A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Gibson says, that none but the bishop or other person exercising ecclesiastical authority by commission from him, has right de jure communi to require these exhibits of the clergy; therefore, if the archdeacon require it, it must be on the foot of custom, the beginning whereof, he says, has probably been encroachment, since it is not likely that any bishop should give to the archdeacon and his official a power of allowing or disallowing such instruments as have been granted by himself or his predecessors. The canon last mentioned appears to be in observance now, for it is the practice for each clergyman to exhibit these letters of orders, &c. on his first attendance at the bishop’s visitation, and on the first appointment to an office, &c. in any diocese, as well as upon several other occasions.

By a constitution of Othobon it is ordained, that archdeacons visit the churches profitably and faithfully by inquiring of the sacred vessels and vestments, and how the service is performed, and generally of temporals and spirituals, and what they find to want correction that they correct diligently. And it was further ordained by this, as well as by other constitutions, that they should not extort money by giving sentence unjustly.

By a constitution of Archbishop Reynolds, it was enjoined that archdeacons and their officials in the visitation of churches have a diligent regard of the fabric of the church, and especially of the chancel, to see if they want repair; and if they find any defects of that kind, limit a certain time under a penalty within which they shall be repaired.

By a constitution of Archbishop Langton, archdeacons in their visitation are to see that the offices of the church are duly administered, and shall take an account in writing of all the ornaments and utensils of churches, and of the vestments and books, and shall require them to be presented before them every year, that they may see what has been added and what lost.

It is said that the archdeacon, although there be not a cause, may visit once a year; and if there be a cause, he may visit oftener; and that where it is said in the canon law, he ought to visit from three years to three years, this is to be understood so that he shall visit from three years to three years of necessity, but that he may visit every year if he will.

At these archdiaconal visitations the churchwardens are to make presentments; and though their duty in that particular has become in practice, to a great extent, obsolete, yet it may be well to state the law of the Church upon the subject. The following canons relate to these presentments.

Canon 113. “Because it often cometh to pass, that churchwardens, sidemen, questmen, and such other persons of the laity as are to take care for the suppressing of sin and wickedness, as much as in them lieth, by admonition, reprehension, and denunciation to their ordinaries, do forbear to discharge their duties therein, either through fear of their superiors, or through negligence, more than were fit, the licentiousness of these times considered, we do ordain, that hereafter every parson and vicar, or in the lawful absence of any parson and vicar, then their curates and substitutes, may join in every presentment with the said churchwardens, sidemen, and the rest above mentioned, at the times of visitation, if they the said churchwardens and the rest will present such enormities as are apparent in the parish; or if they will not, then every such parson and vicar, or, in their absence as aforesaid, their curates, may themselves present to their ordinaries at such times, and when else they think it meet, all such crimes as they have in charge or otherwise, as by them (being the persons that should have the chief care for the suppressing of sin and impiety in their parishes) shall be thought to require due reformation. Provided always, that if any man confess his secret and hidden sins to the minister, for the unburdening of his conscience, and to receive spiritual consolation and ease of mind from him, we do not any way bind the said minister by this our constitution, but do straitly charge and admonish him, that he do not at any time reveal and make known to any person whatsoever any crime or offence so committed to his trust and secrecy, (except they be such crimes as by the laws of this realm his own life may be called in question for concealing the same,) under pain of irregularity.”

Canon 116. “It shall be lawful for any godly-disposed person, or for any ecclesiastical judge, upon knowledge or notice given unto him or them, of any enormous crime within his jurisdiction, to move the minister, churchwardens, or sidemen, as they tender the glory of God and reformation of sin, to present the same, if they shall find sufficient cause to induce them thereunto, that it may be in due time punished and reformed.”

Canon 119. “For the avoiding of such inconveniences as heretofore have happened, by the hasty making of bills and presentments upon the days of visitation and synods, it is ordered, that always, hereafter, every chancellor, archdeacon, commissary, and every other person having ecclesiastical jurisdiction, at the ordinary time when the churchwardens are sworn, and the archbishop and bishops, when he or they do summon their visitation, shall deliver or cause to be delivered to the churchwardens, questmen, and sidemen of every parish, or to some of them, such books of articles as they or any of them shall require (for the year following) the said churchwardens, questmen, and sidemen to ground their presentments upon, at such times as they are to exhibit them. In which book shall be contained the form of the oath which must be taken immediately before every such presentment; to the intent that, having beforehand time sufficient, not only to peruse and consider what their said oath shall be, but the articles also whereupon they are to ground their presentments, they may frame them at home both advisedly and truly, to the discharge of their own consciences, (after they are sworn,) as becometh honest and godly men.”

Canon 115. “Whereas, for the reformation of criminous persons and disorders in every parish, the churchwardens, questmen, sidemen, and other such church officers are sworn, and the minister charged, to present as well the crimes and disorders committed by the said criminous persons, as also the common fame which is spread abroad of them, whereby they are often maligned, and sometimes troubled, by the said delinquents or their friends; we do admonish and exhort all judges, both ecclesiastical and temporal, as they regard and reverence the fearful judgment-seat of the highest Judge, that they admit not in any of their courts any complaint, plea, suit or suits, against any such churchwardens, questmen, sidemen, or other church officers, for making any such presentments, nor against any minister for any presentments that he shall make: all the said presentments tending to the restraint of shameless impiety, and considering that the rules both of charity and government do presume that they did nothing therein of malice, but for the discharge of their consciences.”