occasional necessity of reproving wandering sheep, the duty of ‘visiting,’ which is almost their only function on the six appointed days of labour, is far from laborious. The parish is divided into districts of which one is committed to the care of each priest, and he is directed to visit each family once in three months. The object is, of course, to strengthen the bond between clergy and laity and to secure individual fidelity to the Church. Naturally, however, what really happens is that a few agreeable families are selected for frequent visits, which differ in no respect from the visits of ordinary unconsecrated people (in fact the priest would hardly be welcome who paraded his profession too much); sometimes they are unusually generous benefactors, sometimes mere families of ordinary social attractiveness. In any case, the poor and the uninteresting are forgotten, the favourites are visited weekly or oftener, and the visits sometimes protracted to two or three hours; much jealousy ensues amongst the favourites (who watch each other’s houses just as they watch each other at confession), and counter visits, teas, dinners, parties, &c., have to be accepted. Thus the week is easily and not uncongenially absorbed, and a priest often finds that he is scarcely able to prepare a sermon for the Sunday.
Since most of the visits are paid in the afternoon and on week days, it follows that they are almost exclusively to ladies; one result of which is that our English friars are found to be much less misogynous
