¶ ARTICLES to be inquired of, by the reverend Father in God, Richard by God's providence Bishop of Elye, For the Churchwardens and Inquirers of every several Parish within his Diocese, in his visitation, holden in the year of our Lord GOD, 1573.  
PRINTED AT LONDON, by Henry Bynneman, for Humphrey Toy.   

¶ To the Persons, Vicars, and Curates, Churchwardens, and Inquirers, within the Diocese of Ely.  
FOr as much as in my former Visitations, I delivered out certain Injunctions, as well unto you of the Clergy, as unto the Churchwardens, and other sworn men, to be diligently observed and kept: it shall not be needful to repeat and enjoin the same again. In case any new matter of disorder may appear unto you, by the inquiry of my Articles, ye shall do well and dutifully to receive and take the true sense, and meaning of the said Articles, to be in place and stead of Injunctions, both unto the Clergy, and also to the laity, as we use to call them. Which Articles, by the way of questions, I thought good to minister unto you, to the intent both that ye may by the help of them more easily find out, and declare all the disorders which are used in your parishes, to the evil example of others, and to the high dishonour of Almighty God. And that also by your faithful information upon your oaths, I may be the better able to redress all disorders and faults, to the edifying of the people in your parish, and to the glory of the Almighty and everlasting God. These Articles ye Churchwardens must diligently examine, and truly answer to every Article according to your oaths:  
IN primis whether your Person or Vicar, do preach against the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, and his romish doctrine and errors, according to the queens majesties Injunctions.  
2 Item whether he read twice in the year, the confession concerning the principal articles of Religion set forth by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Bishops.  
3 Item whether you have one Sermon every quarter at the lest, in your parish Church.  
4 Item whether there be any Monuments of superstition remaining, as Images, Crosses, holy water stocks, Roodeloftes, and such like.  
5 Item whether there be any in your parish that speaketh against any point of Religion, now established in this Realm, or any that be despisers, mockers, or gainsayer of Preachers and Ministers doing their duties.  
6 Item whether there be any known Papists, or any receivers of such as do not consent to the Queen her majesties Supremacy.  
7 Item whether your Chancel, Church, and Churchyard be in good and sufficient reparation.  
8 Item whether your Person or Vicar have more benefices than one, & whether your Curate serve more cures than one.  
9 Item whether your Curate read distinctly, so that he may be heard and understanded of the parishioners, & whether he hath special Licence under the Ordinaries Seal.  
10 Item whether your Curate read an Homely, when there is no Sermon.  
11 Item whether the Churchwardens do collect and take, of those that do not come to church upon the Sundays and Holidays, the forfeitures of twelve pens, to the use of the poor, for every time that they be so absent without just cause.  
12 Item whether a Certificate be made at the lest every quarter, of all swearers, blasphemers of Gods holy name, Drunkards, Adulterers, incestuous persons, Fornicators, ribalds, Bawds, or receivers of such inconvenient people and of strange women with child, whose husbands are unknown, or any persons that are vehemently suspected of such faults, & all sowers of discord between neighbours within your parish.  
13 Item whether the Statute of the provision for the poor be duly observed and kept: if not, in whom the fault is, and whether any refuse to contribute to the relief of the poor.  
14 Item whether there be any that do stubbornly contemn, or despise the order of administration of the holy Sacraments, set forth in the English tongue, or have not received, or do obstinately refuse to receive the holy Communion at the lest three times in the year.  
15 Item whether there be any cloth hanged on the wall, where the high altar stood, and the table often commandments fixed to the same.  
16 Item whether your Person, Vicar or Curate, say or sing his service, in such decent vesture as is prescribed by public authority.  
17 Item whether any of your Parish after that he be excommunicated, do at any time resort to the Church, at Divine service, not being absolved and restored to the Church again, and whether any of your Parish keep any such excommunicated person company.  
18 Item whether the Children be instructed in the English catechism, lastly set forth by authority, every sunday and Holydaye, before Evening prayer, by the space of one whole hour, and if they be not, whether the fault be in the Parents and Masters of the Children, or in the Curate neglecting his duty.  
19 Iten whether there be admitted to the receiving of the Communion, any notorious sinners within your parish, without open reconciliation & declaration of repentance for the same offence.  
20 Item whether the Queen's majesties Injunctions be read quarterly, by the Person, Vicar or Curate.  
21 Item whether any of your Paryshiones walk, talk, or otherwise unreverently behave themselves in the Church, or use any gaming abroad, or in any house, or sit in the streets, or Churchyards, or any Tavern or Alehouse upon the Sundays or Holidays, in time of Common prayer, service, Preaching, or reading of the Homilies: or whether any innkeepers, Alewives, Victuallers, or Typlers do suffer them.  
22 Item whether any Butchers, Brewer's, Shoemakers, or others, use to bring, carry, or cell any such things upon Sundays or holidays, in the time of Common prayer, Sermon or reading of Homilies, and whether any other artificer doth utter any wares or Merchandise in the like times.  
23 Item whether the Churchwardens, do see the names of all Preachers that preach in their parish Churches, to be noted in a book for that purpose, & whether every Preacher do subscribe his name, & of whom he had his Licence.  
24 Item whether any man trouble or molest the Churchwardens for doing their duties.  
25 Iten whether the Churchwardens be chosen by the consent of the Person, Vicar, or Curate, without whose consent they may not be chosen.  
26 Item whether the Churchwardens have provided these books following, that is to say, the English Bible in a great volume, the book of service, the books of Homilies, with the Homely against rebellion, books of Psalms, the book of holy Articles, with Canons and rules of discipline in English, the book of the Queen's majesties Injunctions, the book of advertisements, the table of degrees of Matrimony, the ten Commandments, and the bishops Injunctions, the books of peculiar prayer set forth at any time, at the costs and charges of the Parishioners.  
27 Item whether the Paraphrases of Erasmus, or else the exposition of Master Musculus upon the Gospel of Saint Mathewe, be had and provided, at the charges of the Parish and Parson, or Proprietary, equally borne between them.  
28 Iten whether the Choir be comely & orderly kept▪ whether they have a fair & comely Table, of two yards and a half (if the Choir will serve) for the Communion, with a fair linen cloth to lay upon the same, and some covering of Silk, Buckram, or such like, for the clean keeping thereof.  
29 Item whether there be any within your Parish that doth administer upon the goods of any deceased, without authority from the Ordinary, whereby the Infants and Creditors, commonly be defrauded of their duties.  
30 Item whether the Person, Vicar, or Curate, doth use any other service, than by public authority is set forth, or altar or change the service of the book of Common prayer, or any part thereof otherwise than it is set forth.  
31 Item whether the Person or Vicar hath made a terrey of their glebe Lands, Pastures, Meadows, Closes, or Gardens, belonging unto their benefice, by the chief of their Parish, and whether they have presented the said terrey, accordingly unto their Ordivarie.  
32 Item whether the Parson, Vicar, or Curate, hath yearly before the twenty day after Easter, exhibited to the Bishop, or his officers, the names and surnames of such persons in their Parish, being xiiij years of age, and upward, which receive not the holy Communion. And such also as refuse to be examined by the Minister of the Church, in the catechism.  
33 Item, whether any be admitted by his person, vicar, or Curate, to be godfathers, and godmothers, unless they have received the communion, or can say the catechism.  
34 Item whether you know any person by preaching, or in word by talk, maintaining any doctrine against the word of God, or against the godly articles, or against the book of service confirmed by full authority of the Church of England, and of the whole Realm.  
35 Item whether any thing which hath been complained of, is not yet redressed.  
36 Item whether any in your parish do deprave or dispraise the book of Common prayer, in any part (set forth by authritie of Parliament) or speak against the Homilies, or do maintain or hold any erroneous opinions, contrary to the word of God, and the Laws of the Realm.  
37 Item whether there hath been any fray made in your Churches, or Churchyards, to the disturbance of God's service, or to the evil example of the rest of the parish, and if there hath been, them you shall present by whom it was made, when, and after what sort.  
38 Item whether there be any Schoolmaster within your parish that doth teach any Grammar school, either privately, or openly, whether they be licensed so to teach, how long they have taught, and what their names be.  
39 Item whether there be any Legacies withholden, given to the Church or poor people, or mending of high ways, or otherwise by the Testators. In whose hands it is, by whom it is given, and by whom it is withholden.  
40 Item whether your Churchwardens do truly Administer the goods of the Church, and in the presence of the Minister, make a true account of their office yearly, and at the end of their account deliver up the money, and choose new Churchwardens once every year.  
41 Item whether any man have put away his wife, or any wife absent herself from her husband without just cause or without authority from their Ordinary, or any that hath married within the degrees prohibited by the levitical and other Laws within this Realm, set forth in that behalf.  
42 Item whether there be any convenient & strong Chest, for the poor man's Box.  
43 Iten whether your Person or Vicar, or Curate, do minister the holy communion to any foreigner, or stranger, coming out of any other Diocese, without the special Licence of the Bishop, or his officers, or the minister of that place from whence the said foreigner or stranger doth come.  
44 Item whether every month your Person, Vicar, or Curate, do read openly in the Churcht, the Proclamation set out of late by the Queen's Majesty, for the calling in of seditious Books, as Hardings, Saunders, and such like, to be delivered to the Ordinary, according to the tenor and meaning of the said Proclamation, which Proclamation is to be had at the costs and charges of the parish.  
45 Item whether they do exercise themselves in godly study of holy Scriptures, and in virtuous bringing up of youth, as in teaching of them their catechism, and other Godly exercises from time to time.  
46 Item whether decently, and orderly they go in their apparel, according to the Book of Advertisements, lately set forth in that behalf.  
47 Item whether they be resident upon their Benefices, and maintain Hospitality to their ability. And whether their parsonage houses, and Vicarage houses with other the edifices, and houses of easements thereunto belonging & appertaining, be in good and sufficient reparations, and if they be not resident, whether they let their Benefices to farm to their Curates according to the Statute.  
48 Item whether they use to pray for the Queen her Majesty in their Churches, and exhort the people to obedience of her grace, and other Magistrates being in authority under her.  
49 Item whether your Persons, Vicars, or Curates be married or not, and if they be not, whether they keep in their houses any suspected women, under the name and colour of their Butlers, kinswomen, or otherwise.  
50 Item whether they observe and keep the order for the bringing of the Corpse to the burial, according to the Book.  
51 Item whether they do visit the sick and impotent persons, to comfort them in the time of their sickness with necessary doctrine out of holy Scriptures, necessary for that purpose, in exhorting them also to consider the poor, and other charitable deeds.  
52 Item whether your Person or Vicar bought his benefice, or else came to the same, and obtained it by fraud, guile, Simony, or by any other unlawful means.  
53 Item whether your Person, Vicar, or Curate, do expound the Scriptures, as the Lessons, Epistle and Gospel, after they have read them in the Church, or Homilies in reading of them, without especial Licence.  
54 Item whether the book, or Register wherein the Day, month, and Year, of every wedding, Christening, and Burying is, or aught to be written and noted, be well and diligently kept.  
55 Item whether you have at the common charge of the parishioners, a comely and convenient Pulpit, set and placed in a fit place within your Church, and the same cleanly and seemly kept for the preaching of God's word.  
56 Item whether your Person, Vicar or Curate, were made Priests in the Reign of King Henry the eight, or Queen Marie. And if he were, then whether he hath read openly in your parish Church, the Articles of Religion, accordying too the Statute in that behalf lately made.  
57 Item to inquire of what value the Vicarage is, if there be any Vicarage in your Parish, and who is the Patron and giver thereof. And if there be a Curate, what wages he hath, and who doth pay it.  
FINIS.