THE CLERGY..

THE people, whether aliens, denizens, or natural-born subjects, are divisible into two kinds; the clergy and laity: the clergy, comprehending all persons in holy orders, and in ecclesiastical offices, will be the subject of the following chapter.

This venerable body of men, being separate and set apart from the rest of the people, in order to attend the more closely to the services of Almighty God, have thereupon large privileges allowed them by our municipal laws. A clergyman cannot be compelled to serve on a jury, nor to appear at a court-leet or view of frank-pledge; which almost every other person is obliged to do: but if a layman is summoned on a jury, and before the trial take orders, he shall notwithstanding appear and be sworn. Neither can he be chosen to any temporal office, as bailiff, reeve, constable, or the like; in regard of his own continual attendance on the sacred functions; during his attendance on divine service he is privileged from arrest in civil suits. But as they have their privileges, so also they have their disabilities, on account of their spiritual avocations. Clergymen, we have seen, are incapable of sitting in the house of commons; and by statute 21 Henry VIII. c. 13, are not, in general, allowed to engage in any manner of trade, nor sell any merchandise. Which prohibition is consonant to the canon law*.

In the frame and constitution of ecclesiastical polity there are divers ranks and degrees: which I shall consider in their respective order.

An archbishop or bishop is elected by the chapter of his cathedral church, by virtue of a licence from the crown. Election was, in very early times, the usual mode of elevation to the episcopal chair throughout all christendom ;

* This statute is repealed by 57 Geo. III. c. 99, which contains, however, very similar provisions.

and this was promiscuously performed by the laity as well as the clergy; till at length it becoming tumultuous, the emperors and other sovereigns of the respective kingdoms of Europe took the appointment in some degree into their own hands; by reserving to themselves the right of confirming these elections, and of granting investiture of the temporalities, which now began almost universally to be annexed to this spiritual dignity; without which confirmation and investiture, the elected bishop could neither be consecrated nor receive any secular profits. This right

was acknowledged in the emperor Charlemagne, A.D. 773, by pope Hadrian I., and the council of Lateran, and universally exercised by other christian princes: but the policy of the court of Rome, at the same time, began by degrees to exclude the laity from any share in these elections, and to confine them wholly to the clergy, which at length was completely effected; the mere form of election appearing to the people to be a thing of little consequence, while the crown was in possession of an absolute negative, which was almost equivalent to a direct nomination. But when, by length of time, the custom of making elections by the clergy only was fully established, the popes began to except to the usual method of granting these investitures, which was per annulum et baculum; by the prince's delivering to the prelate a ring, and pastoral staff or crosier : pretending that this was an encroachment on the church's authority, and an attempt by these symbols to confer a spiritual jurisdiction: and pope Gregory VII., towards the close of the eleventh century, published a bull of excommunication against all princes who should dare to confer investitures, and all prelates who should venture to receive them. This was a bold step towards effecting the plan then adopted by the Roman see of rendering the clergy entirely independent of the civil authority and long and eager were the contests occasioned by this papal claim. But at length, when the emperor Henry V. agreed to remove all suspicion of encroachment on the spiritual character, by conferring investitures for the future per sceptrum and not per annulum et baculum; and when the kings of England and France consented also to alter the form in their kingdoms, and receive only homage from the bishops for their temporalties, instead of investing them by the ring and crosier; the court of Rome found it prudent to suspend for awhile its other pretensions.

This concession was obtained from king Henry the First, in England, by means of that obstinate and arrogant prelate, archbishop Anselm: but king John, about a century, afterwards, in order to obtain the protection of the pope against his discontented barons, was also prevailed upon to give up by a charter, to all the monasteries and cathedrals in the kingdom, the free right of electing their prelates, whether abbots or bishops: reserving only to the crown the custody of the temporalties during the vacancy; the form of granting a licence to elect, which is the original of our conge d'eslire, on refusal whereof the electors might proceed without it; and the right of approbation afterwards, which was not to be denied without a reasonable and lawful cause. This grant was expressly recognised and confirmed in king John's magna charta, and was again established by statute 25 Edw. III. st. 6.

But by statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, the ancient right of nomination was, in effect, restored to the crown it being enacted that, at every future avoidance of a bishopric, the king may send the dean and chapter his usual licence to proceed to election; which is always to be accompanied with a letter missive from the king, containing the name of the person whom he would have them elect: and, if the dean and chapter delay their election above twelve days, the nomination shall devolve to the king, who may, by letters patent, appoint such person as he pleases. And if such dean and chapter do not elect in the manner by this act appointed, or if such archbishop or bishop do refuse to confirm, invest, and consecrate such bishop elect, they shall incur all the penalties of a præmunire *.

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An archbishop is the chief of the clergy in a whole province, and has the inspection of the bishops of that province, as well as of the inferior clergy, and may deprive them on notorious cause. The archbishop has also his own diocese, wherein he exercises episcopal jurisdiction; as in his vince he exercises archiepiscopal. As archbishop, he, upon receipt of the king's writ, calls the bishops and clergy of his province to meet in convocation; but without the king's writ he cannot assemble them. To him all appeals are made from inferior jurisdictions within his province;

* A præmunire is a sentence by which all the delinquent's goods are forfeited to the crown, and his body is to lie in prison during the king's pleasure.

́and, as an appeal lies from the bishops in person to him in person, so it lies also from the consistory courts of each diocese to his archiepiscopal court. During the vacancy of any see in his province, he is guardian of the spiritualties thereof, as the king is of the temporalties; and he executes all ecclesiastical jurisdiction therein. If an archiepiscopal see be vacant, the dean and chapter are the spiritual guardians, ever since the office of prior of Canterbury was abolished at the reformation. The archbishop is entitled to present by lapse to all the ecclesiastical livings in the disposal of his diocesan bishops, if not filled within six months.

It is likewise the privilege, by custom, of the archbishop of Canterbury to crown the kings and queens of this kingdom. And he hath also by the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21, the power of granting dispensations in any case, not contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the law of God, where the pope used formerly to grant them: which is the foundation of his granting special licences, to marry at any place or time, to hold two livings, and the like; and on this also is founded the right he exercises of conferring degrees, in prejudice of the two universities.

The power and authority of a bishop, besides the adminis tration of certain holy ordinances peculiar to that sacred order, consist principally in inspecting the manners of the people and clergy, and punishing them in order to reformation, by ecclesiastical censures. To this purpose he has several courts under him, and may visit at pleasure every part of his diocese. His chancellor is appointed to hold his courts for him, and to assist him in matters of ecclesiastical law; who, as well as all other ecclesiastical officers, if lay or married, must be a doctor of the civil law, so created in some university. It is also the business of a bishop to institute, and to direct induction to all ecclesiastical livings in his diocese.

Archbishoprics and bishoprics may become void by death, deprivation for any very gross and notorious crime, and also by resignation. All resignations must be made to some superior. Therefore a bishop must resign to his metropolitan; but the archbishop can resign to none but the king himself.

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.

When the rest of the clergy were settled in the several parishes of each diocese, as hath formerly been mentioned, these were reserved for the celebration of divine service in the bishop's own cathedral; and the chief of them, who presided over the rest, obtained the name of decanus or dean, being probably at first appointed to superintend ten canons or prebendaries.

All ancient deans are elected by the chapter, by conge d'eslire from the king, and letters missive of recommendation in the same manner as bishops: but in those chapters that were founded by Henry VIII. out of the spoils of the dissolved monasteries, the deanery is donative, and the installation merely by the king's letters patent. The chapter, consisting of canons and prebendaries, are sometimes appointed by the king, sometimes by the bishop, and sometimes by each other.

Deaneries and prebends may become void, like a bishopric, by death, by deprivation, or by resignation to either the king or the bishop. Also I may here mention, once for all, that if a dean, prebendary, or other spiritual person be made a bishop, all the preferments of which he was before possessed are void; and the king may present to them in right of his prerogative royal. But they are not void by the election, but only by the consecration.

III. An archdeacon hath an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, immediately subordinate to the bishop, throughout the whole of his diocese, or in some particular part of it*. He is usually appointed by the bishop himself; and hath a kind of episcopal authority, originally derived from the bishop, but now independent and distinct from his. He therefore visits the clergy; and has his separate court for punishment of offenders by spiritual censures, and for hearing all other causes of ecclesiastical cognizance.

IV. The rural deans are very ancient officers of the church, but almost gone out of use; though their deaneries still subsist as an ecclesiastical division of the diocese or archdeaconry. They seem to have been deputies of the bishop, planted all round his diocese, the better to inspect the conduct of the parochial clergy, to inquire into and

There is, we believe, no instance remaining of the former class of archdeacons.