesiastical courts, there are at least four periods in English legal history which must be distinguished. Until 1072 there was little effective distinction between ecclesiastical and secular law, since most cases were heard in the secular courts, in which bishops and their officials participated and which admitted both canonical and civil precedents. From 1072 in theory, and from the reign of Henry III (1216-72) in practice, there was a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction which was governed by its own canon law more or less along the lines which were common to western Europe as a whole.

This is the second of two volumes devoted to visitation articles and injunctions issued in the English Church from 1603 to 1642. The two are intended to be read and consulted together: Volume I focused on the Church of James I, though it included some articles, based on Jacobean prototypes, which were issued after 1625, while this collection covers the reign of Charles I up to the Civil War. The introductions are also complementary, discussing the purpose and significance of articles and injunctions, and relating them respectively to the Jacobean and Caroline Churches. Taken together, the two volumes print or reprint visitation articles from twenty-six of the twenty-seven dioceses of England and Wales, and injunctions, orders or charges from twelve of them. Moreover an appendix to this volume lists extant visitation articles for the entire period of 1603 to 1642. Of the four hundred and one sets identified there, one hundred and thirty-five are reproduced or collated in these two volumes, and many others commented on in the footnotes.

The introduction to Volume I examined the character, authorship and survival rates of visitation articles and that heterogenous collection of directions, orders and charges which may be termed injunctions. Seven major ‘families’ of enquiries were identified amongst the numerous printed articles used in parochial visitations during the reign of James I, and their progeny was traced into the 1630s. These groupings reved how ecclesiastical ordinaries often borrowed clauses or whole sets from the enquiries compiled by colleagues; the popularity of some sets of articles over others can be explained, in part, in terms of presentation or convenience, but in part also by theological preferences. Thus, for example, Bishop Overall's ritualist set for Norwich diocese of 1619 was adopted wholesale by a succession of anti-Calvinist bishops in the 1620s, but was extensively modified by the Calvinist Bishop of Salisbury, John Davenant, who retained its clear format while moderating many ceremonial and anti-puritan clauses. In short, an ordinary's choice and alteration of articles can often tell us much about his churchmanship. In the analysis which follows, these findings are explored further for the Caroline Church. We begin, however, with a consideration of two small classes of visitation enquiries, relating to cathedral churches and peculiar jurisdictions.

George by the providence of God Archbishopp of Canterbury primate and metropolitane of all England to our welbeloved in Christ the parson, churchwardens and other the parishioners and inhabitants of the parish of Crayford in the countie of Kent and deanerie of Shorham of the peculiar and immediate jurisdiction of us and of our cathedrall and metropoliticall church of Christ Canterbury and to all other persons whatsoever to whom these presentes shall come or may any waye concerne, sendeth greetinge in our Lord God everlastinge. Whereas upon some difference arisinge amongst you about the decent and reverend mimstringe and receavinge of the holy communion in the chancell of the said church of Crayford, wee upon the petition of you the parson did referre the viewinge of the said church and examination of the said difference unto Sir Nathanaell Brent knight our vicar generali who havinge viewed the said church in the presence of you the said parson, churchwardens and some others of the said parish hath certified us, what seemes to him upon the said viewe to bee most decent and convenient for the most reverend and orderly receavinge of the holy communion in the sayd chauncell of the sayd church. Nowe knowe you that upon the relation of the sayd Sir Nathanaell, as all soe upon a mature and deliberate hearinge of the parties interessed in the said difference in our mannor house of Lambeth in the countie of Surrey upon the xxith day of Maye anno domini 1633 in the presence of our sayd vicar generali and divers others and alsoe in the presence of Thomas Fane clerke the nowe incumbent parson of the said parish church of Crayford and Thomas Andrewes, John Ludlowe churchwardens and Joseph Bingham, Thomas Kinge and John Kettle parishioners of the said parish of Crayford and others then and there present, have ordered and decreed and by these presents doe order and decree as followeth, vizt:

Charles, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.: To all men to whom these presents shall come, greeting.

Whereas our bishops, deans of our cathedral churches, archdeacons, chapters and colleges and the rest of the clergy within our kingdom of Ireland were summoned and called by virtue of our writs directed to the archbishops of the four several provinces and bearing date the four and twentieth day of May in the tenth year of our reign [24 May 1634], to appear before the said archbishops in the cathedral church of St Patrick's, Dublin, upon the one and twentieth day of July then next ensuing [21 July 1634], then and there to treat and conclude upon certain high and urgent affairs in the said writs mentioned; who did thereupon at the time appointed, and in the said cathedral church of St Patrick aforesaid, assemble themselves and appear in convocation for that purpose, according to the tenor of the said writs. And whereas we for divers urgent and weighty occasions, us thereunto moving, of our especial grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, did by virtue of our prerogative royal and supreme authority in causes ecclesiastical, give and grant by our letters patent under our great seal of Ireland, bearing date the one and twentieth day of July in the tenth year of our reign [21 July 1634], filli power and authority unto the said archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, chapters, colleges and clergy of this kingdom then assembled in convocation, in the said cathedral church of St Patrick, that they from time to time, during the parliament then begun at Dublin, might confer, treat, consult and conclude of and upon such articles, canons, orders, ordinances, statutes and constitutions ecclesiastical as they shall think necessary, fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God and augmentation of his divine worship, the rooting out of heresies and errors out of the vineyards of Christ;

1. Where by a statute made in the thirteenth [year] of her majesty's reign it was enacted that none should be made minister, unless he be able to answer and render to the ordinary, an account of his faith in Latin, according to certain articles set forth in a synod holden in the year 1562, and mentioned in the said statute; or have special gift and ability to be a preacher: it may please their honourable lordships to consider whether it were meet to be ordered that so many as have been taken into the ministry, since the making of that statute, and be not qualified according to the true meaning and intent of the same, be within a competent time suspended from the ministry, and execution of any function thereto appertaining, until they shall be found of that ability which the statute requireth.

Articles whereupon it was agreed by the most reverend father in God the archbishop of Canterbury and other the bishops and the whole clergy of the province of Canterbury, in the convocation or synod holden at Westminster by prorogation in the year of our Lord God, after the computation of the Church of England, MDLXXV, touching the admission of apt and fit persons to the ministry, and the establishing of good orders in the church. Published by the queen's majesty's authority.,

1 [31, 34,36]. First, that none shall be made deacon or minister hereafter, but only such as shall first bring to the bishop of that diocese from men known to the same bishop to be of sound religion, a testimonial both of his honest life and of his professing the doctrine expressed in the articles of religion which concern the confession of the true Christian faith, and the doctrine of the sacraments, comprised in a book imprinted, entituled: Articles whereupon it was agreed by the archbishops and bishops, etc. anno MDLXII [i.e. 1563] put forth by the queen's authority, and which also shall then be able to answer and render to the same bishop an account of his faith in Latin, agreeable and consonant to the said articles, and shall first subscribe to the said articles. And that every such deacon shall be of the age of twenty-three years and shall continue in that office the space of a whole year at the least, before he be admitted to the order of priesthood, and every such minister shall be of the filli age of twenty-four years. And that neither of those orders shall be given but only upon a Sunday or holy day, and in the face of the church, and in such manner and form and with all such other circumstances as are appointed by the book entituled: The form and manner of making and consecrating bishops, priests and deacons.