The visiting of parishioners and the care of the sick and dying were some of the responsibilities of the clergy, and these tasks were duly emphasised in many visitation sermons and charges. As the Word of God was preached in the services, so it needed to be applied in the homes. Both were aspects of feeding the flock. Bishop Bull, for example, in his 1708 Charge, reminded his clergy of their duty of not only visiting at times of acute illness,...