Visitatio Infirmorum; Or, Offices for the Clergy in Praying With, Directing, and Comforting the Sick, Compiled by W.H. Cope and H. Stretton

Visitatio Infirmorum; Or, Offices For The Clergy In Praying With, Directing, And Comforting The Sick, Compiled By W.H. Cope And H. Stretton by William Henry Cope and Henry Stretton is a multi-voiced Anglican pastoral manual from the late 17th to early 18th century. The work gathers exhortations, doctrinal catechesis, and practical guidance drawn from bishops and clerics such as Stearne, Wilson, Taylor, Cosin, Isham, Kettlewell, and others, providing visiting clergy with a complete toolkit for tending the sick, dying, mourners, and condemned criminals. Its central aim is to bring repentance, absolution, and salvation within the ordinary offices of visitation, confession, and communion. The manual presents illness as a providential summons to repentance and spiritual renewal, and offers a structured sequence of examinations (I–XI) of faith, sin, forgiveness, restitution, and readiness for death. Creedal exposition, the Ten Commandments, and Gospel precepts anchor the soteriology, while pastoral directives cover wills, charity, reconciliation, and pastoral patience. The volume is a substantial resource for ecclesiastical visitation literature, catechetical instruction, and sacramental theology within Anglican practice.