The Visitatio liminnm should be made by the prelate in proper person, but, in case of need, a substitute spe- ciallv authorized may be employed by him. The in- creased facilities of travel in modern times have made such visitations a matter of regular recurrence, and the substitution for them of a written report is now infre- (juent. The report De Statu Ecclesiw is, however, part-
VISITATION
804
VISWAMITRA
ly oral and partly written. A special instruction re- specting; it was elaborated by Prosper Lainbcrtini, the subsequent poi)e Beneilict XIV, and is given alter vol. ii of his Biillaiiitm, and also in the appendix to his work De Si/iiodo JHocesana, and in Hichter and Schulte's edi- tion of the Cone. Trident. (^Lips. l<Su3).
See Ferraris. Biblioth. Cammica ; IJenedict XIV as above; IJangen, Die rdm. Curie, in ZeUschr.f. Recht u, Politik d.Kirc/ie, In' Jacobson and I\icliter, No. 2; (iie- seler, Kirc/iem/esc/i. ii, 2; I'liilipp, Kirchenrecht, ii, 81, 82; Herzog, Heal-Knci/klop. s. v.
Visitation (iri^ps, tTrto-icoTr//), in Scripture lan- guage, is sometimes taken for a visit of mercy from God (Gen. 1, 24 ; Exod. xiii, 19 ; Luke i, GC, etc.), but oftener for a visit of rigor and vengeance. Day of visitation, year of visitation, or time of visitation, generall}' signi- fies the time of ntlliction and vengeance; or of close in- spection (Exod. xxii, 34; Isa. xxiii, 17; 1 Pet. ii, 12, etc.).
VISITATION, in ecclesiastical phrase, is the in- spection of a province, diocese, archdeaconry, or parish church. Formerly these visits were performed b_v the officer with a large retinue, greatly to the inconvenience of curates and vicars. As early as 1179 action was taken by the pope restricting the retinue of the visit- ing prelate, and such restrictive measures have been passed frecpiently since. In the Church of England the bishop visits once in three years, in order to give his charge and to make inquiry as to the state of the churches. The archdeacon visits in his place in the interim. The term is also applied to the work of tiie j)astor, in Protestant churches, of calling upon the mem- bers of the Church to inquire as to the prosperity of their souls. In a divine or spiritual sense, the term is applied to either a conununication of divine love, or to any calamity, individual or national.
VISITATION OF {the Blessed Virr/in) Mary is the journey made by the mother of our Lord to the hill- country of Judaea, to visit the mother of John the Bap- tist. This has been a favorite subject for the artist in all ages. See Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, p. 186 sq.
VISITATION (of St. Mary), Festival of the, a festival of the Church of Rome, instituted about 1338 by pope LTrban VI, in memory of the visitation of Mary (q.v.) to Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. It is fixed for July 2. See Jameson, Let/ends (if the Ma- donna, p. 193.
VISITATION (OF St.
MaKY), OltDER OF THE, is
a congregation of nuns, in- stituted in IGIO by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jeanne Fran(;oise de Chan- tal. The design of the or- der was to receive those women who, by reason of their infirmities of body or mind, their extreme i)()ver- ty, previous errors of life, or state of widowhood, were excluded from the other regular communities. See IMigne's \\iA\ot,Ordr€s Re- litjieiix, iii, 922 sq. ; Jame- son, Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 447 sq. See Vis- ^
ITANTS. ^f
VISITATION, The Sax- * ON, is the inspection of the %; Saxon churches by visitors, appointed at the request of
the theologians in 1527. U;,i)it ,,f the Order of the The system of supervisiou Visitation of St. Mary.
was the outgrowth of the Lutheran Eeformation, and one feature of the Lutheran polity. Superintendents were appointed to take the place of bishops, and exer- cise an oversight u[)on the doctrine and worship of the churches, and upon the pastors. See Fisher, Hist, of the Reformation, p. 491.
VISITATION OF THE Sick is the duty of visiting the sick and ministering to their tem|)oral and spiritual wants. Tlie a]i|)ropriaie forms used in the ICpiscopal Church in this work are found in the Book of Common Prayer.
Visitatorial Power is the authority possessed by the visitor of a corporate body or ecclesiastical society. " Every corporation, whether lay or ecclesiastical, is visitable by some superior; and every spiritual person, being a corporation sole, is visitable b\' the ordinary. There is, however, in our ecclesiastical polity, an ex- ception to this rule, for, b\' composition, the archbishop of Canterbury never visits the bishop of London. Dur- ing a visitation all inferior jurisdictions are inhibited from exercising jurisdiction; but this right, from the inconvenience attending the exercise of it, is usually conceded; so that the exercise of jurisdiction in the inferior court is continued notwithstanding." — Hook, Church Diet. s. v.
Visitor, in official language, is an inspector of bod- ies politic, ecclesiastical, or civil. With respect to or- dinary ecclesiastical corporations, the bishop is their visitor, so constituted by canon law. The archbishop is the supreme ecclesiastical visitor in his province, and has no superior. The bishops are visitors in their sev- eral dioceses of all deans and chapters, parsons, vicars, and all spiritual corporations. Visitors of colleges and other eleemosynary corporations are generally inde- pendent of the diocesan, being extra-diocesan. Some- times a visitor or visitor-general is appointed with ex- traordinary powers. See Hill, Eni/lish Monasticism, p. 494 sq.