The most complete record of English monastic visitation is to be found in a volume at the Bodleian, pertaining to Norwich diocese during the episcopates of Bishops Goldwell and Nicke; it covers a period of forty years, namely from 1492 to 1532. The number of religious houses, exclusive of hospitals and collegiate churches, under episcopal visitation in this diocese was 34; those that were exempt, including thirty friaries, were 38. Details are given of 141 formal visits paid to the religious houses of Norfolk and Suffolk, the actual statements of each inmate being briefly recorded. In the large majority of cases the visitor found that no reform of any kind was needed. Fifteen visits, or about one in nine, brought to light matters that certainly required mending, and for the reformation of which strict injunctions were issued. Out of thirty-four visits paid to the eight nunneries of the diocese, one resulted in detecting a case of grievous sin, and there was a painful scandal brought to light in one of the inspections of the Austin canons of Westacre. By the end of the fifteenth century the numbers had become much reduced through poverty in many of the houses of East Anglia, particularly in the small settlements of Austin canons. It is estimated that there were then in Norfolk diocese about 230 Austin canons, 120 Benedictine monks, and 80 Benedictine nuns. There seems no reason whatever to doubt that the vast majority of these were leading exemplary lives. As an evidence of the patience of the visitor in hearing every kind of complaint, it may be mentioned that the older nuns of Flixton complained to the Bishop of the mutton served in the refectory being burnt, and the beer being too weak; the further complaint as to the too rapid repetition of the psalter at the offices would probably appeal to him as more worthy of the attention of the diocesan. The whole of these visitations were printed a few years ago for the Camden Society, under the capable editorship of Dr. Jessopp. In commenting upon this valuable proof as to the real condition of England’s religious houses just before their fall, the learned editor cordially welcomes all possible publicity being given to further documentary evidence from any known source, adding that “... then it may happen that we shall be forced to confess that in the sixteenth century there were creatures in human form who exhibited as shocking examples of truculent slander, of gratuitous obscenity, of hateful malignity, as can be found among the worst men of any previous or succeeding age, but we shall have to look for them, not within the cloisters, but outside them, among the robbers, not among the robbed.”