^{page 179 note 2} Usher, R. G., Reconstruction of the English Church, New York 1910, i. 99.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 3} Woodcock, B. L., Medieval Ecclesiastical Courts in the Diocese of Canterbury, London 1952, 69.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 4} Kennedy, W. P. M., Elizabethan Episcopal Administration, Alcuin Club Collections xxv, London 1924, i, xxx.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 5} The Visitation Call Books, extant for nine out of the 14 episcopal visitations during this period, the Vicar-General Books, virtually continuous from 1561 onwards, and the fragmentary Libri Correctionum of the consistory court, constitute the main MS. sources for this study. They are supplemented by parochial records, particularly churchwardens' accounts and vestry minutes.

^{page 179 note 6} Burn, R., Ecclesiastical Law (1797), IV. 16.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 7} Guildhall Library MS.—subsequently cited as GLMS.—9537/4 [not foliated]. The five Elizabethan bishops were: Grindal (1559–70); Sandys (1570–7); Aylmer (577–94); Fletcher (1595–6) and Bancroft (1597–1604).

^{page 179 note 8} Correspondence of Matthew Parker, 1535–1575, ed. Bruce, J., Cambridge 1857, 115–17.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 9} GLMS. 9537/2 [not fol.].

^{page 180 note 1} He failed to visit his diocese between 1561 and 1565 (London County Council Record Office—subsequently cited as LCC. Rec. Office—Liber Vicar-Generalis 1561–74, fol. 106^v).

^{page 180 note 2} GLMS. 9537/2: 9 passim.

^{page 180 note 3} Aylmer personally presided over the City phase of the visitation on two occasions—in 1577 and 1580 (GLMS. 5937/4 [not fol.]). His deputies usually included the chancellor (Edward Stanhope), archdeacon, and such household chaplains as William Cotton and Richard Vaughan. Work of this nature was a valuable experience to these future bishops.

^{page 180 note 4} Bancroft presided on one of three possible occasions. Sandys appeared in both his visitations, and Grindal at least twice out of three times (GLMS. 9537/2, 3, 9 passim).

^{page 180 note 5} Non-resident incumbents on occasion employed proctors to pay their procurations and exhibit their instruments (GLMS. 9537/8, fol. 77¹).

^{page 180 note 6} Excommunication was automatic; sequestration rare, e.g. Sandys's action in 1574 (LCC. Rec. Office, Lib. V-G. 1561–74, fol. 355¹).

^{page 180 note 7} The gaps for the visitations of 1565, 1568, 1571, 1595 and 1601 are due to the disappearance of the Call Books for those years. These books contain a record of the appearance, or otherwise, of all parochial representatives. The table covers those parishes in the capital which came under episcopal jurisdiction.

^{page 180 note 8} Incumbents and assistant curates—but not parish lecturers who were not obliged to attend until 1583 (GLMS. 9537/5, passim)—are included.

^{page 181 note 1} Doubts existed over episcopal authority in the parishes of St. Faith, St. Leonard Foster Lane, All Hallows Barking and the non-parochial chapel of St. James on the Wall (GLMS. 9537/2, fols. 26^v-33^r).

^{page 181 note 2} Sixteen London incumbents were non-resident. Absentees were suspended, and the fruits of their livings sequestered (LCC. Rec. Office, Lib. V-G. 1561–74, fol. 355^r).

^{page 181 note 3} A possible explanation of the 1580 defections may be found in the surfeit of examinations endured by the London clergy in the twelve months before the visitation (Strype, J., Aylmer, Oxford 1821, 41–53).Google Scholar

^{page 181 note 4} Cf. Usher, op. cit., i. 98.

^{page 181 note 6} The London visitation articles of 1571 have been published by Frere, W. H., Visitation Articles and Injunctions of the Period of the Reformation, London 1919, iii. 303–14; those of 1577, 1586, 1595 and 1598 are in Kennedy, op. cit., ii. 48–52; iii. 199–208, 280–1, 335–51. Articles for the remaining visitations survive only in fragments in parish records and the Libri Correctionum at the LCC. Rec. Office.Google Scholar

^{page 181 note 6} The common sources for episcopal articles were the ‘Queen's Injunctions’ of 1559, the ‘Interpretations of the Bishops’ 1560–1 and ‘Archbishop Parker's Advertisements’ of 1565 (cf. Kennedy, op. cit., i. xxxiv-lv).

^{page 181 note 7} Frere, op. cit., iii. 303.

^{page 181 note 8} Kennedy, op. cit., ii. 49.

^{page 182 note 1} LCC. Rec. Office, Liber Correctionis 1583–4, vi. fol. 5¹. The division apparent between the preacher who performed no other function, and the ‘serving’ minister who carried out the remaining sacerdotal duties had first been pointed out by the Privy Council in 1580: Cardwell, E., Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England, Oxford 1844, i. 440–1.Google Scholar

^{page 182 note 2} Kennedy, op. cit., iii. clxix.

^{page 182 note 3} Ibid., i. xxvii; GLMS. 1013/1, fol. 9^v.

^{page 182 note 4} This is clear from numerous references in parish account books, e.g. GLMS. 1046/1, fol. 51”; GLMS. 1002/1, fol. 232^v; GLMS. 2593/1, fol. 62^v.

^{page 182 note 5} In 1574, for instance, the City of London was visited between 11 and 13 August, and bills of presentment were exhibited on 20 September (GLMS. 9537/3 [not fol.]). Only in 1592 were swornmen allowed less than a fortnight to carry out their inquiries (GLMS. 9537/8, fol. 77^r). For other dates, see the writer's unpublished London Ph.D. thesis (1957): ‘The London Parish Clergy in the Reign of Elizabeth I’, 570, n. 3.

^{page 182 note 6} Kennedy, op. cit., iii. 208. This practice was subsequently abandoned.

^{page 182 note 7} Those figures are compiled from the Call Books (GLMS. 9537/2–9). No such entries were made in the Call Books of 1574, 1577 and 1580.

^{page 182 note 8} Negligence on the part of the clerk to record the date of so many of the 1583 exhibitions gives the figures for that year little significance.

^{page 183 note 1} Swornmen were allowed less than a fortnight to prepare their bills in that year: this undoubtedly accounts for the number of delayed presentments (GLMS. 9537/8, fol. 77^r).

^{page 183 note 2} The churchwardens of St. Mary Woolchurch paid 2s. for this concession in 1571 (GLMS. 1013/1, fol. 19^v).

^{page 183 note 3} GLMS. 4956/2, fol. 103^r.

^{page 183 note 4} Ibid., fol. 103^r.

^{page 183 note 5} Rejections were most numerous in the 1586 visitation when the campaign against nonconformity was reaching its climax (GLMS. 9537/6, fol. 123^r).

^{page 183 note 8} GLMS. 9537/7, fols. 112^r, 119^r, 121^r.

^{page 183 note 7} LCC. Rec. Office, Liber Correctionis 1601–2, fol. 55^r.

^{page 183 note 8} The churchwardens, the sidesmen (varying from four to eight according to the size of the parish) and the curate generally constituted the committee that prepared the returns. The 1604 canons reiterated the clerical right to share in the compilation of bills (Burn, op. cit., iv. 22).

^{page 183 note 9} Copies of the oaths were attached to the visitation articles (cf. Kennedy, op. cit., iii. 199).

^{page 183 note 10} This fact helps to account for the considerable influence exerted by the vestry in parochial affairs in Elizabethan London: see the writer's thesis, 591.

^{page 189 note 1} LCC. Rec. Office, Liber Correctionis 1601–2, fols. i^r-91^vpassim.

^{page 189 note 2} On occasion, indeed, the tendency was towards excessive zeal: the curate at St. Dunstan in the West complained in 1583 about ‘… certin Spifaulters and Lookers into the ministery which goe about to trappe me … meaninge it to be the church wardens and swomemen’ (LCC. Rec. Office, Liber Correctionis, 1583–4, iv. fol. 20^V).

^{page 189 note 3} Ibid., vi. fols. 5^r, 8^r; viii. fol. 39^r.

^{page 189 note 4} Ibid., 1601–2, fols. 8^v, 26^r, 57^r, 58^r.

^{page 189 note 5} The Libri Correctionum, with their records of parochial presentments, have not survived for other visitation years.

^{page 189 note 6} The first preaching licence issued in London under the new conditions was in April 1585 (LCC. Rec. Office, Liber V-G. 1583–90, fol. 44^r).

^{page 189 note 7} The Vicar-General books contain records of all types of diocesan licences issued after 1576.

^{page 189 note 8} The rector of St. Margaret Lothbury was found to lack a preaching licence in the 1574 visitation (GLMS. 9537/3 [not fol.]).

^{page 189 note 9} These are recorded in the Call Books.

^{page 185 note 1} GLMS. 9537/6, fol. 117^v; GLMS. 9537/9. fol. 157^v.

^{page 185 note 2} GLMS. 9537/3 [not fol.]; GLMS. 4353/1, fols. 26^r-27^r.

^{page 185 note 3} GLMS. 9537/6, fols. 110^r, 117^r, 122^r.

^{page 185 note 4} GLMS. 9537/7, fol. 103^v.