Visitation

A regular inspection by an ordinary of his jurisdiction to ensure that ecclesiastical law was observed by the clergy, parish officers and people. Most bishops conducted visitations once every three years, although at York they occurred quadrennially, at Norwich septennially. Ordinaries of peculiars visited annually, archdeacons annually or biannually. The visitation consisted of a series of meetings at which the presence or absence of clergy was noted in liber cleri. However, at a bishop’s primary visitation, clergy had produce full documentation of their ordination, institution, licences and dispensations, information which is recorded in exhibit books. A few originals of these documents have survived, endorsed on the back with the dates of visitation on which they were scrutinised.