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strengthening or diffusing influence; or regarding it as a support of regal, in opposition to popular, forms of government, have served only to debase the institution, and to introduce into it numerous corruptions and abuses. That the notion of a religious establishment comprehends three things, a clergy, or an order of men secluded from other professions, to attend upon the offices of religion; a legal provision for the maintenance of the clergy; and the confining of that provision to the teachers of a particular sect of Christianity."

From the above opinions of these eminent writers, which Church estawe have here selected on account of their diversity, it will blishment as sebe seen that this question is very speculative; and pro- Church. parated from the bably, in order to arrive at any tangible view of this question in a legal sense, we must separate the Church Establishment from the general idea of the Church, or consider the persons ecclesiastical as representing the Church of England.

The connection between the Church and State will then Connection bebe most obvious, in the fact that the sovereign head of the tween the State is the bead also of the Church Establishment, the Church and State by means source from which its superior officers derive their autho- of the same chief rity, and the ultimate resort in all causes in which the magistrate. ecclesiastical establishment is concerned. The seats of the bishops in the Upper House, and the votes allowed to the clergy in the electing members of the Lower House of parliament, may be other instances of this connection; but the union of the civil and ecclesiastical polity is chiefly evident in the incidents which arise from the unity of their head.

formation.

Before the Reformation, therefore, when the supremacy Did not exist of the Pope was acknowledged in all matters ecclesias- before the Retical, there was, legally speaking, no union between Church and State in this country; and the evils of such a disunion were apparent in the constant jealousy and quarrels which existed between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The clergy in those times seem always carefully to have repudiated any connection with or dependance on the State. Not only was their ecclesiastical jurisdiction entirely independent of the civil,-extending over a great variety of causes,-trespassing upon the province of the laity, and threatening an universal supremacy over all persons and causes; but they claimed, and for a time obtained, an absolute exemption from the justice of the State. Of such matters we shall speak hereafter in treating of the former privileges of the clergy". At present we only notice them to remark, that when such a state of things

h Vide post, Chap. VI.

Establishment of the king's supremacy in ecclesiastical matters.

existed, it would be obviously impossible to consider that there was any real connection or alliance between the civil and the ecclesiastical polity.

This alliance, therefore, may be said to have commenced in the 22d year of the reign of Henry VIII.; in which year, when the whole clergy of this realm were supposed to have incurred the penalties of a pramunire, they implored the clemency of the king, and petitioned in convocation for a remission of those penalties; and in their petition, the king was, for the first time, styled the protector and supreme head of the Church and clergy of England. The words, as Gibson has given them, being"Ecclesiæ et cleri Anglicani cujus singularem protectorem unicum et supremum dominum, et quantum per Christi legem licet etiam supremum caput ipsius majestatem recognoscimus." This, therefore, it will be observed, passed with the important qualification "so far as is permitted by the law of Christ.' And in an act of parliament passed shortly afterwards, reciting that the king's majesty justly and rightfully is, and ought to be, the supreme head of the Church of England, and so had been recognised by the clergy of this kingdom in their convocation, it is enacted, that the king shall be reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, and shall have annexed to the imperial crown of this realm as well the title and style thereof, as all jurisdictions, authorities, and commodities, to the said dignity of supreme head of the Church appertaining. * And after this declaration of the law, those who denied the supremacy of the king subjected themselves to capital punishment. This act, however, was repealed in the first year of the reign of Mary', and the supremacy of the Pope over the Church of these realms was once more established by law. But by one of the first acts of the parliament which met soon after the accession of Elizabeth, the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs was restored to the crown; and from that time continuously to the present, the sovereign of these realms has been alike the head of the State and of the Church of England,-supreme over all persons and all causes ecclesiastical as well as civil; and to deny such supremacy, or to assert the supremacy of the Pope, are offences which are severely punishable by our lawm.

In this character of supreme governor and head of the Established Church in this country, the sovereign may be considered as a person ecclesiastical; but he is not subject to, or affected by, any of those restrictions, which we shall

k26 Hen. 8, c. 1.

i Gibs. 23.
1 Mar. sess. 1, c. 1.
See 1 Edw. 6, c. 12; 1 Eliz. c. 1, ss. 27, 30; 5 Eliz. c. 1, s. 2.

hereafter have to mention, as affixed to ecclesiastical per

sons generally.

tion.

In virtue of his authority as supreme head of the Church, His prerogatives the sovereign convenes, prorogues, restrains, regulates and as such head. dissolves all ecclesiastical synods or convocations. This was an inherent prerogative of the crown, long before the time of Hen. VIII., as appears by the statutes 8 Hen. VI. In the convocac. 1, and the many others, both lawyers and historians, vouched by Sir Edward Coke; and would be, besides, sufficiently evident from the nature and origin of the convocation; so that the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, which restrains the convocation from making or putting in execution any canons repugnant to the king's prerogative, or the laws, customs and statutes of the realm, was merely declaratory of the old common law; that part of it only being new, which makes the king's royal assent actually necessary to the validity of every canon ".

From this prerogative also, of being the head of the Appointment of Church, arises the king's right of nomination to vacant bishops, &c. bishopricks, and certain other ecclesiastical preferments,

which will more properly be considered when we come to treat of the different ranks of persons ecclesiastical.

As the head of the Church, the king is likewise the Appeal to king dernier resort in all ecclesiastical causes; an appeal lying in privy council. ultimately to him from the sentence of every ecclesiastical judge; which right was restored to the crown by statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19°. This appeal to the sovereign in ecclesiastical causes now lies to the judicial committee of his privy council, or, as it is legally expressed, to the sovereign in council; of which court, and its jurisdiction, we shall speak in considering the government and discipline of the ecclesiastical body".

land.

In all matters of doctrine, worship, discipline and go- Church of Irevernment, the Church of Ireland is governed by the same laws as the Church of England; and the Churches of England and of Ireland are, since the union of these countries, united into one Protestant Episcopal Church, called the United Church of England and Ireland; and the continuance of this Church of Ireland is to be deemed an essential part of the Union. All matters, therefore, which are treated of in the present volume, unless where any exception is particularly specified, relate equally to the United Church of England and of Ireland.

1 Black. Com. 279. 4 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 67, art. 5.

• Ibid.

P See post, Ch. IV.

CHAPTER II.

OF ORDINATION.

Persons eccle

rate order in the state.

IN speaking of persons ecclesiastical, the first point for our siastical a sepa- consideration will be, the manner in which they are, as it were, set apart from the rest of their fellow citizens, made a separate order in the state, and qualified to discharge the duties of their holy office.

How separated.

The Apostles having appointed certain persons to be the standing governors and preachers of the Christian Church, it has been thought necessary that there should be a power lodged somewhere to set apart some distinct orders of men for the exercise of those public offices; and this is by the ceremony of ordination; a rite of a character so sacred, that in the Roman Catholic Church it is accounted a sacrament, as an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace conferred. And in that Church there were several orders to which a man might be ordained; which distinctions are not admitted in the Church of EngDifferent kinds land; but the only orders in our Church, as declared by different statutes, are those of bishops, priests, and dea

of orders.

Bishops.

Priests and deacons.

Canonical impediments to orders.

Qualification of a deacon as to

morality.

cons.a

With respect to the ordering of bishops we shall speak more particularly hereafter; for as every bishop, prior to his ordination, is already an ecclesiastical person, the subject is foreign to our present purpose.

The word priest is in all Christian languages nearly the same; all evidently taken from the Greek peσ BUTEρos; and in like manner the word deacon, with little variation, is to be found in all the same languages, and is deduced from the Greek διάκονος.

It does not appear necessary here to consider the various canonical impediments which formerly existed to the taking of orders; they were expressed with a somewhat minute particularity; but all such as could be considered reasonable are sufficiently included and embodied in the preface to the form of ordaining deacons, which gives these simple directions only.

The bishop knowing by himself, or by sufficient testi

a 3 Edw. 6; 5 & 6 Edw. 6; 13 & 14 Car. 2; Gibs. Cod. 115.

1

mony, any man to be of virtuous conversation, and without crime, and, after examination and trial, finding him learned in the Latin tongue, and sufficiently instructed in Holy Scripture, may admit him a deacon.b

And, with respect to priest's orders, it is directed by the of a priest. statute 13 Eliz. c. 12, that none shall be made minister (which is to be considered here as synonymous with the word priest), unless it appear to the bishop that he is of honest life, and professeth the doctrine expressed in the Thirty-nine Articles, nor unless he is able to answer and render to the ordinary an account of his faith in Latin according to the said articles, or have special gift or ability to be a preacher.

of the candidate.

The above requisites therefore being observed, the others Bishop the sole are not now necessary; and with regard to the moral and judge of the personal qualifications of the candidate, it appears that the moral conduct bishop in his discretion is the sole and proper judge, unfettered in the exercise of his judgment by any particular tests which might formerly have been imposed.

And, as a guide to the bishop in the exercise of his dis- Testimonials of cretionary power, it is declared that the candidate shall conduct. then exhibit letters of testimonial of his good life and conversation under the seal of some college of Oxford or Cambridge, where before he remained, or of three or four grave ministers, together with the subscription and testimony of other credible persons, who have known his life and behaviour for three years next before; which regulation applies to priests and deacons equally. And if the candidate has quitted college, and has been residing elsewhere, a notice, usually termed a "Si quis," must be published in the church of the parish where the candidate has usually resided, the object of which will be best understood by the form thereof given in the appendix ; and a certificate that such has been properly published must be sent with the testimonials to the bishop.

There are other qualifications, however, besides those of moral conduct, the observance of which is indispensable.

No bishop shall admit any person into holy orders un- Qualification in less he, desiring to be a deacon, is three-and-twenty years respect of age. old, and to be a priest, four-and-twenty years complete; and as to priest's orders, the canon is affirmed in that respect by statute, and it being consequently a part of the statute law of the realm that none shall be admitted priest (or minister), being under the age of four-and-twenty years,

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