Quarterly Conference to renew, the same preliminary steps must be taken to regain it as if a license had never been given.

12. The license must be renewed "annually;" but the ecclesiastical, and not the calendar, year is meant. If by the arrangement of Quarterly Conferences the time in which a license has run should exceed twelve months, it is not thereby rendered null and void.

13. If a Quarterly Conference refuses to renew the license of a local preacher, a subsequent Conference cannot reconsider the matter and grant a renewal. The license must be obtained through the same process as though none had ever been given.

14. A subsequent Quarterly Conference cannot reconsider the act of a former, by which a local preacher was expelled, and restore him; for if so, they might reconsider and condemn a man who had formerly been acquitted. And if they could reconsider the act of the last Quarterly Conference, they might reconsider an act passed years before.

15. An ordained local preacher is not required to have his credentials renewed every year. His ordination credentials authorize him to preach until they are surrendered or forfeited.

But all ordained local preachers, each by name, must annually pass an examination of character in the Quarterly Conference, respecting their lives, labors, and usefulness. If a Quarterly Conference refuses to pass the character of a local elder or deacon for any cause, he is immediately under arrest of ministerial character, and the administrator must proceed to an investigation of the case.

16. A Quarterly Conference may refuse to give or renew a license without assigning any cause, or finding a decrease of piety, talent, or usefulness; but it cannot deprive ordained preachers of credentials and privileges which were conferred by an Annual Conference, without moral impeachment, or complaint of unfaithfulness to the ministerial office and covenant, and an investigation or trial according to law.

CHAPTER II.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHURCH OFFICERS.

SEC. I.-OF BISHOPS.

1. The Bishops have their part to act in the discipline of the Church, by so performing their duty in the Annual Conferences, according to the powers the Church has given them, as Presidents of those bodies, as to see that every act is in accordance with the laws of the Church. They also, as "overseers," have many duties imposed upon them, in the private interviews they hold, both with the preachers and people, in administering such instructions and reproofs as the cases which come under their observation may severally require. (Hedding.)

The relation of the Episcopal office to a uniform and efficient administration of the government, is set forth by Bishop McKendree in a paper drawn up when it was proposed to "transfer the power of choosing Pre

siding Elders and stationing the preachers from the Bishops to the Annual Conferences."

"Take this prerogative from the Superintendents, and there will remain with them no power by which they can oversee the work, or officially manage the administration; and therefore the [General] Conference must in justice release them from their responsibilities as Bishops. . . . But such a change in the government would deprive the General Conference of an important, perhaps an essential, part of their authority, and put it out of their power to enforce and carry our system of rules into effect. This will appear from the peculiar relation between the Bishop and [General] Conference, or the connection between making our rules and enforcing them. The Superintendents are chosen by the General Conference, are the repositories of executive power, and are held responsible as overseers of the whole charge. By calling upon them, the administration, in every part of the work, may be brought under the inspection and control of the General Conference. But if the power of superintending the work were taken from the Bishops, they must be released from the responsibility; and if they should be released, there would be no person or persons accountable to the General Conference for the administration; and consequently, the connection between making rules and enforcing them would be dissolved. The legislative body would then have no control over the executive, no power to enforce their rules or laws. The several Annual Conferences are under the control of general rules, enforced by responsible Superintendents; so that, if a preacher should depart from the discipline or doctrine

of the Church, it is the Bishop's duty to correct, remove from office, or bring him to trial, according to Discipline. Should an Annual Conference dissent from the doctrine or discipline of the Church, the Bishop should enter his protest and bring the case before the ensuing General Conference. Should the Superintendent join with a Conference in such a departure, the next General Conference will call him to an account for it; and by this medium the General Conference takes cognizance of the acts of the Annual Conferences; so that while the Superintendents serve as a center of union and harmony among the Annual Conferences, they (i. e., the Annual Conferences) become responsible to, and are brought under the inspection and control of, the General Conference." (Life and Times of William McKendree, pp. 356, 357.)

2. The Bishops are amenable to the General Conference, not only for their moral conduct and for the doctrines they teach, but also for the faithful administration of the goverment of the Church according to the provisions of the Discipline, and for all decisions which they make on questions of ecclesiastical law. In all these cases the General Conference has original jurisdiction, and may prosecute to final issue in expulsion, from which decision there is no appeal. (Soule.)

3. The General Conference appoints a Committee on Episcopacy, to examine the conduct of the Bishops, both private and official, for