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Pre-Reformation Records
The main series of pre-reformation records are: the Bishop's registers [DN/REG], the Consistory Court depositions [DN/DEP] and Act Books [DN/ACT] and the estate series which contains title deeds, manor court rolls, obedientary rolls, rentals, surveys and bailiff's accounts relating to St Benet's Abbey [DN/EST]. All these series continued after the Henrician Reformation. (Probate business came before the ecclesiastical courts until the 1857 Probate Act but the records were transferred to the newly-created Norwich District Probate Registry. The early 'administration act books' are office act books.)
There are also three papal bulls: a general confirmation of the rights of St Benet's Abbey to the Bishop of Norwich, 1248 or 1249; a confirmation to St Benet's Abbey of the patronage of the churches of Neatishead, Irstead and Bastwick, 1257; and a confirmation of the appropriation of the churches of Scottow and North Walsham to St Benet's Abbey, 1344 [DN/EST 6/1-3]; letters patent from Richard II to the Bishop of Norwich and others to investigate the rebels in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1381/82 [DN/MSC 1/1]; and a mandate from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the bishop and clergy of the diocese to view the records held by the cathedral, 1395 [DN/MSC 1/2].

Post-Reformation records
The main post-reformation series are: glebe terriers [DN/TER], subscription books [DN/SUB], ordination registers and papers [DN/ORR, DN/ORD], tithe maps and apportionments [DN/TA], Consistory Court files [DN/CON], faculty books and papers [DN/FCB, DN/FCP, DN/FBA], consecration registers and papers [DN/CSR, DN/CSP], meetinghouse licence registers [DN/DIS, DN/ACB], marriage allegation bonds [DN/MLB], presentation deeds [DN/PRE], resignation bonds [DN/RES] and visitation books and papers [DN/VSB, DN/VSC, DN/VSM]. There is also a census of strangers' churches at Norwich and King's Lynn, 1567 [DN/DIS 10].

Books prepared for use at visitations in which were entered notes of matters presented or detected. Documents exhibited before the visitor such as glebe terriers, parish register bills and presentments were noted, but not their contents. The names of old and new churchwardens were entered as well. Occasionally the dates of institution and induction of a beneficed clergyman are recorded, though these were more usually entered in the consignation books: see list DN/VSC. Lists of citations of parishioners and clergy summoned to appear before the visitor record the reason for the summons and can include schoolmasters, surgeons, physicians, midwives, and executors of wills or administrators of goods and chattels.

Up to 1686 the documents listed under this head consist of Consignation books and Visitation books which are not included in the series of those books listed separately (see DN/VSC and DN/VSB).

From 1686 there are, for most Visitation years, Visitation Processes which include Mandates to hold Visitations, Citations to appear etc., and, for some years, Presentments and proceedings thereon and Comperta books recording the further stages of proceedings for the correction of faults discovered or presented during a Visitation.

From 1777 the Visitation Papers consist mainly of printed Questions addressed to the incumbents of each parish. From 1813 these were accompanied by another series of printed questionaires or Articles of Enquiry addressed to the churchwardens, which were returned to the rural deans for those years when an episcopal visitation did not take place. These Questions and Articles were filed by deanery and have been listed alphabetically by Visitation Centre or Court. In 1837 the archdeaconry of Sudbury with the exception of the deaneries of Stow and Hartismere were transferred to the diocese of Ely.

Books prepared for use at Visitations in which were entered particulars of licences which the clergy were required to exhibit, detailing such things as their dates of ordination as deacon and priest and the name of the ordaining bishop, the dates of institution and induction, and also noting the details of licences of schoolmasters, surgeons and midwives.

In alphabetical order. Some undated.

Testimonials for holy orders, for schoolmasters, surgeons and midwives and for curates' licences.

Surrogate account books, register, and bonds.

These consist of unrelated material boxed together, roughly in order of date, for convenience.

The subscription books are numbered as far as possible in accordance with the numbering used in E.H. Carter, 'The Norwich Subscription Books'. Usually the subscriptions are intermingled but where they can be distinguished a note has been made.
From 1558 all clerks were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the crown and in 1571 (formalised in 1604) all clerks before their ordination or institution to a new benefice were to declare their assent to the three Articles of Religion: recognition of royal supremacy; use of the Book of Common Prayer and adhesion to the 39 Articles of 1562. To these requirements was added an oath against simony and other oaths before institution. Schoolmasters, physicians, surgeons, and midwives were required to subscribe to the 39 Articles and royal supremacy before being granted a licence.

Accounts, vouchers, correspondence and writs relating to sequestrations arranged in parish bundles with approximate covering dates.

Seal and counter seal matrices of bishop's and chancellor's of the diocese of Norwich and seal proof impressions and impressions.