bury, to crown the kings and queens of this kingdom (12). And he hath also by the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21. the power of granting dispensations in any case, not contrary to the holy scriptures and the law of God, where the pope used formerly to grant them: which is the foundation of his granting special licences, to marry at any place or time, to hold two livings, and the like (13): and on this also is founded the right he exercises of conferring degrees (14), in prejudice of the two universities.

[382]

THE power and authority of a bishop, besides the administration of certain holy ordinances peculiar to that sacred order, consist principally in inspecting the manners of the people and clergy, and punishing them in order to reformation, by ecclesiastial censures. To this purpose he has several courts under him, and may visit at pleasure every part of his diocese. His chancellor is appointed to hold his courts for him, and to assist him in matters of ecclesiastical law; who, as well as all other ecclesiastical officers, if lay or b See the bishop of Chester's case. Oxon. 1721.

(12) It is said that the arch-bishop of York has the privilege to crown the queen-consort, and to be her perpetual chaplain. 1 Burn. Ec. L. 178. (13) When the dominion of the pope was overturned in this country, this prerogative of dispensing with the canons of the church was transferred by that statute to the arch-bishop of Canterbury in all cases in which dispensations were accustomed to be obtained at Rome; but in cases unaccustomed, the matter shall be referred to the king and council. The pope could have dispensed with every ecclesiastical canon and ordinance. But in some of the cases where the arch-bishop alone has authority to dispense, his dispensation with the canon, as to hold two livings, must be confirmed under the great seal.

(14) But although the arch-bishop can confer all the degrees which are taken in the universities, yet the graduates of the two universities, by various acts of parliament and other regulations, are entitled to many privileges which are not extended to what is called a Lambeth degree as, for instance, those degrees which are a qualification for a dispensation to hold two livings, are confined by 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13. s. 23. to the two universities.

married, must be a doctor of the civil law, so created in some university. It is also the business of a bishop to institute, and to direct induction, to all ecclesiastical livings in his diocese.

ARCHBISHOPRICKS and bishopricks may become void by death, deprivation for any very gross and notorious crime, and also by resignation. All resignations must be made to some superiord. Therefore a bishop must resign to his metropolitan; but the arch-bishop can resign to none but the king himself (15).

II. A DEAN and chapter are the council of the bishop, to assist him with their advice in affairs of religion, and also in the temporal concerns of his see e. When the rest of the clergy

were settled in the several parishes of each diocese, (as hath formerly f been mentioned,) these were reserved for the celebration of divine service in the bishop's own cathedral; and the chief of them, who presided over the rest, obtained the name of decanus or dean, being probably at first appointed to superintend ten canons or prebendaries.

ALL ancient deans are elected by the chapter, by conge d' eslire from the king, and letters missive of recommendation; in the same manner as bishops (16): but in those chapters, that were founded by Henry VIII, out of the spoils of the dissolved monasteries (17), the deanery is donative, and the installation

(15) The following are some of the popular distinctions between arch-bishops and bishops. The arch-bishops have the titles and style of grace, and most reverend father in God by divine providence; the bishops those of lord, and right reverend father in God by divine permission. Archbishops are inthroned, inthronizati; bishops installed.

(16) See a very learned note, containing a full history of the election, presentation, or donation to deaneries, by Mr. Hargrave in Co. Litt. 95. (17) The new deaneries and chapters to old bishopricks are eight, viz. Canterbury, Norwich, Winchester, Durham, Ely, Rochester, Worcester, and Carlisle ; and five new bishopricks with new deaneties VOL. I. 65

merely by the king's letters patent 8. The chapter, consisting of canons or prebendaries, are sometimes appointed by the king, sometimes by the bishop, and sometimes elected by each other.

THE dean and chapter are, as was before observed, the nominal electors of a bishop. The bishop is their ordinary (18) and immediate superior; and has, generally speaking, the power of visiting them, and correcting their excesses and enormities. They had also a check on the bishop at common law : for till the statute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 28. his grant or lease would not have bound his successors, unless confirmed by the dean and chapter h.

DEANERIES and prebends may become void, like a bishoprick, by death, by deprivation, or by resignation to either the king or the bishop. Also I may here mention, once for all, that if a dean, prebendary, or other spiritual person be made a bishop, all the preferments of which he was before possessed are void; and the king may present to them in right of his prerogative royal. But they are not void by the election, but only by the consecrationj.

III. AN arch-deacon hath an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, immediately subordinate to the bishop, throughout the whole of his diocese, or in some particular part of it. He is usually appointed by the bishop himself; and hath a kind of episcopal authority, priginally derived from the bishop, but now independent and distinct from his *. He therefore visits the clergy; and has his separate court for punishment of offenders

g Gibs. cod. 173.

h Co. Litt. 103.

i Plowd. 498.

j Bro. Abr. t. presentation. 3. 61. Cro. Eliz.

542. 790. 2 Roll. Abr. 352. 4 Mod. 200. Salk. 137.

k 1 Burn, eccl. law. 68, 69.

and chapters annexed were created, viz. Peterborough, Chester, Gloucester, Bristol, and Oxford. Harg. Co. Litt. 95, n. 3.

(18) The bishop is generally called the ordinary, but the ordinary has a more extensive signification, as it includes every ecclesiastical judge who has the regular ordinary jurisdiction independent of another. 1 Burn. Ec. L. 22. Co. Litt. 344.

by spiritual censures, and for hearing all other causes of ecclesiastical cognisance.

IV. THE rural deans are very ancient officers of the church', but almost grown out of use; though their deaneries still subsist as an ecclesiastical division of the diocese, or archdeaconry. They seem to have been deputies of [384] the bishop, planted all round his diocese, the better

to inspect the conduct of the parochial clergy, to inquire into and report dilapidations, and to examine the candidate for confirmation; and armed, in minuter matters, with an inferior degree of judicial and coercive authority m.

V. THE next, and indeed the most numerous, order of men, in the system of ecclesiastical polity, are the parsons and vicars of churches: in treating of whom I shall first mark out the distinction between them; shall next observe the method by which one may become a parson or vicar; shall then briefly touch upon their rights and duties; and shall, lastly, shew how one may cease to be either.

A PARSON, persona ecclesiae, is one that hath full possession of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parson, persona, because by his person the church, which is an invisible body, is represented; and he is in himself a body corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the church (which he personates) by a perpetual succession". He is sometimes called the rector, or governor, of the church: but the appellation of parson (however it may be depreciated by familiar, clownish, and indiscriminate use) is the most legal, most beneficial, and most honorable title that a parish priest can enjoy ; because such a one, (sir Edward Coke observes,) and he only, is said vicem seu personam ecclesiae gerere. parson has, during his life, the freehold in himself of the parsonage house, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues. But these are sometimes appropriated; that is to say, the benefice is perpetually annexed to some spiritual corporation, either sole or aggregate, being the patron of the living; which the

Kenuet. par. antiq. 633,

m Gibs, cod. 972. 1550.

n Co. Litt. 300.

A

law esteems equally c. pable of providing for the service of the church, as any single private clergyman. This contrivance seems to have sprung from the policy of the monastic orders, who have never been deficient in subtile inventions for the increase of their own power and emoluments. At the first establishment of parochial clergy, the tithes of the parish were distributed in a fourfold division; one for the use of the bishop, another for maintaining the fabric of the [385] church, a third for the poor, and the fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were prohibited from demanding their usual share of these tithes, and the division was into three parts only. And hence it was inferred by the monasteries, that a small part was sufficient for the officiating priest; and that the remainder might well be applied to the use of their own fraternities, (the endowment of which was construed to be a work of the most exalted piety,) subject to the burden of repairing the church and providing for its constant supply. And therefore they begged and bought, for masses and obits, and sometimes even for money, all the advowsons within their reach, and then appropriated the benefices to the use of their own corporation. But, in order to complete such appropriation effectually, the king's license, and consent of the bishop, must first be obtained: because both the king and the bishop may some time or other have an interest, by lapse, in the presentation to the benefice; which can never happen if it be appropriated to the use of a corporation, which never dies and also because the law reposes a confidence in them, that they will not consent to any thing that shall be to the prejudice of the church. The consent of the patron also is necessarily implied: because (as was before observed) the appropriation can be originally made to none, but to such spiritual corporation, as is also the patron of the church; the whole being indeed nothing else, but an allowance for the patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk, they