“_As to other hospitals, which he of another foundation and patronage than of the King, the Ordinaries shall enquire of the manner of the foundation, estate and governance of the same . . . and make thereof correction and reformation according to the laws of Holy Church, as to them belongeth._” (Parliament of Leicester.) Attention having been already called to the internal constitution of hospitals, we must now consider their relation to those in authority. The position of such a house was necessarily complicated; there arose a difficulty in reconciling its subordinate, yet partly independent character. We must see, first, how its welfare depended to a certain extent on king and bishop; secondly, its position with regard to the parochial system; and thirdly, how far it was affected by monasticism. (i) RELATIONS WITH THE KING AND THE BISHOP The hospitals of England have never been exclusively in the hands of Church or State. The relations which they bore to each may be subdivided under the headings of Constitution, Jurisdiction and Finance. (a) _Constitution._—As we have seen, the Church, usually represented by the diocesan bishop, was responsible for the rule and statutes by which a hospital was guided. (b) _Jurisdiction._—In the province of administration, visitation and reform, king and bishop played their [p195] respective parts. Speaking generally, the bishop was administrator, and the king protector; to the former, matters of religious observance and conduct were referred, to the latter, questions of temporal privilege, immunity from taxation, etc. Both had rights as “visitors.” Faithfully conducted, ecclesiastical visitation might be of great use, but owing to the huge extent of dioceses, it was infrequent and inadequate, and where the king was patron, the diocesan bishop’s visitation was prohibited. Under Henry III, the royal almoner undertook the keeping of Crown hospitals, but afterwards this duty fell to the Chancellor, who alone had the right of visitation; the diocesan bishop had no jurisdiction in such houses except by special arrangement, as in the Statute directing that ordinaries “by virtue of the king’s commission to them directed” shall take inquisitions and return them into chancery. Royal interposition was not customary unless the king were patron; thus an order to inquire into waste at certain hospitals was cancelled because the king had erred in believing that they were founded by his progenitors. When investigations were commanded, they were committed to a local jury, who were to find by inquisition on oath of the good men of the county how far rules had been observed, and they possessed full power “to deal with the hospital as well in the head as in the members.” Detailed accounts of such special visitations may be found among _Chancery Miscellanea_ in the Record Office.