provided nevertheless, that none of the provisions herein before contained respecting the registers and records made receivable in evidence by virtue of this act shall extend to the registers and records so deposited in the registry of the bishop of London in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one as aforesaid.

XXI. And be it enacted, that this act may be amended or repealed by any act to be passed in this session of parliament.

RESIDENCE OF SPIRITUAL PERSONS, ENGLAND.

9 EDWARD 2, STAT. 1, CAP. 8.—Clerks in the king's service shall be discharged of their residence, but shall be corrected by the ordinary.— See Title" CHURCH, HER RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES,' vol. i. p. 516 n.

21 HENRY 8, CAP. 13, SECS. 26-29.-Spiritual persons abridged from having pluralities of livings, and from taking of farms, &c.-See Title "PLURALITIES," vol. iii. p. 640.

25 HENRY 8, CAP. 16-An act that every judge of the high courts may have one chaplain beneficed with cure.-See Title-"CHAPLAINS," vol. i. p. 461.

21 H. 8, c. 13,

made use of

meaning of

28 HENRY 8, CAP. 13.-The bill for non-residence of spiritual men and their benefices.—Whereas in the parliament begun at Lon- A recital of don the third day of November in the twenty-first year of the reign s. 28, and of of our sovereign lord king Henry the eighth, and from thence ad- the practices journed and prorogued to the palace of Westminster the seventeenth to evade the day of December then next ensuing, amongst other good acts and the same. ordinances, then and there by the authority of the said parliament, 25 H. 8, c. 16. it was established, ordained and enacted, that as well every spiritual person, then being promoted to any archdeaconry, deanery or dignity in any monastery or cathedral church, or other church conventual or collegial, or being beneficed with any parsonage or vicarage, as all and every spiritual person and persons, which should after the feast of Saint Michael the archangel, which was in the foresaid twentyfirst year of the reign of our sovereign lord king Henry the eighth, be promoted to any of the said dignities or benefices with any parsonage or vicarage, should from the said feast of Saint Michael the archangel be personally resident and abiding at and upon his said dignity, prebend or benefice, or at one of them at the least; and in case any such spiritual person, at any time after the said feast, kept not residence at one of his said dignities, prebend or benefices, (as is aforesaid) but absent himself wilfully by the space of one month together, or by the space of two months to be accounted at several times in any one year, and make his residence and abiding in any other places by such time, that then he shall forfeit for every such default ten pounds sterling, as in the same act more plainly doth appear; in which act, among other provisions contained and specified in the same, it was provided, that the said act of non-residence should not in anywise extend nor be prejudicial to any scholar or scholars, being conversant and abiding for study, without fraud or covin, at any university within this realm or without, as by the same provision doth also appear more at large; sithence the making of which good act and statute, divers and many persons being beneficed with cure of souls (as is aforesaid) and being not apt to study by reason of their age, or otherwise, nor never intending, before the making of the said act, to travel in study within any of the said universities for the increase of learning, but rather minding and

What spirimay be dis

residence upon their benefices,

and for what

cause.

intending their own case, singular lucre and pleasure, by the same provision colourably to defraud the same good statute and ordinance, do daily and commonly resort and repair to the said universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and to either of them, where they, under the said pretence and colour of study, do continue and abide, living dissolutely, nothing profiting themselves by study at all in learning, but consume the time in idleness and in other pastimes, and insolent pleasures, giving occasion and evil example thereby to other young men and students within the said universities, little or nothing regarding their cure and charge of souls, contrary to the minds and intent of the makers of the foresaid good statute and ordinance; and also divers and many old beneficed men have and do continually remain there, never exercising nor practising their learning to the example of virtue and maintenance of the common weal, in discharge of their conscience, according to their duty, having nevertheless, and occupying such rooms and commodities, as were instituted and ordained for the maintenance and relief of poor scholars, to the great hindrance and detriment of the same:

II. Be it therefore enacted by the king our sovereign lord, with tual persons the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in charged from this present parliament assembled, that all and singular spiritual person and persons, which now be, or hereafter shall be, to any benefice or benefices promoted, as is aforesaid, being above the age of forty years, (the chancellor, vice-chancellor, commissary of the said 21 H. 8, c. 13. universities, or any of them, wardens, deans, provosts, presidents, rectors, masters, principals and other head rulers of colleges, halls and other houses or places corporate within the said universities, or any of them, doctors of the chair, readers of divinity in the common schools of divinity in any of the said universities, only excepted) shall be resident and abiding at and upon one of their said benefices, according to the intent and true meaning of the said former act, upon such pain and penalties as be contained in the said former act made and appointed for such beneficed persons for their non-residence. And that none of the said beneficed persons being above the age aforesaid, except before except, shall from henceforth be excused of their nonresidence upon the said benefices, for that they be students or resiant within the said universities, or any of them; any proviso, or any other clause or sentence specified or contained in the said former act of non-residence, or any other thing or things, to the contrary hereof in anywise notwithstanding.

III. And over this be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and singular such beneficed persons, being under the age of forty years, resiant and abiding within the said universities, or any of them, shall not enjoy the privilege and liberty of non-residence, contained in the proviso of the said former act, made for the scholars and students of the said universities, or any of them, unless he or they be present at the ordinary lecture and lectures, as well at home in their houses, as in the common school or schools, and in their proper persons keep sophisms, problems, disputations and other exercises of learning, and be opponent and respondent in the same, according to the ordinances and statutes of either of the said universities, where he or they shall be so abiding or resiant; any thing

contained in the said proviso or former act to the contrary notwithstanding.

IV, Provided alway, that this act shall begin to take effect at the feast of Saint Michael the archangel next coming, and not before.

readers of

versities, and

tors in divi

V. Provided alway, that this act, nor any thing therein contained, Proviso for shall extend to any person or persons which now is, or hereafter lectures, &c. shall be readers of any public or common lecture in divinity, law in the unicivil, physic, philosophy, humanity, or of any of the liberal sciences, for those that or public or common interpreters or teachers of the Hebrew tongue, proceed docChaldee or Greek, in whatsoever college or place of any of the said nity, law or universities, the said persons for the time being shall read the said physic. common or public lectures; nor yet to any person or persons after or above the age of forty years, which shall resort to any of the said universities to proceed doctors in divinity, law civil, or physic, for the time of their said proceedings, and executing of such sermons, disputations or lectures, which they be bound by the statutes of the universities there to do for the said degrees so obtained.

33 HENRY 8, CAP. 28.-An act for the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and others, to have chaplains.-See Title-"CHAPLAINS," vol. i. p. 461.

of any eccle

there is no

17 GEORGE 3, CAP. 53.-An act to promote the residence of the parochial clergy, by making provision for the more speedy and effectual building, rebuilding, repairing, or purchasing houses, and other necessary buildings and tenements, for the use of their benefices.-Whereas many Preamble. of the parochial clergy, for want of proper habitations, are induced to reside at a distance from their benefices, by which means the parishioners lose the advantage of their instruction and hospitality, which were great objects in the original distribution of tithes and glebes for the endowment of churches: for remedy whereof, may it please your majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that, from Incumbent and after the twenty-fourth day of June, one thousand seven hundred siastical livand seventy-seven, whenever the parson, vicar, or other incumbent, ing, whereon of any ecclesiastical living, parochial benefice, chapelry, or perpetual house, &c. curacy, being under the jurisdiction of the bishop or other ecclesiastical ordinary, whereon there is no house of habitation, or such house is become so ruinous and decayed, or is so mean, that one year's net income and produce of such living will not be sufficient to build, rebuild, or put the same, with the necessary offices belonging thereto, in sufficient repair, shall think fit to apply for the aid and assistance intended to be given by this act, it shall and may be lawful for every such parson, vicar, or incumbent (after having procured, from some skilful and experienced workman or surveyor, a certificate, containing a state of the condition of the buildings on their respective glebes, and of the value of the timber and other materials thereupon, fit to be employed in such buildings or repairs, or to be sold, and also a plan and estimate of the work proposed to be done (such state and estimate to be verified upon oath, taken before some justice of the peace, or master in chancery, ordinary or extraordinary), and laid the same, together with a just and particular account in writing, signed