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

THE dean and chapter are, as was before observed, the nominal electors of a bishop. The bishop is their ordinary and immediate fuperior; and has, generally fpeaking, the power of visiting them, and correcting their exceffes and enormities. They had alfo a check on the bishop at common law: for till the ftatute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 28. his grant or leafe would not have bound his fucceffors, unlefs confirmed by the dean and chapter".

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

III. AN arch-deacon hath an ecclefiaftical jurifdiction, immediately fubordinate to the bifhop, throughout the whole of his diocefe, or in fome particular part of it. "He is usually appointed by the bishop himself; and hath a kind of epifcopal authority, originally derived from the bishop, but now independent and diftinct from his *. He therefore vifits the clergy; and has his feparate court for punishment of offenders by fpiritual cenfures, and for hearing all other caufes of ecclefiaftical cognizance.

IV. THE rural deans are very antient officers of the church', but almoft grown out of ufe; though their deaneries ftill fubfift as an ecclefiaftical divifion of the diocefe, or archdeaconry. They feem to have been deputies of the bishop, planted allround his diocese, the better to inspect the conduct of the parochial

clergy, fo inquire into and report dilapidations, and to examine the candidates for confirmation; and armed, in minuter matters, with an inferior degree of judicial and coercive authority".

V. THE next, an indeed the moft numerous, order of men in the fyftem of ecclefiaftical polity, are the parfons and vicars of churches in treating of whom I fhall firft mark out the diftinction between them; fhall next obferve the method by which one may become a parfon or vicar; fhall then briefly touch upon their rights and duties; and fhall, laftly, fhew how one may cease to be either.

A PARSON, perfona ecclefiae, is one that hath full poffeffion of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parson, perfona, becaufe by his perfon the church, which is an invifible body, is reprefented; and he is in himself a body corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the church (which he perfonates) by a perpetual fucceffion ". He is fometimes called the rector, or governor, of the church: but the ap pellation of parfon, (however it may be depreciated by fami liar, clownish, and indifcriminate ufe) is the moft legal, most beneficial, and moft honourable title that a parish priest can enjoy; becaufe fuch a one, (fir Edward Coke obferves) and he only, is faid vicem feu perfonam ecclefiae gerere. A parfon has, during his life, the freehold in himself of the parfonage houfe, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues. But thefe are fometimes appropriated; that is to fay, the benefice is perpetually annexed to fome fpiritual corporation, either fole or aggregate, being the patron of the living; which the law esteems equally capable of providing for the fervice of the church, as any fingle private clergyman. This contrivance feems to have fprung from the policy of the monaftic orders, who have never been deficient in fubtile inventions for the increafe of theirown power and emoluments. At the first establishment of parochial clergy, the tithes of the parish were diftributed in a fourfold divifion; one for the ufe of the bishop, another for maintaining the fabrick of the church, a third for the poor, and the

Gibf. cod. 972. 1550.

Co. Litt., 300.

fourth

fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the fees of the bishops became otherwife amply endowed, they were prohibited from demanding their ufual fhare of thefe tithes, and the divifion was into three parts only. And hence it was inferred by the monasteries, that a small part was fufficient for the officiating priest; and that the remainder might well be applied to the ufe of their own fraternities, (the endowment of which was conftrued to be a work of the moft exalted piety) fubje&t to the burthen of repairing the church and providing for it's conftant fupply. And therefore they begged and bought, for masses and. obits, and fometimes even for money, all the advowfons within their reach, and then appropriated the benefices to the use of their own corporation. But, in order to complete fuch appropriation effectually, the king's licence, and confent of the bishop, muft first be obtained: becaufe both the king and the bishop may fometime or other have an intereft, by lapfe, in the prefentation to the benefice; which can never happen if it be appropriated to the ufe of a corporation, which never dies: and alfo because the law repofes a confidence in them, that they will not confent to any thing that fhall be to the prejudice of the church. The confent of the patron alfo is neceffarily im.. plied, because (as was before observed) the appropriation can be originally made to none, but to such spiritual corporation, as is alfo the patron of the church; the whole being indeed nothing elfe, but an allowance for the patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own hands, without prefenting any clerk, they themfelves undertaking to provide for the fervice of the church. When the appropriation is thus made, the appropriators and their fucceflors are perpetual parfons of the church; and muft fue and be fued, in all matters concerning the rights of the church, by the name of parlons P.

THIS appropriation may be fevered, and the church become difappropriate, two ways: as, firft, if the patron or appropriator prefents a clerk, who is inflituted and indacted to the parfonage: for the incumbent fo inftituted and inducted is to all intents and purpofes complete parion; and the appropriation, being once fevered, can never be re-united again, • Plowd. 496–500.

Bb3

D Hob. 307.

unlefs

Book I. unless by a repetition of the fame folemnities. And, when the clerk fo prefented is diftinct from the vicar, the rectory thus vested in him becomes what is called a fine-cure; because he hath no cure of fouls, having a vicar under him to whom that cure is committed. Alfo, if the corporation which has the appropriation is diffolved, the parfonage becomes difappropriate at common law; because the perpetuity of perfon is gone, which is neceflary to fupport the appropriation.

In this manner, and fubject to thefe conditions, may appro priations be made at this day: and thus were most, if not all, of the appropriations at prefent exifting originally made; being annexed to bishopricks, prebends, religious houfes, nay, even to nunneries, and certain military orders, all of which were fpiritual corporations. At the diffolution of monafteries by statutes 27 Hen. VIII. c. 28. and 31 Hen. VIII. c. 13. the appropriations of the feveral parfonages, which belonged to thofe refpective religious houf s, (amounting to more than one third of all the parishes in England) would have been by the rules of the common law fappropriated; had not a clause in thofe ftatutes intervened, to give them to the king in as ample a manner as the abbots, &c, formerly held the fame, at the time of their diffolution. This, though perhaps fcarcely defenfible, was not without example; for the fame was done in former reius, when the alien priories (that is, fuch as were filled by foreigners only) were diffolved and given to the crown. And from these two roots have fprung all the lay appropriations or fecular parfonages, which we now fee in the kingdom; they having been afterwards granted out from time to time by the crown ".

THESE appropriating corporations, or religious houses, were wont to depute one of their own body to perform divine fervice, and adminifter the facraments, in thofe parishes of which the fociety was thus the parfon. This officiating.

minister was in reality no more than a curate, deputy, or vicegerent of the appropriator, and therefore called vicarius or vicar. His ftipend was at the difcretion of the appropriator, who was however bound of common right to find fomebody, qui illi de temporalibus, epifcopo de fpiritualibus, debeat refpondere". But this was done in fo fcandalous a manner, and the parishes fuffered fo much by the neglect of the appropriators, that the legislature was forced to interpofe : and accordingly it is enacted by statute 15 Ric. II. c. 6. that in all appropriations of churches, the diocefan bishop fhall ordain (in proportion to the value of the church) a competent fum to be distributed among the poor parishioners annually; and that the vicarage fhall be fufficiently endowed. It seems the parish were frequently fufferers, not only by the want of divine fervice, but also by withholding those alms, for which, among other purposes, the payment of tithes was originally impofed: and therefore in this act a penfion is directed to be diftributed among the poor pa rochians, as well as a fufficient ftipend to the vicar. But he, being liable to be removed at the pleasure of the appropriator, was not likely to infift too rigidly on the legal fufficiency of the ftipend and therefore by ftatute 4 Hen. IV. c. 12. it is ordained, that the vicar shall be a secular person, not a member of any religious houfe; that he fhall be vicar perpetual, not removable at the caprice of the monaftery; and that he fhall be canonically inftituted and inducted, and be fufficiently endowed, at the difcretion of the ordinary, for thefe three exprefs purposes, to do divine fervice, to inform the people, and to keep hospitality. The endowments in confequence of these statutes have usually been by a portion of the glebe, or land, belonging to the parfonage, and a particular share of the tithes, which the appropriators found it most troublefome to collect, and which are therefore generally called privy or fmall tithes; the greater, or predial, tithes being ftill referved to their own ufe. But one and the fame rule was not obferved in the endowment of all vicarages. Hence fome are more liberally, and fome more fcantily, endowed: and hence the tithes of many things, as wood in particular, are in fome parishes rectorial, and in fome vicarial tithes.