dean conie the general body of the clergy, and these are either

beneficed or unbeneficed.

The beneficed clergy are―

(1) Parsons or rectors.

(2) Vicars.

(3) Curates perpetual.

(4) Donees.

The unbeneficed clergy are—

(1) Curates stipendiary.

(2) Ministers of chapels of ease.

(3) Chaplains.

(4) Lecturers.

(5) Readers (who may also be laymen).

The Beneficed Clergy.-(1) The Parson or Rector is the incumbent of a parish church, and as the difference between parsons, vicars, and curates perpetual is connected with the history of the parish church, it will be as well to consider it a little closely.

Originally it seems there was only one general church for each diocese, the bishop and his clergy living together in one fraternity, and enjoying such property as the Church possessed in common. As the Christian community grew, however, it became necessary to send members of the clergy (or presbyters) to perform services and ministrations in outlying districts; and branch churches were established and endowed with the tithes of the parish. (n)

The tithes so set apart for the maintenance of the parish church were distributed in four parts, one for the use of the bishop, the second for maintaining the fabric of the church, the third for the poor of the parish, and the fourth for the incumbent (the parson or rector). Eventually, when the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were prohibited from participating in these tithes, which were distributed for the three remaining purposes only.

The incumbent of such parish churches was called the parson or rector, and the benefice itself the parsonage or rectory.

(2 and 3) Vicars and Perpetual Curates.--In course of time

(n) See Phill., Eccl. Law, p. 219.

the advowsons, or the right of presentation to many churches so established, came to be vested in bodies of monks, religious houses, colleges, or nunneries, being spiritual corporations aggregate, who appropriated the emoluments of the benefice (0) to their own use, the religious services and ministrations of the Church being performed by one of their own number. Such appropriations could only take place with the licence of the Crown and of the bishop, who upon an appropriation would lose their right to present by lapse, since the corporation aggregate never died. The consent of the original patron was also in all such cases implied, because the right of presentation itself passed into the hands of the religious corporation.

A statute of Richard II. (p) enacted that upon appropriation the vicar or the person appointed by the religious house or monastery was to be sufficiently endowed by the bishop of the diocese. And by a statute of Henry IV. the vicar is to be perpetual and a secular person (q), instituted and induct by the bishop and endowed. (r)

Upon the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. these rights were taken away from the various bodies of monks, and became vested in the Crown. (s) The Crown in turn granted them out again either to lay persons or to corporations sole or aggregate, such as bishops, colleges, or religious houses, or retained them in its own hands.

Whether therefore the benefice, as originally created, remains in the hands of a corporation, or in the Crown, or has been granted out to a layman (termed a lay impropriator, who is also the lay parson or rector), the vicar represents the minister appointed by the old religious house before the dissolution of the monasteries; he is endowed (t) under

(0) For a definition of the term benefice see 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 124 ; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 49, s. 21; 3 & 4 Vict. c. 86; the definitions being, however, only for the purposes of the Acts.

(p) 15 Ric. II. c. 6.

(q) Perpetual means not removable at the will of the religious house; secular person, a person other than a member of a religious house. (r) 4 Hen. IV. c. 12.

(8) 27 Hen. VIII. c. 28; 31 Hen. VIII. c. 13.

(t) The endowment is usually by a portion of glebe or lands of the rectory, and of the tithes; the remainder belong to the lay impropriator, and are termed rectorial tithes.

the Acts of Richard II. and Henry IV., and he must also be a secular person, perpetual, and instituted and induct by the bishops under the Act of Henry IV. But in other cases where the benefice was granted originally to a religious house or body of monks not under the common form of appropriation, but ad mensam monachorum and pleno jure, such appropriations escaped the effect of the 4 Hen. IV. c. 12 as to institution, induction, and endowment. On the dissolution of the monasteries such appropriations passed into the hands of the Crown, and, as is generally the case, have been granted out de novo by the Crown to lay impropriators. In such cases the person appointed by the Crown or by the lay impropriator (termed also lay parson or lay rector) to carry on the services of the Church is termed a curate perpetual, and he is neither instituted nor induct by the bishop, but merely licensed. He is said to be perpetual because he can be removed only by the revocation of the bishop's licence. (u)

The person so appointed curate perpetual by the lay parson or rector must necessarily be a clerk in holy orders, otherwise he could not perform the services of the Church; and if he is entitled to perform marriages, churchings, and baptisms, and to claim the fees thereof for his own use, he is for purposes of style and designation, but for no other purposes, to be deemed and styled the vicar, and the benefice a vicarage. (x)

(4) Donees.-Where a preferment is in the hands of a free patron, who may present a clerk in holy orders without either admission, institution, induction, or licence, the preferment is said to be donative, and the cleric who obtains the preferment the donee.

Mode of Entry upon Benefice.-Perpetual curates then, as we have seen, are put in possession of their benefices by the patron's nomination and licence from the bishop of the diocese; whilst donees enter upon possession of the benefice merely by the presentation of the free patron without any further ceremony.

Apart from these, however, the main body of the beneficed clergy, being parsons or rectors and vicars, must, if the

C.L.E.

(u) See Phill., Eccl. Law, p. 240.

(x) Under the provisions of the 31 & 32 Vict. c. 117.

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benefice is in the gift of the Crown or a lay parson or corporation, (y) have passed through the following ceremonies before they can enter upon possession of the benefice :-(1) presentation to the bishop by the patron or lay impropriator; (2) examination by the bishop; (3) admission; (4) institution; (5) induction.

Presentation is a formal request in writing made by the patron or lay impropriator to the bishop, desiring him to admit and institute the clerk and to cause him to be inducted. Presentation is merely a formal act, and differs from nomination, which is the right to select a clerk and may be granted by the patron to some third person, the patron retaining merely the right of presentation.

Examination by the bishop is (1) as to the person whether he is of proper age, and such like; (2) as to his conversation or character, whether he has been convicted of crime or the like; (3) as to ability, viz. whether he is unlearned and so unable to discharge the services. (2)

Admission. The examination being satisfactory, the clerk is then said to be admitted; but before institution or collation he must

(1) Take the oath or declaration against simony prescribed by canon 40 of 1865. (a)

(2) Subscribe the declaration of assent to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer. (b)

(3) Take the oath of allegiance prescribed by the 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72. (c)

-

Institution. After the above ceremonies the clerk must then be instituted, either by the bishop in person or by the bishop's vicar-general, chancellor, or commissary under the bishop's fiat.

(y) This may be either through impropriation, as described above, or as the owner of an advowson. Advowsons seem to have originated with the formation of parish churches, and consisted in the right of those who contributed to the building or endowment of such churches, by grants of land or money, to present a clerk to the bishop who was invested with the revenues accruing from such contribution. They may be either appendant to a manor or in gross. See Phill., Eccl. Law, 261.

(z) Ib. 316 et seq.

(a) 28 & 29 Vict. c. 122, s. 2.

(b) Ib. s. 1.

(c) Formerly the oaths of supremacy and allegiance (28 & 29 Vict. c. 122); altered into a single oath of allegiance by 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72.

The ceremony consists in the utterance of certain formal words, and entry in the public registry of the ordinary.

Induction. This takes place by the bishop's mandate to the archdeacon or other proper person to induct.

The archdeacon either inducts the clerk himself or gives a precept to some other clergyman. The formal act of induction consists in taking the clerk's hand and laying it upon the key or ring of the church door or some other portion of the building, and repeating certain formal words. The inductor then opens the door of the church and puts the person to be inducted in. The latter usually tolls the bell to make his induction known. A certificate of the induction is then indorsed on the archdeacon's mandate. (d)

Collation. Where the benefice is in the gift of the bishop himself, which would be where the original appropriation was made pleno jure but not vested in a religious house, no presentation or examination is required. In such a case the bishop simply collates the clerk, collation being the act by which the bishop admits and institutes a clerk to a benefice of his own gift. (e)

By the Act of Uniformity (13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4) no person is to be admitted to any parsonage, vicarage, benefice, or other ecclesiastical promotion or dignity unless he shall have been ordained priest. (f)

The Unbeneficed Clergy.-(1) Curates Stipendiary.-These are clerks in holy orders appointed at a stipend by the incumbent of a benefice to assist in the duties of the Church. In certain cases they may be appointed, and their stipend regulated by the bishop himself. They require the bishop's licence, both the incumbent and the curate must sign the Stipendiary Curates Declaration, and the latter must subscribe the declaration of assent to the thirty-nine Articles and Book of Common Prayer; but no other ceremonies need be observed. (9)

(2) Ministers of Chapels of Ease.-After the establishment of parishes and parish churches it became customary to build

(g) 28 & 29 Vict. c. 122. The position and legal status of Curates Stipendiary is regulated principally by the 1 & 2 Vict. c. 107.