A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE LAWS RELATING TO THE CHURCH AND THE CLERGY. BY HENRY WILLIAM CRIPPS, M.A. OF LINCOLN'S INN AND THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER AT LAW, S. SWEET, LONDON: 1, CHANCERY LANE, Law Bookseller and Publisher. HODGES AND SMITH, GRAFTON ST. DUBLIN. 1845. LEW. Eng-AA 13 e. I ΤΟ THE RIGHT REVEREND JAMES HENRY, LORD BISHOP, AND TO THE CLERGY, OF THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL, The following Treatise IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. IN the following pages it has been endeavoured, as far as possible, to combine two objects; and to compile a legal work which should be at the same time one of easy reference to the Lawyer and of practical utility to the Clergyman. For this reason, the author has, in many instances, to request the especial indulgence of the former, to whom it might otherwise appear that matters of history, of elementary law, and of practice, occupy too considerable space. The more important decisions of the Ecclesiastical Courts have also, in many instances, been inserted at greater length than might appear necessary for elucidating the particular proposition to which they refer. All such matters have been introduced for the purpose of rendering the present work a Complete and Practical Guide to the Clergy and many of the more important judgments, especially those of Lord Stowell, could scarcely have been further abridged without taking away much of their utility; as they will often be found to afford a safe guidance upon other matters than those actually decided, and upon questions which may not hitherto have arisen. A very considerable part of the contents of the present work is taken from and is a digest of the statute law. The several recent statutes on church matters have been condensed and analyzed as far as possible: but there is |