[any voluntary agreement to charge, was equally void (k).] But loans made to incumbents by the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty are now excepted from the 13 Eliz. (1571) c. 20.

Such, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of King William the Fourth, continued to be the state of the law in this matter, subject only to the partial relaxations from time to time introduced by various Acts of Parliament. But in the reign last mentioned, a new series of statutes on the subject of alienation by ecclesiastical persons commenced; and this legislation has continued also (more or less) throughout the past and present reigns.

First, by the Ecclesiastical Leases Act, 1836 (as amended by another Act of the same session), relative to the renewal of church leases, no ecclesiastical corporation may grant any new lease by way of renewal, until one or more of the persons for whose lives it was granted shall be dead; and then only for the surviving life or lives, together with such new life or lives as shall make up the number, not exceeding three, for which the original lease was granted. And where the previous lease was for forty, thirty, or twenty-one years, the renewed lease may not be granted until fourteen, ten, or seven years of the first term shall have expired respectively; and there can be no renewal for life, where the original lease was for years only.

Secondly, by the Ecclesiastical Leases Act, 1842 (with reference to farming leases) an incumbent may, with the consent of his patron and bishop, demise for a term not exceeding fourteen years any part of the glebe or other church land, provided the best rent that can be gotten be reserved, and be made payable quarterly, and provided no fine or foregift be taken for the lease, and the lessee be

(k) Hawkins v. Gathercole (1855), Mc Bean v. Deane (1885), 30 Ch. D. 24 L. J. Ch. 332; Ex parte

Arrowsmith (1878), 8 Ch. D. 100;

520.

not made dispunishable for waste, and the lease contain such covenants as to cultivation, management, and other matters, as the Act particularly specifies (). But no such lease is to be valid, unless it excepts the house of residence, and at least ten acres of land (m).

But, thirdly, by the Ecclesiastical Leasing Act, 1842, the lands or houses of a benefice may now be demised on an improving and repairing lease for any term not exceeding ninety-nine years; and leases or licences with respect to watercourses, wayleaves, railroads, and other like easements upon or over the property (n), or with respect to the mines, minerals, or quarries (o), of ecclesiastical persons, may be made or granted, the provisions of the Act being duly observed. And by the Capitular and Episcopal Estates Act, 1851 (p), ecclesiastical corporations may, with the approval of the Church Estates Commissioners, sell to their lessees the reversion of the corporation in the premises comprised in the lease; or may enfranchise any copyhold or customary land held of any manor belonging to the corporation; or may effect exchanges with their lessees; or may, on the other hand, purchase the interest of such lessees in any corporation lands, or the interest of any holder of copyhold or customary land belonging to the manor. And by the Ecclesiastical Leasing Act, 1858, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners may approve under their seal the lease of any part of the lands or other property of any ecclesiastical corporation, aggregate or sole, (except such as are in the Act specially excepted,) for such considerations, and for such terms, and under such covenants or agreements on the part of the lessees, and generally in such manner as to the commissioners shall seem advisable. But, by the Ecclesiastical

(/) 5 & 6 Vict. c. 27, s. 1. (m) Sect. 2.

(n) 5 & 6 Vict. c. 108, s. 4. (0) Sect. 6; Doe d. Brammall v. Collinge (1849), 7 C. B. 939

(p) Amended by Acts of 1854, 1858, 1859; and Ecclesiastical Commissioners Acts, 1860 and

1868.

Commissioners Act, 1860, no lands assigned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners as the endowment of any see may be granted by the archbishop or bishop otherwise than from year to year, or for a term of years in possession not exceeding twenty-one years, at the best annual rent that can be reasonably gotten, without fine, the lessee not to be dispunishable for, or exempted from liability in respect of, waste. And in every such lease, such or the like covenants, conditions, and reservations are to be entered into, reserved, or contained for the benefit of the archbishop or bishop and his successors, as under the Ecclesiastical Leases Act, 1842, are to be contained in a lease for the benefit of the incumbent and his successors, or as near thereto as the circumstances of the case will permit. But the archbishop or bishop may, with the approval of the Church Estates Commissioners, grant mining or building or other leases, for such periods, upon such considerations, and generally in such manner as he may think fit; and a portion of the rent reserved on any such lease may be made payable to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (q).

Finally, by the Glebe Lands Act, 1888 (r), the incumbent of any benefice is enabled, on due notice to the bishop of the diocese and to the patron, and with the approval of the Board of Agriculture, to procure a sale of the glebe lands, except the parsonage house and the outbuildings, and garden or other land necessary for the convenient enjoyment thereof. If, however, the bishop or patron objects to the sale, and the Board should consider the objection a good one, the sale is not to proceed (ss. 2, 3). But if a sale is effected, the land is sold free from all incumbrances thereon (s. 6), and also from all annual charges (s. 7); these incumbrances and charges being respectively transferred to the sale proceeds, which proceeds are payable to the Board of Agriculture (s. 4), who

(7) 23 & 24 Vict. C. 124, ss. 2- 8.

(r) 51 & 52 Vict. c. 20.

duly invest the same in the names of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to be held upon the same trusts as those to which the lands themselves before sale were subject (s. 4).

It now only remains to consider Surplice Fees, being fees payable on burials, marriages, and the like, all fees on baptisms being now prohibited (s); Easter Offerings ; and Mortuaries; all of which are called oblations, and are of great antiquity, having been, indeed, at one time, almost the whole revenue of the Church, until tithes were added.

(1.) With respect to Surplice Fees and Easter Offerings. ---It is said, that no surplice fees are due to the minister as of common right, but that they depend upon special custom only (t); while as to Easter offerings, it has been laid down, that they are due of common right to him who exercises the spiritual functions of the parish, at the rate of twopence per head, for all the parishioners of the age of sixteen and upwards (u). The liability to pay oblations, generally, is recognized by the statute law; for by the 2 & 3 Edw. VI. (1548), c. 13, it was provided, that all who, by the laws and customs of the realm, ought to pay offerings, should yearly pay them to the incumbent of the parish at the four most usual offering days, or otherwise at Easter. And by the 7 & 8 Will. III. (1695), c. 6, and the Ecclesiastical Courts Act, 1813, it was further provided, that every one should henceforth pay all offerings, oblations, and obventions to those persons to whom they are due (r); and oblations are made recoverable before two justices of the peace, where the amount does not exceed 101. But

(*) Baptismal Fees Abolition Act, 1872.

(t) Com. Dig. Dismes (B. 1); Andrews V. Cawthorne (1745), Willes, 536.

(u) Laurence v. Jones (1724), Bunb. 173; Egerton v. Still (1725), ib. 198. But see R. v. Hal (1866), L. R. 1 Q. B. 632.

(x) Ayrton v. Abbott (1849), 14 Q. B. 1; Willes, 538 (n.).

no oblations can be recovered, otherwise than before justices, unless the amount exceeds 10l. (or, in the case of Quakers, 501.); or unless some matter of title comes in question. Also, in churches and chapels built under the Church Building Acts, or the New Parishes Acts, of which we shall presently speak more at large, the payment both of fees and of offerings, to the minister and clerk respectively, is specifically provided for (y).

(2.) Mortuaries were a sort of ecclesiastical heriots, being a customary gift claimed by and due to the minister, in very many parishes, on the death of any of his parishioners (z). [They seem originally to have been, like lay heriots, only a voluntary bequest to the Church, being intended (as Lyndewoode informs us) as a kind of expiation and amends to the clergy, for the personal tithes and other ecclesiastical duties, which the laity in their lifetime might have neglected or forgotten to pay. For this purpose, after the lord's heriot or best good was taken, the second best chattel was reserved to the Church as a mortuary (a); and in the laws of King Canute, this mortuary is called soul-scot, or symbolum animæ (b). It was antiently usual in this kingdom to bring the mortuary to church, along with the corpse when it came to be buried; and thence it is sometimes called a corse-present, a term which bespeaks it to have been once a voluntary donation. However, in Bracton's time, so early as Henry the Third, it had grown into an obligation; and bequests of heriots and mortuaries were held to be necessary ingredients in every testament of chattels (c). The custom varied in different places, not only as to the mortuary to be paid, but as to the person to whom it was payable. In Wales, a mortuary or corse-present was due

(y) As to the Church Building Acts, vide post, p. 707; as to the New Parishes Acts, post, p. 710. (z) 2 Inst. 491.

(a) Co. Litt. 185; Provinc. 1. 1, tit. 3.

(b) C. 13.

(c) Bract. 1. 2, ch. 26; Flet. 1. 2, ch. 57.