ten years' standing, or one who has been a judge of the superior courts, and in either case a member of the Church of England; and, on a vacancy occurring, as happened prior to 1903, in the offices of official Principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury and of the Chancery Court of York the judge was to become the holder of both these offices (c). The Act requires such judge to entertain and determine complaints in regard to alterations in the fabric or ornaments or furniture of any church, or in respect of the burial ground, or of the manner in which the ritual prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer is observed; but he can only act on being required (by way of special case transmitted to him by the bishop at the request of the parties) to decide the matter in dispute. And the bishop only transmits such case, if he has received a "representation" as to the matter complained of from the archdeacon, or churchwardens, or any three parishioners, or (in the case of a cathedral or collegiate church) from any three inhabitants of the diocese, being male persons of full age; and then only if, after considering the whole circumstances, he is of opinion that proceedings should be taken on such representation, and if the parties to such representation are not willing to submit, without appeal, to the bishop's own decision in the matter (d). There is also concurrent jurisdiction to try ritual offences under the Church Discipline Act, 1840.

[Archbishoprics and bishoprics may become void by deprivation, for any very gross and notorious crime, and also by resignation; and as all resignations must be made to some superior, a bishop resigns to his metropolitan, and the archbishop to the Crown (e).] Under the provi

(c) Mr. Lewis Tonna Dibdin, K.C., was in May, 1903, made judge under the Act of 1874, and also official Principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury and of the Chancery Court of York.

(d) Hudson v. Tooth (1877), 3 Q. B. D. 46; Dale's Case (1882), L. R. 7 App. Ca. 240; Er parte Green (1881), 6 App. Ca. 657; Dean v. Green (1882), 8 P. D. 79. (e) Gibs. Cod. 822.

sions of the Bishops Resignation Act, 1869 (made perpetual by the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 19), an archbishop or bishop may resign on the ground of age, or mental or permanent physical infirmity, and receive a retiring income charged upon the episcopal revenues; or the dean and chapter may elect a bishop coadjutor in aid of the bishop in such a case.

The claims of the Crown on archbishoprics and bishoprics in respect of the custody of the temporalities, and in respect of the first fruits and tenths of all spiritual preferments, have been already noticed, and need not, therefore, be again discussed (ƒ); but we may mention here, that the Crown was at one time entitled on the death of a bishop to divers small perquisites in the nature of a mortuary (or fine on death) (g), and that when any spiritual person is made an English bishop, the preferments of which he was before possessed become, in general, void upon his consecration, and the Crown may present to them by prerogative (h). But this prerogative does not extend to appointments to colonial bishoprics (¿), nor to foreign bishoprics of the English Church (k).

II. [A DEAN and CHAPTER are the council of the bishop, to assist him with their advice in affairs of religion, and also in the temporal concerns of his see (1): and the bishop is the immediate superior and ordinary of the

(f) See ante, pp. 524, 525.

(g) The mortuary (or fine on death) comprised six things, viz., the bishop's best horse or palfrey, with his furniture; his cloak or gown, and tippet; his cup and cover; his bason and cover; his gold ring; and, lastly, his muta canum, i.e., his mew or kennel of hounds. (See 2 Inst. 491; 2 Bl. Com. 426; Mirehouse v. Rennell (1832), 8 Bing. 497.)

[dean and chapter, and exercises over them the power of visitation (m). The chapter, as distinct from the dean, consist of certain dignitaries called canons; and those of them who hold prebends are also called prebendaries (n). They are sometimes appointed by the Crown, sometimes by the bishop, and sometimes by each other (o). At one period the dean was elected by the chapter, on a congé d'élire from the Crown, in the same manner as bishops; but in those deaneries which were founded by Henry the Eighth, out of the spoils of the dissolved monasteries, the title has always been donative, and the installation merely by letters-patent from the Crown (p).] And this is now the course with respect to the antient deaneries also, it having been provided by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act, 1840, that from the date of that Act every deanery (except in Wales) should be in the direct patronage of her Majesty. By the same Act, it was also provided, that no person should thereafter be capable of receiving the appointment either of dean, archdeacon, or canon, until he should have been six years complete in priest's orders, except in the case of a canonry annexed to any professorship, headship, or other office in some university (9); and, further, that every dean should reside for at least eight months in the year (r), that the term of a canon's residence should be at least three months in the year (s), that the right of nominating a regulated number of minor canons, with salaries, should in future be in all cases vested in the respective chapters (t), and that honorary canons, without salaries, should be appointed for every cathedral church in which there were not already founded any non-residentiary prebends,

dignities, and offices, which honorary canonries are in the gift of the archbishops and bishops respectively. Since this Act, non-residentiary prebendaries have ceased to be members of the chapter (u).

Deaneries and canonries may become void by deprivation; or by resignation either to the king or to the bishop (a). Under the provisions of the Deans and Canons Resignation Act, 1872, s. 3, a dean or canon may resign on the ground of age or infirmity, and receive a pension, not exceeding one-third of the value of his living, charged upon the living.

III. [An ARCHDEACON hath an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, immediately subordinate to the bishop, either throughout the whole of the diocese or in some particular part of it. He is usually appointed by the bishop himself; and has a kind of episcopal authority, originally derived from the bishop, but now independent and distinct (y). He therefore visits the clergy; and he has his separate court for the punishment of offenders by spiritual censures, and for hearing other causes of ecclesiastical cognizance.] All archdeacons throughout England and Wales now exercise full and equal jurisdiction within their respective archdeaconries (~); and, as a general rule, the jurisdictions of the archdeacon and the bishop are concurrent, so that a suit may be commenced in the court of either (a).

IV. [The RURAL DEANS are very antient officers of the church (b), whose functions at one time threatened to go out of use; but rural deaneries still subsist as an ecclesiastical division of the diocese, or of the arch

(u) Randolph v. Milman (1866),

L. R. 2 C. P. 60.

(x) Grendon v. Bishop of Lincoln (1576), Plowd. 498.

(y) 1 Burn, Eccl. Law, 93.

(*) Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act, 1833, s. 19.

(a) Rogers, Eccl. Law, 60.

(b) Kennett, Par. Antiq. 633. Dansey, Hora Decanica Rurales.

[deaconry (c)]; and of late years the office has somewhat revived in importance. [They seem originally to have been deputies of the bishop, planted all over his diocese, the better to inspect the conduct of the parochial clergy, to inquire into and report dilapidations, and to examine the candidates for confirmation; and they were armed, in minuter matters, with an inferior degree of judicial and coercive authority (d).

V. The next (and indeed the most numerous) order of ecclesiastical persons are the RECTORS and VICARS of churches.

1. The rector of a church is also properly called a "parson," persona ecclesia, that is, one that hath full possession of all the rights of a parochial church (e). He is called parson, because by his person the church, which is an invisible body, is represented; and this appellation is the most legal, most beneficial, and most honourable title that a parish priest can enjoy, because such a one, (Sir Edward Coke observes,) and he only, is said vicem seu personam ecclesiæ gerere. The freehold of the parsonage house, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues, all vest, during his life, in the parson. But here we must explain the doctrine of appropriations, and the consequent distinction between rectors and vicars.

At the first establishment of parochial clergy, the tithes of the parish were distributed in a fourfold division,-one for the use of the bishop, another for maintaining the fabric of the church, a third for the poor, and the fourth to provide for the incumbent. But when the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were

(c) Ecclesiastical Commissioners Acts, 1836 and 1840; Archdeaconries and Rural Deaneries Act, 1874.

see

(d) Gibs. Cod. 972, 1550; and Second Report of Royal

Commission on Local Taxation, 1899.

(e) The proper term for a parson in full possession of his living is, in law, persona impersonata, or parson imparsonee. (See Co. Litt. 300 b.)