On the order consult: Helyot, Ordres monastiques, iv. 309 sqq.; the Annecy ed. of the works of St. Francis of Sales, especially vol. vi.; the Constitutiones, Paris, 1622, 1645, etc.; C. Menetrier, Projet de l’hist. de l’ordre de la visitation, Annecy, 1701; L. Clarus, Leben der besten Miitter . . . des Ordens von der Heimsuchung Martens, 2 vols., Regensburg, 1861; H. Heppe, Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik in der katholischen Kirche, pp. 43- 58, Berlin, 1875; St. Jane Frances Frémyot de Chantal. Her Exhortations . . . , Clifton, 1888; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, ii. 288-295; KL, x, 1558-61.
VISITATION OF THE SICK: One of the occasional offices in the Book of Common Prayer. Its Scriptural basis is found in James v. 14-15 (cf. also Mark vi. 13), and its necessity, even though the ministrations of the clergy were not explicitly requested, is insisted upon by the canons of many councils, while in the English Church canon Ixvii. is devoted to the clerical obligation to visit the sick.
The office as found in the Book of Common Prayer is derived chiefly from the corresponding office in the Sarum Use, and possesses peculiar in-
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Visitation, Order of the Visitation of the Sick
terest historically in its retention of more than one old usage which Puritanism strove in vain to dis-
lodge. For a correct understanding Opening of the office (which now differs con- Part of siderably in the American Book from
the Office. the English) from the Sarum Use to the present time, it seems best to take as the standard of discussion the office as contained in the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1549). Omitting the requirement of the Sarum Use, that on the way to the house of the sick the seven penitential Psalms with their antiphon should be recited, the priest, after saying, ‘‘ Peace be in this house, and to all that dwell in it,” recites Ps. exliii. (omitted in all later Books; the sprinkling with holy water, required by the Sarum Use, is also omitted, even in the First Book) with the anthem ** Remember not Lord our iniquities,”’ etc., followed by the Kyrie, the Lord’s Prayer, and several versicles and responses. Then come two of the nine collects of the Sarum Use, followed by the exhortation of the sick ‘‘ after this fourme, or other lyke,”’ with provision for curtailment if the person visited be very ill. The articles of the Apostles’ Creed are next rehearsed, and the sick man is examined as to his forgiveness of all his enemies and his discharge of all debts, and is admonished of his duty to make his will and to be charitable to the poor, the special wording of these portions being left to the discretion of the priest.
Then follows one of the most vital survivals of the old Use, against which Protestant objection has been most strenuously made. The rubric in the first Edwardine Prayer Book reads: ‘“‘ Here shall the sicke person make a speciall confession, yf he fele his conscience troubled with any weightie matter. After which confession, the priest shall absolue hym after this forme, and the same forme of absolucion shalbe used in all pryuate confessions ’’— the form being ‘‘ Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath lefte power to his Churche to absolue all sinners, which truely repent and beleue in hym: of his great
mercy forgeue thee thyne offences: and
The by his autoritie committed to me, I Absolution. absolue thee fr6 all thy synnes, in the name,” etc. This declaratory absolu-
tion, which is also employed in the various unofficial uses for private confession in the Anglican communion, was retained even in the strongly Protestantized second Edwardine Prayer Book (1552) and was included in the proposed Scotch Book of 1619. On the rise of the Commonwealth the Puritans in 1640 (and again at the Savoy Conference of 1661) sought to change this to ‘‘ I pronounce thee absolved,”’ but they were unsuccessful, and the ancient form, found in the Uses of Sarum and York, is still retained in the English Book, although the ‘“‘ Sealed Book ” of 1661 added to the rubric “‘ if he humbly and heartily desire it ’”’ (the form retained in the present English Book). In the strongly Protestantized Irish Book (1877) confession is optional, which is true only in a qualified sense of the English Books (‘there shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession,’’ etc.), and the form of absolution is the imprecatory one of the Communion Office. The same form was chosen in the ill-starred ‘‘ Proposed
Visitation of the Sick Vivekananda