ARTICLES TO BE ENQUIRED OF Within the Diocese of Hereford, In the first VISITATION OF THE Right Reverend Father in God GILBERT LORD BISHOP OF Hereford, In the Year of our Lord God 1692. And in the first Year of his Translation. OXFORD, Printed in the Year MDCXCII. as also a Register Book of Parchment wherein to Enter the Names of all those that are Christened, Married or Buried within your Parish, Can. 70. expressing the day, month and year of all such Christen Marriages and Burials, and is the transcript thereof yearly within one month next after the 25th of March brought into the Bishop's Register? Concerning the Churchyard, Houses, Glebe and Tithes belonging to the Church. 1. IS your Churchyard sufficiently fenced with Walls or Rails, Can. 85. hath any Person Encroached upon the same, have any Trees growing there been cut down without allowance from the ordinary? 2. Is the house of your Parson, Vicar, or Curate with all the outhouses of it kept in good and sufficient Repair, have any of the said houses been defaced or pulled down without Licence from the Ordinary? and by whom? hath any Person Encroached upon any Garden, Yard, or Close, belonging to your Parsonage or Vicarage house? or cut up any Trees growing thereon, or changed or removed the ancient marks and bounds of the same? 3. Have you a true and perfect Terrier of all your Glebe Lands, Can. 87. Tithes and other possessions belonging to your Church by the view of honest men of your Parish by the appointment of the Bishop, so as the Parson or Vicar be one, and are the same laid up in the Bishop's Registry as is required by the Canon? 4. Have any of the ancient Glebe-Lands belonging to your Parsonage or Vicarage been taken away or alienated by Lease Sale or Exchange without Licence from the Ordinary and the Free consent of the Incumbent, have any Enclosures been made in your Parish to the detriment of your Church. Concerning the Clergy. 1. IS your Minister a Priest or Deacon Episcopally ordained according to the Laws of the Church of England? Injunct. Eliz. 26. 2. Is he resident among you, has he a Curate, what is the allowance of the Curate? or doth he officiate in any other Church? how far distant is it from your Church, doth he Mary any privately in a house, Can. 62. without Banns or Licence? 3. Is divine Service duly performed on the Lord's day and Holydays? is the Litany read Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, Can. 15, 59, 61, ●●, 69. doth your Minister on Sundays instruct the Youth in the Church Catechism and prepair them for confirmation by the Bishop? doth he delay the Baptising of any Infant in danger of Death, or are there any Infants or more aged persons in your Parish unbaptised? or doth he admit the Parents of the Child or those who have not received the Sacrament to be the Godfather or Godmother? 4. Doth your Minister before Sermon use to pray for their present Majesty's King William and Queen Mary and the rest of the Royal progeny, Can. 55. and exhort the People to Obedience to them, and all other Magistrates in authority under them? 5. Doth your Minister constantly Preach in your Church or Chappel one Sermon every Sunday, C●●●●…● , or if he doth not, doth he procure a Sermon to be Preached by some other Minister, or one of the 2. Doth he keep your Church locked? doth he Toll or Ring the Bell before the beginning of Morning and Evening Prayer, and when any is dying, doth he upon notice Toll the Bell, that the Neighbours be thereby warned to recomend the dying Person to the Grace and Favour of God? Concerning Hospitals Schools Physicians etc. 1. DOth any in your Parish practise Physic, or Chirurgery, or any Woman exercise the Office of a Midwife, without allowance or Licence from the Ordinary? 2. Doth any keep a public or private School in your Parish without a Licence from the Bishop or his Chancellors? Doth he Teach the Scholars in the Catechism of the Church of England, doth he cause them upon Sundays and Holydays orderly to repair to the Church or Chappel, and see that they behave themselves quietly and humbly during time of Divine Service. 3. Is there any Hospital Alms-house or Free-school founded in your Parish; is the yearly Revenue or Stipend ordered as it ought to be? Concerning Ecclesiastical Officers. 1. WHether are there any Ecclesiastical Officers exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within this Diocese, Can. 135. who do take or exact any extraordinary Fees for any Cause. 2. Whether are there placed by the Register two Tables containing the several Rates and Sums of Can. 136. all Fees due to the Judge and other Officers of your Courts, one in the usual place and consistory where the Court is kept, the other in his Registry in such sort as every man may come to view the same without difficulty? and whether doth the Chancellor Archdeacon or Minister exact or extort any greater Fees or Sums of Money than in the said Tables are contained? 3. Whether the Chancellor Archdeacon or Official, or any other Person useing Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, speed any Act in any Cause privately of themselves, and not in the presence of some public Notary or Actuary? 4. Whether doth the Chancellor Archdeacon or Official Commute or change any penance or Corporal punishment for any Money without the consent of the Bishop? and what Money have they or any of them received for such commutation and of whom, when and what was the Offence for which any such Sum of Money was received or appointed to be paid? Concerning Churchwardens and Sidemen. 1. ARe your Churchwardens duly elected according to the Custom of your Parish, Can. 89. and have the last Churchwardens given up their Accounts, and delivered the Monies remaining in their hands to the Succeeding Churchwardens, together with other things belonging to your Church? 2. Do they against every Communion provide Bread and Wine at the Parish Charges, Rubr. Com. Can. 20. do they suffer no misbehavior or disorder by Servants or Children within your Parish, 〈…〉 in sitting or leaning on the Communion Table, or by suffering Minstrels Morris Dancers, Hauks or Hounds to be brought into your Church? 3. Do they suffer no idle Persons to walk, Can. 19 talk or stand idle either in the Church, Church-Porch or Churchyard during the time of Divine Service and Sermon, but causing them either to come into the Church or else to departed? and do they often see where there be any tippling or drinking in any Inn Alehouse or Victualling house within your Parish during the time of Divine Service, Can. 90. and present all such as are found thus tippling together with the Master or Mistress of the said house? 4. Do your Churchwardens present all Offences in your Parish at the Visitation, and does any Man trouble or molest him for doing his Duty? 5. Have you (the Churchwardens and Sidemen Sworn to give in true answer unto all these Articles of Enquiry in all their several Titles) taken sufficient time to draw up your presentments and therein consulted your Minister for his faithful assistance? 〈…〉 For know you assuredly that as the true discharging of your Office is the chief means whereby public disorders and offences in your Parish may be reformed and punished, so if you wilfully refuse to present such crimes and faults as either you know to have been committed, or otherwise have heard of by public fame; that in such cases the Bishop and his Officers are to proceed against you in their Ecclesiastical Courts as in cases of wilful omission and Perjury. Advertisement. THe Ministers of every Parish whose duty it is to suppress all profaneness if they see the Churchwardens negligent to present, may and aught to do it themselves. The Ministers are to take Notice that the Bishop at his Visitation will be ready to Confirm those that are brought to him and are fitted for that purpose. FINIS.