Elections before the passing of this act not to be void. What proof shall be necessary. May not be aldermen or town councillors. Clerical Disabilities Act, 1870. General law. in the said house, to any person or persons who shall sue for the same in any of his Majesty's courts at Westminster; and the money so forfeited shall be recovered by the person or persons so suing, with full costs of suit, in any of the said courts, by any action of debt, bill, plaint or information, in which no essoign, privilege, protection or wager of law, or more than one imparlance, shall be allowed; and every person against whom any such penalty or forfeiture shall be recovered by virtue of this act, shall be from thenceforth incapable of taking, holding or enjoying any benefice, living or promotion ecclesiastical, and of taking, holding or enjoying any office of honour or profit under his Majesty, his heirs or successors: provided always, that nothing in this act contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to make void any election of a person to serve as a member of the House of Commons, which election shall have taken place before the passing of this act" (o). Sect. 4. Proof of the celebration of divine service, according to the rites of the Church of England or of the Church of Scotland, in any church or chapel consecrated or set apart for public worship, shall be deemed and taken to be primâ facie evidence of the fact of such person having been ordained to the office of a priest or deacon, or of his being a minister of the Church of Scotland, within the intent and meaning of this act." By 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76, the act to provide for the regulation of municipal corporations, sect. 28, "No person being in holy orders. ... shall be qualified to be elected, or to be a councillor of any such borough, or an alderman of any such borough," as in the act mentioned. Both this act, however, and 41 Geo. 3, c. 63, are, by The Clerical Disabilities Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 91), repealed as to such persons as have, under the provisions of this act, executed a deed of relinquishment of their clerical profession, and thus become, in the eye of the secular law, laymen. This act will be mentioned at length hereafter. The law which guards with so much jealousy the principle, that no judicial proceeding can be valid unless it has given the party whom it affects an opportunity of being heard, has fully extended the protection of that principle to between clerk the relations subsisting between the clerk and his ordinary -so much so that in the construction of a statute, which Relation and ordinary. (0) The third section relates to the limitation of time within which actions for penalties must be brought. enacted" that whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of the bishop, either of his own knowledge, or upon proof by affidavit laid before him," &c., that duties had been inadequately performed, the bishop might appoint a curate, it was holden, after most deliberate consideration by Lord Lyndhurst and the other barons of the Exchequer, that the words imported an inquiry with intimation to the accused party, opportunity given for his defence, and a judgment after hearing him." It would be too critical" (Lord Lyndhurst said) "to interpret the terms his own knowledge' to mean his personal knowledge" (p). A declaration for slander, by charging a clergyman in Slander. holy orders with incontinency, has been ruled to be bad. The declaration ought to show actual damage, or that he holds some office or employment producing temporal profit. The 61st section of the Common Law Procedure Act does not remedy such an omission (q). (p) Capel v. Child, 2 Tyrwhitt, 689, 698, 704 (A.D. 1832). See also Poole's case, 28 L. J., Q. B. 154; and p. 574, supra. (a) Gallway v. Marshall, 23 L. J., N. S. (Ex.) 78. PART III. THE CHURCH IN HER RELATION TO THE Subjects of this part. The sacraments. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. WE now proceed to consider the offices of the church in her relation to the general life of her members, clergy and laity: 1. The Sacrament of Baptism. 2. The Catechism, that is to say, an Instruction to be learned of every Person before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop. 3. The Rite of Confirmation. 4. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 5. The Discipline of Confession. 6. Marriage. 7. The Churching of Women. 8. The Office for the Visitation of the Sick. 9. The Order for the Burial of the Dead. 10. The Liturgy and Ritual. The Sacraments. It is the office of the church to train and educate men for another world. She begins to do so from their birth, and continues to do so till their death. The church discharges this office, and effects this training and education, by the administration of the sacraments, properly so called (a); by the performance of holy and sacramental rites on the most important occasions of life; and by continual daily worship, as well as by special services for which provision is made in her Liturgy; also by the discipline through which she reclaims erring members and enforces penitence for sin. (a) It is a principle of the canon law that the sacrament is not to be repeated on account of some imperfection in the administration of it: "in talibus non est aliquid iterandum, sed cautè supplendum quod incautè fuerat prætermissum." X. 1. 1, t. xvi. c. 1, De Sacramentis non iterandis. The word sacramentum signified in its general meaning an oath. The oath of allegiance and obedience taken by the Roman soldiers was called "sacramentum militare." The later Fathers of the church applied the term to designate a holy mystery, as the Greek Fathers used the term μvoτngiov (b). The church adopted the definition of St. Augustine, "invisibilis gratiæ visibilis forma, ut ejus similitudinem generet et causa existat" (c). The English Church expresses most clearly the Catholic doctrine defining a sacrament to be "an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." It has two parts: "the outward visible sign-the inward spiritual grace.' Upon the number of sacraments the different branches Number of of the church are not agreed. The modern Roman (d) and sacraments. Greek church enumerate seven:-(1.) Baptismus, rò βάπτισμα. (2.) Confirmatio, το χρίσμα. (3.) Eucharistia, ἡ θεία κοινωνία, ἡ εὐχαριστία, τὸ κυριακὸν δεῖπνον. (4.) Pænitentia, μsTavola. (5.) Extrema unctio, Tò aysor ἔλαιον. (6.) Ordo, ἡ ἱερωσύνη, χειροτονία. (7.) Matrimonium, ὁ γάμος. The doctrine of the Church of England is thus expressed Doctrine of in her thirty-fifth Article:-" There are two sacraments the Church of ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, England. baptism and the supper of the Lord." Those five commonly called sacraments, that is to say, confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony and extreme unction, are not to be counted for sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the apostles, partly are states of life allowed by the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of sacraments with baptism and the Lord's supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God." (b) Cf. Coloss. i. 27; Ephes. i. 9, v. 32; 1 Tim. iii. 16. (c) "Sacrificium visibile, invisibile est sacramentum, id est sacrum signum-sacramentum est invisibilis gratiæ visibilis forma." Dist. 11, c. 32. (d) Modern, because at first baptism and the Lord's Supper were the only sacraments; afterwards the chrisma was added. It was not till the beginning of the twelfth century that the number of sacraments was increased to seven, and it cannot be said to have received papal authority till A.D. 1439. Can. 84, Doctrine of And in her catechism she says, that Christ ordained in the Church of his church two sacraments only as "generally necessary England. to salvation," baptism and the supper of the Lord; and in one of her homilies she says, " You shall hear how many sacraments there be that were instituted by our Saviour Christ, and are to be continued and received of every Christian in due time and order, and for such purpose as our Saviour Christ willed them to be received. And as for the number of them, if they should be considered according to the exact signification of a sacrament, namely, for the visible signs expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of our sins, and of our holiness and joining in Christ, there be but two, namely, baptism and the supper of the Lord. For although absolution hath the promise of forgiveness of sin, yet by the express word of the New Testament it hath not this promise annexed and tied to the visible sign, which is imposition of hands. For this visible sign-I mean laying on of hands-is not expressly commanded in the New Testament to be used in absolution as the visible signs in baptism and the Lord's supper are and therefore absolution is no such sacrament as baptism and the communion are. And though the ordering of ministers hath this visible sign and promise, yet it lacks the promise of remission of sin, as all other sacraments besides the two above named do. Therefore neither it, nor any other sacrament else, be such sacraments as baptism and communion are. But in a general acception, the name of a sacrament may be attributed to any thing, whereby an holy thing is signified. In which understanding of the word the ancient writers have given this name, not only to the other five, commonly of late years taken and used for supplying of the number of the seven sacraments, but also to divers and sundry other ceremonies, as to oil, washing of feet and such like, not meaning thereby to repute them as sacraments in the same signification that the two forenamed sacraments are. And therefore, St. Augustine, weighing the true signification and the exact meaning of the word, writing to Januarius, and also in the Third Book of Christian Doctrine, affirmeth that the sacraments of the Christians, as they are most excellent in signification, so are they most few in number; and in both places maketh mention expressly of two, the sacrament of baptism and the supper of the Lord. And although there are retained by the order of the Church of England, besides these two, certain other rites and ceremonies about the institution of ministers in the church, matrimony, confirmation of children, by examining them of their knowledge |