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than the liturgy: in all which and similar cases the benefice is ipso facto void, without any formal sentence of deprivation (j). Some benefices are acquired by donation, of which mention will be made when treating of advowsons.

Curates.]-A curate is the lowest degree in the Church, being in the same state that a vicar was formerly, an officiating temporary minister, instead of a proper incumbent, though there are what are called perpetual curacies, where all the tithes are appropriated, and no vicarage endowed. The reader is referred to 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, before mentioned, for some provisions as to perpetual curacies. By the 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, provisions are made for the appointment and payment of curates during an incumbency, whereby the bishop has power in certain cases to appoint a curate. Disputes respecting the curate's stipend are to be determined by the bishop (k).

Residence of clergy.]-By the 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, every spiritual person (with some exceptions and modifications) holding a benefice, shall keep residence on his benefice, and a house of residence belonging thereto; and if he absents himself therefrom for a period exceeding three months in any one year, he shall forfeit, unless resident at some other of his benefices, a certain portion of the annual value of his benefice (1).

Holding two benefices.]—We have above alluded, in a general manner, to the effect of holding more than one benefice, and it may now be stated more particularly that by 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, it is enacted that in future no spiritual person holding any benefice with cure of souls shall take to hold therewith any

other benefice with cure of souls, unless situated within ten statute miles of the first; that no spiritual person holding a benefice with cure of souls, with a population of more than 3,000, shall take to hold therewith any other having a population of more than 500, nor vice versa; that no spiritual person shall hold together any two benefices with cure of souls of the joint value of more than £1,000 per annum, &c.; otherwise the previous benefice is ipso facto void. The Archbishop of Canterbury may, however, grant a dispensation (n).

Churchwardens.]-Churchwardens are the guardians or keepers of the Church, and representatives of the body of the parish. They are sometimes appointed by the minister, and sometimes by the parish in vestry assembled, and sometimes by both together, as custom directs. They are a kind of corporation, and are enabled by that name to have a property in goods and chattels, and to bring actions for the use and profit of the parish. The churchwardens (with the overseers) are also a quasi corporation, for the purpose of holding real property belonging to the parish (o). They may be removed, and then, or at the end of their year, called to account. Their office is to repair the church, and to make rates and levies for that purpose (p). They are also joined to the overseers in the maintenance of the poor. They are empowered to keep persons orderly while they are in church during divine service (q).

Parish clerks and sextons.]-Parish clerks and sextons are also regarded by the common law as persons who have freeholds in their offices; and, therefore, though they may be punished, they could

PARISH CLERKS AND SEXTONS.

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not formerly be deprived by ecclesiastical censures; but by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 59, a parish clerk may be suspended or removed by the archdeacon for misconduct or neglect. The parish clerk is generally appointed by the incumbent, but by custom may be chosen by the inhabitants; and if such custom appear, the Court of King's Bench will grant a mandamus to the archdeacon to swear him in (s).

CHAP. IX.

OF THE CIVIL STATE.

[See 1 Black. Com. ch. 12; 3 Steph. Com. Bk. IV., pt. 1. ch. 9.]

The laity, as contradistinguished from the clergy, may be divided into three distinct states, viz., the civil, the military, and the maritime, which two latter will be considered in the next chapter. The civil state includes all orders of men, from the highest nobleman to the meanest peasant, not included under the description of the clergy, or of the military or maritime states; and it may sometimes include individuals of the other three orders, since a nobleman, a knight, a gentleman, or a peasant, may become either a divine, a soldier, or a seaman. The civil state consists of the nobility and the commonalty. The degrees of nobility now in use are, dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons.

Dukes.]-A duke, as a mere title of nobility, is inferior in point of antiquity to many others, yet is superior to all in point of rank, being the first title of dignity after the Royal Family.

Marquises.]-A marquis is the next degree of nobility. His office formerly was to guard the

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frontiers and limits of the kingdom, which were called marches, from the Teutonic word marche, a limit.

Earls.]—An earl is a title of nobility so ancient, that its original cannot be clearly traced out. It is now become a mere title, earls having nothing to do with the Government of the county, though formerly they had. In writs and commissions, and other formal instruments, the King, when he mentions any peer of the degree of an earl, usually styles him "trusty and well-beloved cousin"—an appellation as ancient as the reign of Henry IV.

Viscounts.]-A viscount is an arbitrary title of honour, which never had any shadow of office belonging to it. The first instance of the title was in the reign of Henry VI.

Barons.]-A baron is the most general and universal title of nobility; for originally every one of the peers of superior rank had also a barony annexed to his other titles. But it hath sometimes happened that, when an ancient baron hath been raised to a new degree of peerage, in the course of a few generations the two titles have descended differently-one perhaps to the male descendants, the other to the heirs general-whereby the earldom, or other superior title, has subsisted without a barony; and there are also modern instances where earls and viscounts have been created without annexing a barony to their other honours; so that now the rule does not universally hold that all peers are barons. The most probable opinion of the origin of baronies is, that they were the same with our present lords of manors.

The right of peerage seems to have been ori

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