318

Presentment of Minister.

minister manifestly maintains this unsound doctrine, it will be their duty, notwithstanding the reversal of Sir Herbert Jenner Fust's judgment, to present him to the ordinary for so doing. When they have done this, they will have done their duty; the responsibility of determining whether any and what ulterior proceedings shall be taken, will rest with the ordinary, not with the churchwardens.

The minister should also be presented if he absent himself from his benefice, or from the house of residence belonging thereto, for any period exceeding the space of three months together, or to be accounted at several times in any one year, unless he had duly obtained a licence from his bishop authorizing him to reside out of the proper house of residence of his benefice, or out of the limits of his benefice, as the case may be, or unless he shall be resident at some other benefice of which he may be possessed (2), or if he farm on his own account

and parcel of the Articles of Religion; for it is the identical homily referred to by and incorporated into the 11th Article as the Homily of Justification. Of this there can be no reasonable doubt; it is not indeed called the homily of justification-there is no homily called by that name-but it is essentially the homily of justification, the whole aim and scope of it being, as declared by the article, largely to express what a most wholesome doctrine and how very full of comfort, is the doctrine (rightly understood) of justification by faith only and not by our own works and de

:

servings it is the only homily devoted to this subject, and there is no other to be found in either of the books of homilies, to which the article could by possibility refer. For the satisfaction of those churchwardens who may desire to test the correctness of these observations, and may not have the canons and homilies at hand, the whole of the 30th canon, and the necessary extracts from the homily of the Salvation of Mankind, are given in the Appendix. See pp. liii. lvi.

(z) See 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 32,33,43. Bluck v. Racham, 1 Rob. 367; 5 Moore, P. C. 305.

above eighty acres of land without the consent of the bishop (a), or engage in trade, or buy to sell again for profit or gain, unless the trade shall be carried on by more partners than six, or shall have devolved upon him, or upon any person for his benefit, by virtue of any demise, bequest, inheritancé, intestacy, marriage settlement, bankruptcy, or insolvency, or even in such case, if he act as a director or managing partner, or carry on such trade or dealing in person (b); and, generally, if he transgress in any manner against the provisions of the Act for abridging the holding of benefices in plurality (c), or against any other of the statutes, laws, or canons ecclesiastical.

It can scarcely be necessary to remark that if the minister be guilty of any gross impiety or immorality, he is to be presented equally with the other parishioners (d).

It should be mentioned here that if a clergyman of the church of England publicly reads prayers and performs divine offices according to the rites of the church of England in an unconsecrated chapel, without licence or authority from the bishop, he will have committed an ecclesiastical offence for

(a) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106.

(b) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 29, 30.

(e) See 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, Burder v. Mavor, 1 Rob. 614, 6 N. E. C. 1. Re Bartlett, 18 L. J. Exch. 25.

(d) Rich D. D. v. Garvard and Loder, 1 Hagg. E. R. Append. 7; Burgoyne v. Free, D. D. 2. Hagg. 456; Griffith v. Reed, 1 Hagg. C. R. 208; Burder v. Steer, 1 N. E. C.;

Steer v. Burder, 3 Moore, 166; Burder v. 3 Curt. 822; Trower v. Hurst, 4 N. E. C. 52; Bishop of Lincoln v. Day, ibid. 299; Clarke v. Heathcote, ibid. 321; Kitson v. Loftus, ibid. 323; Brookes v. Cresswell, ibid. 429; Burder v. Hodgson, ibid. 483; Farnell v. Craig, 5 N. E. C. 557; Burder v. Hale, 6 N. E. C. 611; Madox v. Carr, 14 Jur. 275.

which he ought to be presented (e), although he may have qualified himself as a dissenting teacher, and duly registered the chapel as a dissenting chapel (ƒ).

It may be added in general terms, that the churchwardens are to present all transgressions of the ecclesiastical laws within their parish, which may come to their knowledge, and are also, in common with the other parish authorities, to use all due temporal means for the suppression of impiety, immorality, and disorder (g).

SECTION II.

On Sequestrations.

Another branch of the churchwardens' office is to have the sequestration and care of the benefice during its vacancy, whether the avoidance happen by death or otherwise, and therefore, as soon as there shall be any such avoidance, the said churchwardens are to apply to the chancellor of the diocese for the sequestration, and having taken out an instrument for it under the seal of the office, are thenceforth to take the whole benefice under their care, and are to manage all the profits and expenses of it for the benefit of him that shall next succeed, which they are to do with the best of

(e) Can. 71. Carr v. Marsh, 2 Phill.; Freeland v. Neale, 6 N. E. C. 252.

(f) Barnes v. Shore, 4 N. E. C. 593; Shore v. Barnes, 4

N. E. C. 607; Barnes v. Shore, 8 Q. B. 640.

(g) See further as to presentments, c. 4, ss. 2, 3, and the articles of inquiry in the Appendix, p. lvii. et seq.

Duties of Sequestrator.

321

their care and skill, and with the same fidelity and good husbandry as if they were their own; that is, according as the season of the year shall require, they are to plough and sow his glebes, take in the crop from off them, gather in his tithes, or collect his rent charge into which the tithes of the parish may have been commuted (h), thresh out and dress his corn, and dispose of it at the best market they are able. And they are also to repair his houses, make up his fences, pay his tenths, synodals, and procurations, and discharge all other burdens of the living which shall be incumbent on it while it is under this trust, and do every thing else which may be best for his advantage; and, principally, they are to take care that during the vacancy, the church be well and duly served by such curate as the bishop shall approve of, whom they are to pay out of the profits of the benefice. And it will be safest for them to get it stated by the ordinary, when they take out the sequestration, what they are to pay him weekly for the service of the said cure, for then there can be no contention about it when they make up their accounts (i). And this trust in them is to last till it be superseded by the institution of a new minister, unless in the interim the ordinary shall see just cause to recall the said

(h) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71; 1 Vict. c. 69; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 64; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 62; 3 Vict. c. 15.

(i) By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, 8. 99, the bishop is to appoint curates to all sequestered benefices, and by sect. 100 he is to assign them salaries; but the licence of the bishop and as

signment of salary by him are not absolutely necessary where the curate is temporarily appointed from week to week, to meet the exigencies of the case, during a sequestration through the death of the incumbent. Dakins, Clerk, v. Seaman, Clerk, 9 M. & W.777.

sequestration and grant it to others. And as the ordinary, on any such just cause, hath power to grant the sequestration to others, so also hath he in the first issuing out of it, and may then, if he see reason for it, put the said trust into the hands of other men that are willing to accept it. But the churchwardens are the proper officers for this business, who are bound by virtue of their office to take it upon them whensoever enjoined, and therefore, should they be backward to take out the sequestration, or unwilling to meddle therewith, the ordinary may, by his citation, cite them before him, and command them, under the penalty of contumacy, to take this charge upon them, that so the fruits of the benefice be not lost, dissipated, or embezzled during the vacancy, for want of proper trustees to take care of them (k).

As soon as a new minister is instituted, the said churchwardens or other sequestrators are to account to him for all the profits of the benefice which they have received during the vacancy. For all these belong to him from the death of the predecessor, how long soever the vacancy may have been; and if he be satisfied with their account, he gives them his discharge, and this wholly concludes the matter. But if he be dissatisfied in any particulars, either that he thinks they charge him too high in the expenses, or themselves too low in the receipts, or in any other matter have not discharged themselves as faithful stewards for him, he may then bring them to account before the ordinary, by whom

(k) Prid. 160, 161, 162.