there be no fit residence belonging to the benefice, the bishop may from time to time license the incumbent to reside in some other house within a certain specified distance from his church or chapel, and such house thereupon becomes a legal house of residence for all purposes; 4thly, if there be no fit house of residence, and no convenient house can be obtained within the specified distance, or if the incumbent cannot reside on his benefice by reason of any incapacity of mind or body, or owing to the dangerous illness of his wife or child, (but subject in the latter case to certain restrictions as to time and otherwise,) application may be made to the bishop for a licence of non-residence (2); 5thly, if the incumbent shall occupy, in the same parish, any mansion whereof he is the owner, a similar application for a licence to reside therein may be made (a); and 6thly, the bishop is empowered, in any other case, but only under special circumstances, and subject to allowance by the archbishop, to grant a licence to reside out of the limits of the benefice (b).

It is further provided by the Pluralities Act, 1838, that annual returns of such of the clergy as are resident, and of such as are non-resident, shall be made to his Majesty in council (c); and that, in case of non-residence, the bishop, instead of proceeding to enforce the penalties above mentioned, may, if he thinks fit, issue a monition against the offender, to be followed up by an order to reside. In case of non-compliance with such order, the bishop may proceed to sequester the profits of the benefice, and apply them for the purposes in the Act specified (d); and in case of long-continued or repeated sequestration for a year or more, the benefice is to become void, and a new presentation may be made, as if the former holder

(d) Sect. 54: Ex parte Bartlett (1848), 12 Q. B. 488; Bartlett v. Kirwood (1853), 2 El. & Bl. 771.

(2) Sect. 43. (a) Ibid.

(b) Sect. 44.

(c) Sects. 51, 52.

S.C.-II.

21

were dead (e). So that sequestration is now become a ground of deprivation (ƒ).

For the more effectual promotion of this important duty of residence, among the parochial clergy, there are also contained in the statute book a variety of provisions for repairing the houses of residence, and for building or purchasing new ones, and for raising money, for these purposes, by mortgage of the benefices (g); the money being lent by the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty (h).

4. As regards the ways in which a clerk may lose his preferment, he may lose it, 1stly, by cession, or taking another benefice. For, by the Pluralities Act, 1838 (in substitution for the previous provisions of the 21 Hen. VIII. (1529), c. 13), as amended by the Pluralities Act, 1850, and the Pluralities Act, 1885, s. 14, no person may hold together any two or more benefices, except in the case of two whereof the churches are within four miles of one another, by the nearest road, and the annual value of one of them does not exceed 2007., which, being contiguous benefices, may be united (i); and that no person, holding a benefice with cure of souls embracing a population of more than 3,000, may hold therewith any other benefice with a population of more than 500; and that no person, holding two benefices with cure of souls, may hold therewith a third, or any cathedral preferment (k). Upon every admission to a new benefice or preferment contrary to

(e) Sect. 58.

(f) Benefices Act, 1998, s. 10. (g) 17 Geo. 3 (1777), c. 53; 21 Geo. 3 (1781), c. 66; 43 Geo. 3 (1803), cc. 107, 108; 51 Geo. 3 (1811), c. 115; 55 Geo. 3 (1815), c. 147; 6 Geo. 4 (1825), c. 8; 7 Geo. 4 (1826), c. 66; 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), cc. 23, 29, 106, ss. 25, 62, &c. ; 3 & 4 Vict. (1840), c. 113, s. 59; 4 & 5 Vict. (1841), c. 39, s. 18; 5 & 6 Vict. (1842), c. 26 (repealing 2 & 3 Vict. (1839),

C. 18); 19 & 20 Vict. (1856), C. 104, s. 27; 28 & 29 Vict. (1865), c. 69; 34 & 35 Vict. (1871), c. 43.

(h) 49 & 50 Vict. (1886), c. 34; 49 & 50 Vict. (1886), c. 54, s. 12.

(i) 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 106; 13 & 14 Vict. (1850), c. 98; 23 & 24 Vict. (1860), c. 142; and 34 & 35 Vict. (1871), c. 90; 61 & 62 Vict. (1898), c. 23.

(k) 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 106,

s. 2.

these Acts, every benefice previously held becomes void ipso facto (1). But all these prohibitions, in respect of population and yearly value, are subject to a provision whereby the Archbishop of Canterbury is enabled, in certain cases, to grant a dispensation therefrom on recommendation of the bishop of the diocese (m).

A clerk may lose his preferment, 2ndly, [by consecration. For when a clerk is promoted to a bishopric, all his other preferments are void the instant that he is consecrated. A method was formerly in use, by the favour of the Crown, of holding such livings in commendam. Commenda (ecclesia commendata) was a living commended by the Crown to the care of a clerk, to hold till a proper pastor should be provided for it; which commendation might be temporary for one, two, or three years, or it might be perpetual. And this sort of commendation (or dispensation) used to be granted to bishops in the poorer sees, to aid the deficiency of their episcopal revenues (n).] But now, by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act, 1836, s. 18, no ecclesiastical dignity, office, or benefice may, in future, be held in commendam by any bishop; and every commendam thereafter granted, whether to retain (retinere) or to receive (recipere), and whether temporary or perpetual, is absolutely void to all intents and purposes (o).

A clerk may lose his preferment, 3rdly, [by deprivation. Which may be, on such nonfeasance or neglect, malfeasance or crime, as any penal statutes declare shall avoid the benefice (in which cases, the benefice is ipso facto

(7) Sect. 11; 13 & 14 Vict. (1850), c. 98, s. 7.

(m) 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 106, ss. 5, 6. See also, as regards persons holding cathedral preferments, 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 106, s. 11; 4 & 5 Vict. (1841), c. 39; 13 & 14 Vict. (1850), c. 98, s. 11; as regards deans of cathedrals, 13 & 14 Vict. (1850), c. 94, s. 19;

and as regards heads of colleges, 13 & 14 Vict. (1850), c. 98, ss. 5, 6.

(n) Colt v. Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (1613), Hob. 144.

(0) See also (as to the Bishop of Sodor and Man) 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 30; and (as to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge) 61 & 62 Vict. (1898), c. 48, s. 7.

[void without any formal sentence of deprivation) (p); or it may be, upon sentence declaratory under the Clergy Discipline Act, 1892, on the clerk's conviction of treason or felony or of any misdemeanor involving imprisonment with hard labour or any greater punishment (q); or on a bastardy order being made against him; or on a finding of the Divorce Court that he has committed adultery; or on a separation order being made against him, either by the Divorce Court or under the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1878,-the bishop in every such case declaring, within twenty-one days after the conviction finding or order become final, his benefice vacant and himself incapable of holding preferment (sect. 1); and under the Benefices. Act, 1898 (r), s. 10, a sequestration which has continued for one whole year, or a sequestration twice repeated, is made a ground of deprivation. A sentence of deprivation may also be for heresy (s), infidelity (t), and the like; or on a third conviction of having engaged in trade (u); or for simony (x), or plurality: or for maintaining any doctrine in derogation of the king's supremacy, or of the Thirty-nine Articles, or of the Book of Common Prayer (y)]; or for neglecting to read in church the Thirty-nine Articles, and to make the proper "declaration of assent" at the time appointed by the ordinary (÷); or for using any other form of prayer than the Liturgy of the Church of England (a); or for continued neglect,

(p) Re Dean of York (1841), 2 Q. B. 1; Ex parte Denison (1854), 4 El. & Bl. 292.

(q) Bishop of Chichester v. Webb (1555), Dyer, 108; Jenk. 210. (r) 61 & 62 Vict. c. 48.

(*) Ex parte Denison (1854), 4 El. & Bl. 292; Combe v. Edwards (1878), 3 P. D. 103. It is often stated that the only penalty at present for illegal practices of the clergy is imprisonment. This is incorrect; de

privation has always been the ultimate penalty.

(t) Fitz. Abr. tit. Trial, 54. (u) 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 106, s. 31.

(x) 31 Eliz. (1588), c. 6; 13 Ann. (1713), c. 11.

(y) 1 Eliz. (1558), cc. 1, 2; 13 Eliz. (1571), c. 12.

(z) Clerical Subscription Act, 1865.

(a) 1 Eliz (1558), c. 2.

after order from the bishop followed by sequestration, to reside on the benefice (b).

A clerk may lose his preferment, 4thly, by resignation ; but this is of no avail, till accepted by the ordinary, into whose hands the resignation of the benefice must be made (c). And in connection with this last mode of vacating a preferment, it is necessary to notice an Act, called the Clerical Disabilities Act, 1870, which was passed with the object of relieving persons who had been admitted to the office of priest or deacon in the Church of England, from certain disadvantages to which (until protected by that statute) they were exposed. In order to effect this object, the Act provides, that any person admitted to holy orders may, after having resigned any and every preferment by him held, execute and cause to be enrolled in Chancery a deed of relinquishment in a prescribed form, and deliver an office copy of the same to the bishop of his diocese, to be recorded in the diocesan registry; and, on the bishop causing the deed to be recorded in the registry, the clergyman becomes incapable of acting in any way as a minister of the Church of England, and ceases to enjoy any right or privilege attaching to such office. On the other hand, he is freed from all disabilities, disqualifications, restraints and prohibitions to which he would, under certain statutes, have been subject as a person who had been admitted to holy orders (d), and from all penalties and proceedings to which he might under any law have been amenable, in consequence of any act or thing by him done under such admission (e). And we may also usefully notice here

(b) 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 106,

s. 58.

(c) Fane's Case (1608), Cro. Jac. 198; Martin v. Mackonochie (1883), 8 P. D. 191.

(d) 41 Geo. 3 (1801), c. 63; 5 &

6 Will. 4 (1835), c. 76, s. 28; 3 & 4 Vict. (1840), c. 86.

(e) 33 & 34 Vict. (1870), c. 91, 8. 4; Ex parte a Clergyman (1873), L. R. 15 Eq. 154. There is a locus poenitentie, if nothing more is

done after enrolment.