If historians must deplore the lack, from the death of Matthew Paris onwards, of chronicles and other biographical and literary works comparable in fullness and intimacy to those illustrating English monastic life immediately after the Conquest, they command, as some compensation, for a great portion of the later middle ages, a source of information both detailed and unexceptionable, which was not available for earlier centuries. The voluminous records of the episcopal visitations of religious houses are indeed incomplete in many respects; numerous orders and individual houses were wholly exempt from the bishop's surveillance and, while many episcopal registers have disappeared, others which survive retain their records only in a fragmentary or abbreviated form. Nevertheless, sufficient material exists and has already been printed to enable the historian, at least at fairly regular intervals throughout the centuries concerned, to gain a tolerably clear view of significant cross-sections of English religious life.

The black monks of the twelfth century were, as has been seen, almost entirely immune from visitation. Within the body itself, no machinery for the purpose existed, and with a few rare exceptions towards the end of the period no bishop exercised his ancient canonical right in the matter. An occasional legate and, later in the century, an archbishop with legatine powers were the only authorities who made a few sporadic visitations in this country. Meanwhile, the success of visitation in all the new orders, and some flagrant examples of misconduct never brought to book till too late, caused a demand for visitation to be a leading feature of the programme of reformers and critics.