ARTICLES To be inquired of in the Diocese of S. ASAPH. IN THE FIFT VISITATION Of the Reverend Father in God, JOHN, Lord Bishop of S. Asaph. 1642. LONDON, Printed for Nath: Butter. 1642. ARTICLES To be enquired of in the Diocese OF Saint ASAPH. ARTICLES concerning public PRAYER, and administration of the SACRAMENTS. FIRST, Depraving of the Book of Common Prayer and ceremonies. Whether hath any of your Parish spoken or declared any thing in the derogation or depraving of the form of God's worship in the Church of England, and Administration of the Sacraments, Rites and Ceremonies set forth and prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer? 2. Item, Whether hath any interrupted, hindered, Disturbing the Minister in the time of prayer. let, or disturbed the Minister to read divine Service, and to administer the Sacraments in such manner and form as is mentioned in the said book: or interrupted him in his preaching? 3. Children refused to be Baptised, or dying without Baptism. Item, Whether is the Sacrament of Baptism refused to be administered to any children borne in or out of Wedlock, their birth being made known to the Minister of the Parish, and offered unto him to be baptised? 4. Private Baptism. Item, Whether have there been any children baptised in private houses by any Lay-person, or Midwife, or Popish Priest, or by any other Minister, but upon urgent occasion, when the child was in danger of death? 5. Baptising of Papists children. Item, Whether have the children which have been borne to any popish Recusants, or begotten by them in your Parish, been publicly baptised in your parish Church by your Parson, Vicar or Curate, or by whom were they baptised, or where, to your knowledge? 6. Receiving of the Lords Supper thrice a year. Item, Whether hath the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper been duly and reverently administered every month, or thrice every year at least, whereof once at Easter, within your Parish Church, to every parishoner being of sixteen years of age or upwards? Articles concerning the Church, the ornaments thereof and the Church's possessions. FIrst, Have you the Bible in the largest volume, the Common prayer book and the Books of Homilies in the Welsh tongue? Have you a Register book in Parchment, and a Table of the degrees prohibited in marriage? 2. Item, Whether have you a Communion cup of silver, with a covering for it, a fair standing pot of silver or pewter for the wine, a fair covering of silk or other decent stuff for the Communion Table, a fair linen cloth to be laid over it, at the administration of the Communion? 3. Item, Things appertaining to Churches. Whether have you in your said Church or Chapel, a convenient seat for your Minister to read divine service in, together with a comely Pulpit, set up in a convenient place, with a decent cloth or cushion for the same, with all other ornaments necessary for the celebration of divine service, & administration of the Sacraments and whether have you a chest for alms, with three locks and keys, & another chest for keeping the Books and ornaments of the Church, and the Register book? Whether have you a register book in parchment, for Christen, Weddings, and Burials: and is the same kept in all points according to the Canons? And is the mother's christian name therein registered as well as the Fathers? 4. Item, Whether is your Church or Chapel, Reparation of Churches and Parsonage houses. with the Chancel thereof, and your Parsonage or Vicarage houses, your Parish Alms house & Church in good reparations, & are they employed to godly & their right holy uses: if any be ruinated & wasted, in whom is the default? Is your Church, Chancel, & Chapel decently and comely kept as well within as without; & be the seáts well maintained, the steeple and bells preserved, the windows well glazed, the floor kept paved, plain and even, and all things in orderly and decent sort? 5. Item, Fencing and keeing the Churchyard. Whether be your Churchyards well fenced and kept without abuse: if not, whose default is it? hath any person encroached upon the ground of the Church yard: have any used a place consecrated to holy use, Profaning and annoying the Churchyard. profanely or wickedly: have any quarrelled or stricken another in Church or churchyard? or abused and profaned them with any unlawful games, as bowls, Tennis, football, hand-ball, dancing and such like? 6. Item, Whether is your Church full, Church's vacant. or vacant of an Incumbent: if vacant, who receiveth the fruits thereof, and who serveth the Cure, and by what authority: and whether is it a Parsonage, Vicarage, or Donative, or Appropriation? 7. Concealing of Church goods. Item, What Legacies hath been given to the use & benefit of your Church: how have they been bestowed: who received them, and retaineth them without due employment? doth any detain or imbezel any of the Church goods, or any other gifts given to charitable uses? 8. Alienation of tithes and profits of the Church. Item, Whether be not the profits, tithes, and other commodities ecclesiastical, impiously and wickedly, to the dishonour of Almight God, and prejudice of the sacred ministry, converted to the use and benefit of covetous Patrons, and by them received and detained, and how long they have been so used to your knowledge? 9 Item, Whether have there been made any bargain and sale, exchange, or other alienation of the Glebe lands, or tithes of your Parsonage or Vicarage, being presentative; without the consent of the Ordinary & Patron? and if yea, specify the said lands and tithes so sold, exchanged, or alienated, where it lay and lieth, & how it was and is abutted, together with the value of the same, and who made the same sale, exchange, or alienation, and to whom was it made? 10. A Terrier of Glebe Lands and other possessions of the Church. Item, Whether have you the Terrier of all the Glebe Lands, Meadows, Gardens, Orchards, Houses, Stocks, Implements, Tenements, & portion of tithes, (whether within your Parish or without) belonging unto your Parsonage, or Vicarage, taken by the view of honest men in your said Parish? & whether the said Terrier be laid up in the Bishop's Regestry, and in whose hands are any of them now? and if you have no Terrier already made in parchment, you the Churchwardens and Sidemen, together with your Parson or Vicar, or in his absence, you are to make diligent inquiry and presentment of the premises, and make, subscribe, and sign the said terrier, as aforesaid. Articles concerning Ministers and Preachers of Gods holy Word. FIrst, Whether doth your Minister distinctly, Observation of the form and time of Common Prayer & Sacraments. reverently say Divine Service upon Sundays & Holidays, and other days appointed to be observed by the book of Common Prayer at fit and usual times? And doth your Minister duly observe the orders, rites and ceremonies prescribed in the said book of common Prayer, as well in reading public Prayers, and the Litany, as also in administering the Sacraments, solemnisation of Matrimony, visitation of the sick, burying the dead, churching of women, and all other like rites and offices of the Church, in such manner and form as in the said Book of Common Prayer is enjoined? 2. Item, Doth your Minister endeavour and labour diligently to reclaim the Popish Recusants in his parish from their errors, (if there be any such abiding in your parish) Or whether is your Parson, Vicar or Curate over-conversant with, or a favourer of Recusants, whereby he is suspected not to be sincere in Religion? 3. Item, Doth your Minister, Curate, or Lecturer in his or their Sermons deliver such doctrine as tends to obedience and the edifying of their Auditory in Faith, Religion, and good life, without intermeddling with particular matters of State, not fit to be handled in the Pulpit? 4. Item, Preachers without Licence. Whether is your Minister a Preacher licenced or no? if no, whether doth he take upon him in his own Cure or elsewhere, to expound any Scripture or matter of doctrine? And if he be licenced, doth he preach usually in his own Cure, or in some other neighbour Church where no Preacher is? Or whether doth he or his Curate upon every Sunday when there is no Sermon, read a Homily, or some part thereof according as he ought to do? 5. Preaching of false doctrine and new opinions. Item, Whether doth your Minister publish in his Sermons any doctrine, which is new and strange, and disagreeing froin the word of God, and from the Articles of Christian faith and Religion, agreed on and published, Anno Dom. 1562. 6. Item, Whether any victualling, tippling, or aleselling, have been used in your Parson, Vicar or Curate his house, by themselves, or others dwelling therein, and by whom? 7. Names of strange Preachers to be taken. Item, Whether are any strange Ministers admitted to preach in your Church, who do not before the Churchwardens subscribe their names in your book for that purpose, the day when he preached, and the name of the Bishop of whom he had Licence to preach: and is any one admitted to preach before he shown his Licence? 8. Opposition of Preachers in their Sermons. Item, Doth any Preacher in your Pulpit particularly impugn and confute any doctrine delivered by others his fellow Preachers, before he hath acquainted the Bishop of the Diocese therewith, and received order from him what to do in that case? 9 Praying for His Majesty. Item, Doth your Minister use to pray for the king's Majesty, Clergy, Counsel, etc. giving them their full titles? 10. Nonresidence of the Minister Item, Whether is your Minister Resident upon his Benefice, or absent; if absent, by whom is the Cure served, the fruits received? Doth your Minister or Curate, serve any more cures than one? if yea, then what other cure doth he serve, and how fare are they distant? 11. Item, Whether doth he Catechise the youth of his Parish, upon sundays and holy-days, before evening Prayer for half an hour or more, in the Catechism set forth in the Book of Common prayer? and whether do all the Parishioners diligently attend his catechising: and who refuse to send their children and servants to be catechised by him? 12. Item, Ministers to call for relief of the poor and almsdeeds. Doth your Minister carefully look to the relief of the poor, & from time to time call upon his parishioners to give somewhat according to their ability, to godly and charitable uses, especially when they make their Wills? 13. Item, Simony. Whether is your Minister suspected or known to have obtained his Benefice or spiritual promotion by any Symonicall compact, directly, or indirectly? 14. Item, Demising of Benefices. Whether doth your Minister demise the profits of his Benefice to any Layman above three years & is not resident there, & keepeth no hospitality upon his Benefice, being of sufficient value? 15. Item, Conferring with Recusants. Whether hath he, being learned & sufficient, conferred with the Popish Recusants of his parish, endeavouring to reclaim them from their errors, and presenting them being obstinate for their recusancy? 16. Item, hath your Minister or any other Preacher, Preaching in private houses. made any Sermon, administered the Sacraments, or churched women in any private houses, otherwise than is by law allowed? 17. Item, Curates not licenced, and Laymen doing the offices of a Minister. What Curates or Preachers do read Prayers or administer the Sacrament in your Parish, without lawful licence? or doth any Lay man, not having holy orders, presume to read public Prayers in the Church? 18. Item, Ministers forsaking their calling. Whether is your minister studious in the holy Scripture, & abstaineth from mechanical trads, or labour not befitting his function, & from apparel unseemly for his calling, and from gaming, swearing, and drunkenness, or such notorious crimes: or is there any in your Parish, who have been admitted into holy Ordérs either Deacon or Minister, doth relinquish or forsake his calling, and liveth in the course of his life as a Layman? Articles concerning Marriage. FIrst, Marriage within levitical degree. Whether be there any in ywr Parish that have married within the degrees of affinity or consanguinity, by the Law of God forbidden? if any, what been they? 2. Private marriage, and without consent of Parents. Item, Whether have any been married secretly in private houses, or without their parents or governors consent signified, being under the age of 12. years? 3. Married persons living apart. Item, Whether do any persons lawfully married, live asunder unlawfully: and in whom is the default? 4. Marriage without banes or licence. Item, Whether any persons (banes being not thrice published in the Church) have been married without licence; who were present at such marriages, and what Minister married them? 5. Persons married out of their parishes. Item, Whether any persons by licence or without have been married in your Parish Church, neither of them at that time dwelling in your Town? 6. Recusants' marriage. Item, What Popish Recusants or their children have been married in your Parish, in what sort was that matrimony solemnised, when and by whom? Articles concerning Churchwardens. FIrst, Election of Churchwardens. Whether be the Churchwardens chosen by the Minister and Parishioners, and whether hath any taken him to be Churchwarden, being not so chosen: or hath any continued above one year in his office without a new choice? 2. Churchwardens due account. Item, Whether have any Churchwardens detained any of the Church goods, & not made a just account of what they have received and expended? 3. Churchwardens diligence in the Church. Item, Have they been, & are they diligent in their office, to see decency kept in the Church, & order in the time of common prayer, and administration of the Sacraments, and that there be no disturbance: but soberness and quietness in the Church? Articles concerning the Parishioners. FIrst, Profaning the Lord's day. Whether do any in your Parish profane the Sunday by unlawful games, drinking or tippling in the time of common Prayer or Sermon, & by working and doing the ordinary works of their vocation and trades? 2. Item, Impugning the Rites of the Church. Is there any in your Parish that do impugn or speak against the Rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, or the lawful use of them, & government of this Church under his Majesty by Arch-Bishops, Bishops, and other Ecclesiastical officers? 3. Item, Reverend behaviour at divine service. Who in your Parish do come to the Sermon only, & not to divine Service, & who do not reverently behave themselves during the time of divine Service, devoutly kneeling when the general confession of sins, the Litany, the ten Commandments, and all Prayers and Collects are read, or who do give themselves to babbling, talking or walking, and are not attentive to hear the Word read and preached? 4. Item, Are there any of your Parish, Leaving their own Churches to go to others. having a Preacher to their minister, that do absent themselves from his Sermons, and resort to other places to hear other Preachers: or do any in your parish communicate, or baptise their children in any other Parish? 5. Item, Opening of shops upon the Sunday. Whether do any in your Parish exercise any trade or labour, buy or sell, or keep open shops, or set out any wares to be sold upon Sundays and holidays, by themselves, their servants, or apprentices, or have otherwise profaned the said days? 6. Item, Whether is the 5. of November kept holy, Keeping holy the fift of November. and thanksgiving made to God, according to the order set forth in that behalf? 7. Item, Are there any in your Parish that be, Adultery, Fornication, Incest, etc. or are commonly known or reputed to be blasphemers of Gods holy Name, drunkards, adulterers, fornicators, incestuous persons, concealors or harbourers of fornicators or adulterers: have any been detected of such notorious crimes, & what penance have they done for the same? 8. Item, Whether there be any Inkéepers, victuallers, or Ale-house-kéepers within your parish that admit unto orsuffer in their houses any person at the time of commnn Prayer, or Sermon, upon any Sabbath day or holy day, & who they be that haunt such Taverns, Inns, or tippling houses at prayer time? 9 Item, Whether any markets or selling of any meat, or other wares be suffered or used in your Church yard, or near the same upon the Sabbath day: and whether any butchers, packmen, pedlars, or any mercers or other tradesmen within your parish, open their shops, or make any common or open sale of their stuff upon Sabbath days and holy days? 10. Item, What Recusant Papists are there in your Parish, and whether do they or any of them keep any Schoolmaster in their house, which cometh not to Church to hear divine Service, and receive the holy Communion: what is his name, and how long hath he taught? 11. Item, Whether hath your Minister or any other of your Parishioners been at any schismatical conventicles in any private house or houses within your Parish, and there have conferred about any private orders for prayers, preaching or expounding the Scriptures contrary to the book of common Prayers and the laws established in that behalf? Or whether any lay men have then taken upon them to expound the Scriptures or preach? if so, you shall present them all. Articles concerning Schoolemastees, Physicians, and Surgeons, and Parish-clarkes. FIrst, is there any Schoolmaster in your Parish, that teacheth publicly or privately, not licenced by the Ordinary? doth he teach any Papist or Sectaries children that comenot to Church? And doth he instruct all his Scholars to learn the short catechism by Law established, contained in the book of common Prayer? Is he a Graduate and sufficient to teach? 2. Item, Physicians not licenced. What Physician or Chirurgeon is in your parish unlicensed, and being not a Doctor of Physic in either of the Universities, doth practice Physic? And what ignorant persons have left their trade, and taken upon them to profess Physic or Chirurgery, & who been they that so abuse the people? and do any in your parish take upon them to heal and cure men, or cattles, by charms, spells, witchcraft, or any other unlawful ways or means? 3. Item, Have you a fit parish clerk, Parish clerk. aged twenty years at least, of honest life, able to read & write? are his and the Sexton's wages paid without fraud: if not, than whose default is it? by whom is he chosen? Is he diligent in his office, & serviceable to the Minister? doth he meddle with any thing above his office? doth he keep the Church clean, the doors locked? Is any thing lost or spoiled by his default, and doth he execute his office duly? Articles concerning Ecclesiastical offices. FIrst, Exceslive fees. Whether be there any Ecclesiastical Officers that exercise Ecclesiastical jurisdiction within this Diocese, that take and receive, or exact any extraordinary fees for any cause? whether have your Churchwardens and Questment concealed any abuses or offences punishable in the Ecclesiastical Court: & whether such offences being presented, are suppressed and unpunished? 2. Item, Table of fees in Court. Whether is there not a table of fees in the Court of the consistory, allowed and subscribed by the judge and Register of the Court of Consistory, Anno Dom. 1597. and the same every Court day hung up in some public place of the Court and Registry? 3. Abuses in Apparitors and Summoners. Item, Have any Apparators or Summoners, under pretence of authority, cited or summoned any person unlawfully, or hath taken any reward for the concealing of any offence or sin, or the avoiding of punishment of the offenders: and who be they that have done so? Or do they take any fees not accustomable? Have they threatened any to prosecute them if they have no reward? and do they summon any without a citation first had? If you know any other default or crime, of Ecclesiastical cognisans, you are to present the same. The Minister of every Parish may join in presentment with the Churchwardens and Sidemen; and if they will not present, than the Ministers themselves (being the persons that should have the chief care for the suppressing of sin and impiety in their Parishes) may present the crimes aforesaid, and such things as shall be thought to require due Reformation. FINIS.