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 lxvii. 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-

terest historically in its retention of more than one old usage which Puritanism strove in vain to dislodge. 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 peni tential Psalms with their antiphon should be re cited, the priest, after saying, "Peace be in this house, and to all that dwell in it," recites Ps, cxliii. (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 ver sicles and responses. Then come two of the nine collects of the Sarum Use, followed by the exhor tation 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 fete his conscience troubled with any weightie matter. After which confession, the priest shall absolue hym after this forms, and the same forms of absolucion shalbe used in all pryuate confessions "the form being" Our Lord Jesus Christ, who bath lefts 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 fro all thy synnes, in the name," etc. This declaratory absolution, 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 ("here 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

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Book " of the American Church (1786), but three years later that communion took the step of expunging from the office any allusion. to both confession and absolution, which have thus far been unrestored in the United States.

The declaratory absolution is followed by a prayer of absolution, derived from the York and Sarum Uses, and also found in the Gelasian Sacramentary, but the two following collects in the older uses were omitted in all English Books and their derivatives.

In the Sarum Use the visitation office

Old Office here ends, and that of unction begins. for Unction, The opening Psalm of that office (lxxi.,

and for which the American Book substi Concluding tutee Ps. exxx.) is still retained, fol- Portions. lowed by another noteworthy survival

-the sole instance of the Antiphon (q.v.) in the Anglican ritual: " O Saueour of the world sane us, which by thy crosse and precious blond bast redemed us, helpe us we beseche the, O God " (used also in various unofficial special offices for the Passion .Service on Good Friday). After another collect, expanded from one in the Gregorian Sacramentary for the visitation of the sick, the First Prayer Book has the rubric: " If the sicke person desyre to be annoynted, then shal the priest annoynte him upon the forehead or breast only, makyng the signe of the crosse, saying thus " (followed by a prayer of noteworthy beauty, omitted in all later books). This unction, which, despite the Scriptural warrant of James v. 14, was offensive to Puritanism, disappeared in the second Edwardine Book, and has never been restored. With the recitation of Ps. xiii. the first Edwardine office closes, the second Book ending abruptly just before unction; but in 1661 the Aaronic blessing was added, together with four occasional prayers (for a sick child, etc.), to which the American Book adds three more, one of which is also included in the Irish Book.

The office for the visitation of the sick is immediately followed in all Books by that for the Communion of the Sick (q.v.), with which are inseparably connected the various questions regarding the very ancient practise of Reservation of the Sacrament (q.v.), at least so far as communion of the sick is concerned, a use which even the Calvinistic Thirty-nine Articles did not forbid (cf. Art. xxv.).

As regards the practical use of this office, it is to be observed that it is a formal rite to be employed but once for a person in severe illness; it does not form part of ordinary visits to the sick-room. " It is a solemn recognition of the person over whom it is used as one who is in the fellowship of the Church, and for whom the Church, by its authorized Minister, offers prayer to God; and it is also a solemn recognition of the fact that the sicknesses

and infirmities incident to human na-

Practical ture are a consequence of sin, a part Use of the of that heritage of death which came Office. upon us through the Fall " (Blunt, p.

460). It is to be used, moreover, only over those who have had the training of the church, particularly as its employment is prefatory to the reception of the Eucharist. To dissenters the visitation office would, in all probability, be unintelli-

gible and even terrifying, unless they were resolved to be reconciled with the church and to accept her last consolations. These latter remarks would apply with doubled force to those who have led irreligious or wicked lives, in which cases the office is applicable only after much instruction and much progress toward true penitence. Otherwise, the sick man might view "the comforts of the Office more prominently than would be advisable for those who do not fully appreciate the necessity of repentance toward the attainment of pardon and true peace" (Blunt, ut sup.). Through a false and un-Christian fear of sDlemn preparation for death the use of the visitation office is well-nigh abandoned. This is most regrettable. There is no implication of death in the office; indeed, the American Book has a "Thanksgiving for the beginning of a Recovery" (similarly. the Irish Book). And even if such implication of approaching death be seen; the true churchman will have no fear of death, though he may well dread it without the final blessing and absolution of the church and the last solemn rite of the Eucharist.

Bibliography: J. H. Blunt, Annotated Book of Common Prayer, revised ed., pp, 460171, London, 1903; F. Procter and W. H. Frere, New History of the Book of Common Prayer, 26th ed., pp. 622-62B (with abundant references to older literature and copious bibliography), London,1910.