ARTICLES OF Visitation and Enquiry Concerning MATTERS Ecclesiastical: EXHIBITED To the Ministers, Churchwardens, and Sidemen of every Parish within the DIOCESE of Peterborough. In the Episcopal and Primary VISITATION OF THE Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM By Divine Permission Lord Bishop of Peterborough. ●●NDON, Printed for William Hend●●●●● at the King's Head in West 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Form of the Oath of Chur-wardens and Sidemen. YOU shall swear, Truly and Faithfully to Execute the Office of Churchwarden, (or Side-man) within your Parish; and according to the best of your skill and knowledge, Present such Things and Persons, as to your knowledge are Presentable by the Laws Ecclesiastical of this Realm. So help you GOD, and the Contents of this BOOK. ARTICLES OF Visitation and Enquiry WITHIN THE DIOCESE of Peterborough. TITUL. I. Concerning Churches and Chapels, with the Ornaments, and Furniture thereunto belonging. Can. 85. I. IS your Parish-Church or Chapel kept in good and sufficient repair: Are the Roofs thereof well covered with Lead, Tile or Slate? the Windows well Glazed, the Floors well Paved, the Seats well fastened, and conveniently placed: and all things so decently ordered, as becometh the House of God? Lird. Prov. Const. lib 3, de immunitat. Ecclesiae. II. Hath the Steeple or Tower of your Church or Chappel, or any part thereof, been pulled down, any of the Lead or Bells formerly belonging thereunto been embezzled, sold or made away? In whose hands or custody doth the same, or any part thereof, remain? Declare what you know or have heard therein. III. Is there a Font of Stone standing in the usual place for public Baptism, and doth your Minister therein publicly Baptise as the Law orders and requires? Can. 82. iv Have you in your said Church or Chappel, a convenient Seat or Pew, for your Minister to read Divine Service in; Can. 83. A Pulpit with a comely Cloth or Cushion for the same? Can. 80. A Bible of the last Translation, in a large Volume, and the Book of Common-Prayer, 14 Car. 2. (established by the late Act of Parliament) both well and substantially bound? Ks Conf. Canons. Have you likewise the Book of Homilies set forth by Authority? Book of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical? Can. 99 and a printed Table of the Degrees wherein marriage is prohibited? Can. 58. V Have you a comely large Surplice for the Minister to wear at all times of his public Ministration in the Church, provided, and to be duly washed at the charge of your Parish? Can. 70. VI Have you a Register-Book of Parchment, wherein to Register the Names and Sur-names of all such persons as are Married, Christened, or Buried, within your Parish, together with the names and Sur-names of both the Yarents of the Children so Christened, expressing the Day, Month, and Pear of all such Christen, Marriages and Burials? And is the transcript thereof yearly, within one Month next after the 25. of March, brought into the Bishop's Registry? Can. 52. VII. Have you likewise another Book of Paper, wherein to record the Names and Licences of all such Strangers as are admitted at any time to Preach in your Church or Chappel? Can. 89. As also a third Book wherein to write down the Churchwardens Account: together with a strong Chest, with Locks and Keys, wherein to keep the aforesaid Book, and all the forementioned Furniture, in safe Custody? and lastly, have you a Bier, with a black Hearse-Cloth, for the Burial of the Dead? TIT. II. Concerning the Churchyard, the Houses, Glebes, and Tithes, belonging to the Church. Can. 85. I. IS your Churchyard sufficiently fenced with walls, Rails, or Pales, and decently kept from the annoyance of Swine, Horses and other ? 35 Ed. 1. hath any person encroached upon the same? or made any door into it, out of his own ground or habitation, without allowance from the Ordinary? have any trees there growing been cut down, how long since, by whom, and to whose use and benefit? Lind. lib. 1. de Offic. Archid. II. Is the house of your Parson, Vicar, or Curate (with all the Outhouses thereunto belonging) kept in good and sufficient repair? Or have any of the said Houses or Outhouses 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 out up any Trees growing thereon? Ibid. de Eccl. Edif. or changed or removed the ancient Marks and Bounds of the same? Can. 87. III. Have you a true and perfect Terrier of all the Glebe Lands, Gardens, Orchards, Tenements, or Cottages, belonging to your Parsonage or Vicarage? As also a note of such Pensions, Rate-Tithes, and Portions of Tithes, or other yearly Profits (either within or without your Parish) as belong thereunto? Have any of the same been withheld from your Minister? and by whom, as you know, or have heard? Lind. lib. 3. de rebus Eccles, iv Have any of the ancient Glebe-lands belonging to your parsonage or Vicarage been taken away, or exchanged for other, without the free consent of the Incumbent, and licence from the Ordinary? by whom hath the same been made, and how many years since? and how much is your Parsonage or Vicarage damnified thereby in the yearly value thereof? as you know, believe, or have heard? V Have any dying in your Parish given any Legacy to the Church, or Poor, and hath it been misemployed, or disposed of to other uses? TIT. III. Concerning Ministers. I. IS your Minister defamed, or suspected to have obtained either his Benefice or Orders by any Simoniacal compact? Q. Eliz. Injunct. 26. Can. 36. Lind. lib. 3.13 Q. Eliz. Can. 12. II. Is your Minister (so far as you know or believe) in Holy Orders, according to the Church of England. III. Did he within two Months after his Induction, publicly in the Church, upon some Sunday or Holiday, in the time of Divine Service read the 39 Articles of the Church of England established by Authority, and there publicly declare his assent thereunto? Can. 41. iv Hath he any other Ecclesiastical Benefice? Is be constantly resident upon his Benefice among you? How many weeks in any one year hath be been absent from it? Can. 47. & 48. V Hath your Minister a Curate to assist him? Who is that Curate? Is he conformable to the Laws and Orders of the Church of England? and doth be serve in any other Church beside? and what yearly stipend doth your Minister allow him? VI Doth your Parson, Vicar, or Curate diligently attend upon his Ministry, in reading the Lessons and Prayers, Preaching the Word, Administering the Sacrament, Catechising the Youth, Visiting the Sick, and in all other the Offices of his Ministerial Function, in such manner and form as is directed by the Book of Common-Prayer lately establishes, and the Act of Uniformity therewith published, and doth he in the reading or celebrating every Office in your Church or Chappel wear the Surplice. VII. Doth your Minister give notice of the Holidays, and of the Ember Weeks, that the people may be minded to pray for such as are to be duly and solemnly called to the work of the Ministry? as also of the yearly perambulation in Rogation week, for preserving the Bounds of the Parish, and for destring God's blessing upon the fruits of the earth? doth he also observe the fifth of November, the thirtieth of January, and the twenty ninth of May, according to the Statutes and Orders set forth in that behalf? VIII. Doth your Minister every year in your Church or Chappel publith the Statute made against profane Swearing and Cursing, and against the Profanation of the Lords day, according as it is thereby enacted, 21 Jac. 20. Cap. 29. Car. 2. Can. 48. IX. Hath your Minister been Licenced to Preach by the Bishop? Can. 49. If so, doth he then constantly (unless in case of Sickness necessary absence, or other reasonable impediment) himself Preach in your Church or Chappel, one Sermon every Sunday? Can. 45.46. Or if he be not a Licenced Preacher, or being so Licenced be hindered by Sickness or otherwise, as aforesaid; doth he procure a Sermon to be so preached by some other Minister, a Licenced Preacher? or one of the Homilies set forth by Authority to be there read by a Priest or Deacon? Can. 59 Can. 61. Can. 66. X. Doth your Minister diligently instruct the Youth of your Parish in the Church Catechism? and doth he prepare, and present them, being so instructed, to be confirmed by the Bishop? And doth he endeavour to reclaim all Popish Recusants and other Sectaries, (if any such be inhabiting within your Parish) to the true. Religion established in the Church of England, and to their bounden duty in obeying the Law, and submitting to the Government thereof? Can. 67. Can. 68 XI. Doth he neglect or refuse to visit the Sick, or delay the Baptism of any Infant that is in danger of death? is there any Child past Infancy, or other person of more years, through your Minister's default, yet remaining unbaptised in your Parish? Can. 69. Doth he use to Baptise any without Godfathers and God mothers? Can. 29. or admit either of the Parents to be God father or Godmother to their own Children? Can. 5. XII. Hath he at any time (as you know, or have heard) preached any False, Heretical, Seditious, or Schismatical Doctrine, thereby to seduce the people into parties and Factions, to the disturbance of the public peace and unity either of Church or State? 13 Q. Eliz. 12 Can. 62. XIII. Hath he presumed to marry any persons in private houses? or such as, being under age, have not the consent of their Parents? or without the Banes first published on three Sundays or Holidays in the Church? or at any other hours than between eight and twelve in the Morning, unless he had a Licence or Dispensation so to do? Can. 56.14 Car. 2. XIV. Doth any person Preach in your Parish as a Lecturer? hath he allowance from the Bishop for so doing? Doth he before his Lecture, read Divine Service, according to the Book of Common-Prayer? and is he in all things conformable to the Laws and Orders of the Church of England? Can. 72. XV. Hath your Minister taken upon him to appoint any public or private Fasts, Prophesying or Exercises, not appointed by Authority? Can. 73. or doth he, or any other, either Minister or Lay person, hold any Conventicles or Meetings in private houses within the number of five persons, under the pretences of Preaching, Praying, Thanksgiving, or Humiliation, contrary to the Laws and Canons in that case provided? Can. 73. XVI. Is your Parson, Vicar, Curate or Lecturer a man of a sober, unblameable, and exemplary Life? Can. 74. Doth he familiarly converse with ungodly, vicious, and excommunicate persons? Is he a frequenter of Taverns, or Alehouses? a common Gamester? a Swearer, Railer, or Quarrel? Doth he set Neighbours at variance one with another? or encourage them to suits and Contentions? is he noted to be an intemperate Drinker? or vehemently suspected of incontinency with any person, either within your Parish, or without? Is his apparel grave and decent, as the Canons of the Church require? Or is his Carriage and Conversation, in any kind whatsoever disorderly and Scandalous, and unbeseeming a Minister of jesus Christ. TIT. IU. Concerning the Parishioners. Can. 110. I. IS there in your parish any person a known or reputed Heretic or Schismatic? any Papist, Familist, Anabaptist, Quaker, or other Sectary, that refuse to come unto the Public Assemblies, Prayers, or Services of the Church? or that makes profession of any other Religion than what is established in the Church of England, and if there be any such, what are their names? Can. 109. II. IS there any person in your Parish that lieth under a common fame, or behement suspicion of Adultery, Fornication or Incest? Are there any common Drunkards within your parish, or common Swearers or Blasphemers of God's Name, or any that are noted to be Railers, unclean or filthy talkers, or sowers of sedition, faction, and discord among their Neighbours? 5 & 6 Ed. 6. cap. 3. Can. 13.29 Can. 2. III. Do any of your Parish upon Sundays or Holidays, follow their bodily or ordinary labour, or permit their Servants so to do? Are any shops kept open, or Wares sold? or do any Vintners, Innkeepers, or other Victuallers and Sellers of Beer and Ale, suffer any persons to tipple or game in their houses upon those days? 1 Q. Eliz. 2. iv Doth every person inhabiting, and sojourning within your Parish duly resort unto your Church or Chappel, upon every Sunday and Holiday appointed for Divine Service? Can. 18. Can. 111. Do they then and there abide quietly, with reverence, order, and decency, during all the whole time of Common-Prayer, Preaching, or other Service of God there used? and are there any among you that come only to the Preaching, and not to common Prayers of the Church? Rub. Bap. V Are there any in your Parish that refuse to send their Infant-childrens to be Baptised publicly in the Church, unless in case of urgent danger; in which case the Child may be baptised at home by a lawful Minister, after the form and rites appointed in the Liturgy? Or do they send them from their own Minister to be bartized in any other Parishes, or after other form than is appointed? Or do they keep them unbaptised any longer time than the Church alloweth? And are there any Infants, or more aged persons in your Parish, as yet unbaptised? Can. 59 VI Doth every Housholder in your Parish cause their children and servants to come to Church to learn their Catechism, and to give an account thereof unto your Minister, as he shall require it of them openly in the Church upon Sundays and Holidays, as in the Book of Common-Prayer is appointed; that when they are Can. 61. well instructed in the same they may be Confirmed by the Bishop? Can. 112. VII. Is there any person in your Parish, who being 16 years of age, doth not receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, at least three times in the year, of which Easter is always to be one? Can. 114. Doth any in your Parish refuse to receive the same, kneeling, or from the hands of your own Minister, repairing for it to other Parishes and Ministers abroad? Can. 21. Can. 27. Rub. C. Pr. Can. 28. & 57 Or are there any Strangers, not of your Parish that forsake their own Churches, and usually repair to others for it? Can. 65. VIII. Have you any among you that be denounced and declared excommunicate for any crime committed? how long have they been so excommunicated? and do any of your Parish keep society with them before they be reconciled to the Church, and absolved? Can. 59 IX. Are there any living in your Parish as Man and Wife who are within the degrees prohibited? Can. 107. Or any that being lawfully divorced have married again? Or any that being lawfully married and not separated or divorced by course of Law do not cohabit together? Rub Common-Prayer. X. Are there any married Women in your Parish, who, after their delivery from the peril of Childbirth, refuse to make their public thanksgiving to God in the Church? and when they come so to do, do they come decently apparelled, and make their Offerings according to Custom? 27 Hen. 8.20. Rub. Com. Prayer. Can. 85. XI. Are there any belonging to your Parish who refuse to pay their duty for Easter Offerings to your Minister? Or any that refuse to contribute and pay the rate assessed upon them for repair of your Church and Chappel, and for the providing of such Books, Furniture and Ordinances as be requisite for the performance of all Divine Offices there? Rub. Com. Prayer. XII. Do any refuse to bury their Dead, according to the Rites of the Church of England? and are there any Wills and Testaments of persons dead in your Parish, that be yet unproved? Can. 6. Or any goods administered, without a due grant from the Ordinary? Can. 92. Did any dying in your Parish, or elsewhere, leave any Legacy to your Church or Chappel? 21 Hen. 8.5. Lind. lib. 3. de Test. what were those Legacies, and how have they been bestowed? XIII. Is there any strife and contention among any of your Parish for their Pews or Seats in your Church? Have any new Pews been erected in your Chancel, or in the Body of your Church or Chapel without leave from the Ordinary? XIV. Is there any in your Parish who hath lately or heretofore paid any Sum of Money to any Ecclesiastical Officer for Commutation of Penance? what was the Sum, and to what use hath it been employed? XV. Are there any in your Parish that are Blasphemers of Gods holy Name z any common Drunkards or Swearers? any commonly known or justly suspected to be guilty of Fornication, Adultery, Incest, or any other crime of Ecclesiastical cognizance? declare who they are, that they may be proceeded against, and punished according to their deserts. TIT. V. Concerning Parish-Clerks and Sextons. Can. 98. I. HAve you belonging to your Church or Chappelry a Parish-Clerk, aged 21 years at the least? Is he of honest life and conversation? and sufficient or able to perform his duty in reading, writing, and singing? Is he chosen by your Minister, and doth he duly attend him in all Divine Services at the Church? Are his wages duly paid unto him? or who with holdeth the same from him? Can. 67. II. Doth he, or your Sexton (if there be any such appointed in your Parish) diligently look to your doors of your Church, that they be locked and opened at due time? And doth he keep your Church or Chappel clean from Dust, Cobwebs, and other annoyance? Doth he Toll or King the Bells at the due accustomed hours, before the beginning of Divine Service, Morning and Evening that the people may be warned to come unto the Church? And when any person is passing out of this life, doth he, upon notice given him thereof, toll a Bell, as hath been accustomed, that the neighbours m●y thereby be warned to meditate upon their own death, to recommend the dying person to the Grace and Favour of God? TIT. VI Concerning Hospitals, Schools, Schoolmasters, Physicians, Surgeons, and Midwives. 2 Hen. 5.1. Q. Eliz. A. 3.4. I. IS there in your Parish, any Hospital, Alms-house, or Free-School, not of the King's Foundation or Patronage? Who was the Founder, or is now the Patron thereof? And what is the yearly Revenue or Stipend, belonging to the Governors or Masters of the same? Is the same ordered and governed in every respect as it ought to be? And are the Revenues thereof rightly employed, according to the intention of the Founder, and of such grants and ordinances as have been made concerning the same? Can. 77. Can. 79. II. Doth any man keep a public or private School in Your Parish, who is not allowed thereunto by the Ordinary? Doth your Schoolmaster teach his Scholars the Catechism of Religion set forth by Authority? Doth he cause them upon Sundays and holidays orderly to repair to your Church or Chappel? and see that they behave themselves there quietly and reverently, during the time of Divine Service and Sermon? 3 Hen. 8.11. III. Doth any Man in your Parish practise Physic, or Chirurgery, or any Woman take upon her to exercise the Office of a Midwife, without approbation and licence from the Ordinary? TIT. VII. Concerning Ecclesiastical Officers. Can. 135. I. ARe there any Ecclesiastical Officers that exercise Ecclesiastical jurisdiction within this Diocese, that demand, take, and receive any extraordinary Fees for any cause that is transacted by them, by virtue of their respective offices? And have any Abuses or Offences presented by the Churchwardens or others, been by them suppressed or left unpunished? Can. 136. II. Is there a Table of Fees publicly fastened and set up in the Consistory or Ecclesiastical Court, to which you are called to appear and make your presentment, that so every one may know what Fees he ought to pay, as the Canons enjoin. III. Have any Apparitors taken any reward for the concealing of any offence, or the avoiding the punishment, or reformation of offenders? and do they summon any to appear at the Consistory without citation first had and granted from the Ecclesiastical judge? If you know of any other default or crime of ecclesiastical cognizance, you are to present the same. TIT. VIII. Queries to be put to the Minister, Concerning the Churchwardens and Sidemen. Can. 89. I. ARe the Churchwardens of your Parish yearly and duly chosen by the joint consent of the Minister and Parishioners, or one of them by the Minister, and the other by the Parishioners? or as the custom of the Parish is? Can. 89. II. Have the former and last Churchwardens given up their due Accounts to the Parish, and delivered up to the succeeding Churchwardens the moneys remaining in their hands, together with all others things belonging to your Church or Chappel? Can. 90. III. Do the Churchwardens and Sidemen take diligent care, and see who of the Parishioners be absent from the Divine service and Sermon in your Church or Chapel upon Sundays and Holidays? 1 Q. Eliz. 2. and if they find any of them to have absented themselves without a sufficient cause, do they by warrant from some of the justices of Peace levy of them, by way of distress upon their goods the sum of 12 pence for every such day of their absence according to the Act of Parliament in that case provided? And do they distribute the several sums solevied among the Poor of your Parish according to the Law? Can. 18. Can. 19 iv Do they present them that come late to Church after Divine Service is begun, or departed before it be ended? Do they suffer none to stand idle, Can. 90. or talk together in the Church-porch, or to walk in th● Church or Church-yard, during the time of Prayers, Preaching, or other Sacred Offices? Can. 18. V Do they suffer no misbehaviour or disorder to be done by men, women, or servants, or Children in your Church or Chappel: Can. 88 Are they careful that none of them sit, lean, or lay their Hats upon th● Communion Table; Do they permit no Minstrels, no Morris dancers, no Dogs, Hawks, or Hounds, to be brought or come into your Church, to the disturbance of the Congregation. Can. 20. VI Do they against every Communion appointed in your Church or Chappel, provide a sufficient quantity of fine white Bread, and of good Wine, according to the number of Communicants? Can. 52. VII. Do they cause all Strangers that Preach in your Church or Chapel to subscribe their names the same day in a Book provided for that purpose, together with the name of the Bishop that licenced them to Preach in this Diocese? & do they permit no other to preach? Can. 119. VIII. Have they (the Churchwardens and Sidemen) now sworn to give in a true answer, unto all these Articles of Enquiry in all their several Titles, taken sufficient time to draw up their Presentments, and therein consulted with you their Minister for your faithful assistance. THe Minister of every Parish, or the Curate in his absence, may join in Presentments with the Churchwardens and Sides-men, and if they will not present, than the Ministers (being the persons that have the chief care upon them for the suppressing of Sin and Impiety in their Parishes) may present the Crimes aforesaid, and such things as shall want due Reformation. FOR know you assuredly, that as the true discharging of your Office is the chief means whereby public disorders, Sins and Offences in your Parish may be reform 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. WILLIAM PETERBOROUGH. THE Ministers of every Parish are desired to give in the Names of such of the younger sort in their several Parishes, as they judge fit to receive Confirmation from the Bishop, and to present them to be Confirmed; especially such as having competently learned their Catechism, have not yet received the Holy Communion; and to present them to the Bishop to be confirmed, as there shall be opportunity.