332 THE CHURCH
was much greater than the fulfilment. From time to time
(though, unfortunately, not often within the period mainly
dealt with here) a " close-up" of religious life in the parish is
given by means of an episcopal or archidiaconal visitation. On
such occasions, as is well known, the worst side of affairs is
presented: it is as though we had to judge the morality and con-
duct of a town or country solely by its police-court records.
Nevertheless, the damning facts remain: the evil is there, how-
ever much it may be set off by the good, and when the evil in a
parish finds its focus in the clergy, and within his house, do what
we will, we cannot but admit that this is peculiarly potent. The
clergy may well be considered as the salt of the earth, but what if
the salt hath lost its savour, or, as Chaucer put it, " If gold ruste,
what shal iren do?" The visitation documents, it must be ad-
mitted, show a very tarnished gold in many parishes. The
Hereford visitation of 1397 is the fullest we have left, and even
when we make every allowance for it being a border diocese, and
for the influence oft' Wild Wales'', the total effect of the evidence
is so startling as to be almost incredible to modern readers.1 The
condition of affairs in 281 parishes is surveyed, and in 44 of these
the jury report that all is well. In some of the remaining parishes
the main offenders are the laity, but with surprising frequency the
clergy also are involved. Their offences come under many heads:
gravest of all is the constant charge of immorality. There gje,
more than sixty cases mentioned of clerical offenders—rectors,
vicars, chaplains—all are again and again denounced as forni-
cators and adulterers, and as keeping women from their hus-
bands. When we notice the monotonous regularity with which
men and women in almost every parish are accused of this same
offence, it is impossible to ignore the part played by this evil
clerical example. Complaints against the clergy are distressingly
frequent: John Pole, the chantry priest at Weston, absents him-
self for weeks at a time from his church, and his Mass is not said;
the vicar of Werley similarly neglects his cure; the rector of
Monesley does not reside as he should and the divine services go
unsaid, for neither here, nor at Cowarne Parva, is any deputy
provided by the absent rector. With this neglect to provide a
deputy go other wrongs: here at Cowarne the chancel of the
1 E.H.R. xuv, 279-89, 444-53; XLV, 92-101; 444-^3-