The ordinary episcopal visitation of pariahes, treated in canons 396-398 of the 1983 code of Canon Law is sudded here from its origins to the present. The dissertation's first chapter traces the historical development of this ancient canonical institute particulary with a view to showing its usefulness for church reform. The second examines the canons of the 1917 and 1983 codes and provides a detailed commentary on the latter. A final chapter studies the visitation of parishes in Canada.