Bishop William Wake's Primary Visitation of the Diocese of Lincoln, 1706

Extract

‘At any period of English history from the thirteenth century until a century ago, the records of the great diocese of Lincoln furnish an admirably full illustration of the working of ecclesiastical institutions and administration in the English Church as a whole.’ Of no epoch is this statement of Professor Hamilton Thompson more true than of that which witnessed the tenure of the see of Lincoln by Thomas Tenison, William Wake, and Edmund Gibson. When, therefore, amongst the Wake MSS. at Christ Church, Oxford, I discovered a volume labelled Arch. W. 297. Actorum Episcopal, Tom. I, it was with the eager anticipation of a rich harvest that I opened its pages. At first anticipation was frilly realised; for the first year of Wake's episcopate fills twenty folio pages of careful and detailed entries. But, alas! those thieves of episcopal leisure, the administrative duties of so large a diocese, made as speedy as sudden an end of his diligent resolve to keep a personal diary of his activities. On page 21 the entry Anno Consecrationis Secundo contains only three items and the rest of the volume consists of blank pages.