Introduction

Summary

This is the second of two volumes devoted to visitation articles and injunctions issued in the English Church from 1603 to 1642. The two are intended to be read and consulted together: Volume I focused on the Church of James I, though it included some articles, based on Jacobean prototypes, which were issued after 1625, while this collection covers the reign of Charles I up to the Civil War. The introductions are also complementary, discussing the purpose and significance of articles and injunctions, and relating them respectively to the Jacobean and Caroline Churches. Taken together, the two volumes print or reprint visitation articles from twenty-six of the twenty-seven dioceses of England and Wales, and injunctions, orders or charges from twelve of them. Moreover an appendix to this volume lists extant visitation articles for the entire period of 1603 to 1642. Of the four hundred and one sets identified there, one hundred and thirty-five are reproduced or collated in these two volumes, and many others commented on in the footnotes.

The introduction to Volume I examined the character, authorship and survival rates of visitation articles and that heterogenous collection of directions, orders and charges which may be termed injunctions. Seven major ‘families’ of enquiries were identified amongst the numerous printed articles used in parochial visitations during the reign of James I, and their progeny was traced into the 1630s. These groupings reved how ecclesiastical ordinaries often borrowed clauses or whole sets from the enquiries compiled by colleagues; the popularity of some sets of articles over others can be explained, in part, in terms of presentation or convenience, but in part also by theological preferences. Thus, for example, Bishop Overall's ritualist set for Norwich diocese of 1619 was adopted wholesale by a succession of anti-Calvinist bishops in the 1620s, but was extensively modified by the Calvinist Bishop of Salisbury, John Davenant, who retained its clear format while moderating many ceremonial and anti-puritan clauses. In short, an ordinary's choice and alteration of articles can often tell us much about his churchmanship. In the analysis which follows, these findings are explored further for the Caroline Church. We begin, however, with a consideration of two small classes of visitation enquiries, relating to cathedral churches and peculiar jurisdictions.