73 



BENEFICE. 



BENEFICE. 



impropriator, and is called a perpetual curate. He enters upon his 

 official duties by virtue of the bishop's licence only, without institution 

 or induction. It appears, moreover, that there were some benefices 

 which, being granted for the purpose of supporting the hospitality of 

 the monasteries (in mensas monachorum), and not appropriated in the 

 common form, escaped the operation of the statute of Henry IV. In 

 this ease, the benefices were served by temporary curates belonging 

 to the religious houses, and sent out as occasion required. When 

 [such appropriations, together with the charge of providing for the 

 cure, were transferred (after the dissolution of monasteries) from 

 spiritual societies to single lay persons (who, being incapable of serving 

 them themselves, were obliged to nominate a person to the bishop for 

 his licence to serve the cure), the curate by this means became so 

 far perpetual as not to be removable at the pleasure of the impro- 

 priator, but only for such causes as would occasion the depriving of 

 a rector or vicar, or by the revocation of the bishop's licence. Though 

 the form of licences to perpetual cures expresses that they last only 

 during the bishop's pleasure, the power of revocation, thus reserved 

 to the bishop, has seldom, if ever, been exercised. 



There is another kind of perpetual curacy which arises from the 

 erection in a parish of a chapel of ease subject to the mother church. 

 But the curacies of chapels of ease are not benefices in the strict legal 

 sense of the word, unless they have been augmented out of the fund 

 called Queen Anne's Bounty. The officiating ministers are not corpo- 

 rations in law with perpetuity of succession, as parsons, vicars, and 

 other perpetual curates. Neither are chapels of ease subject to lapse, 

 although the bishop may, by process in the ecclesiastical courts, com- 

 l>el the patrons to fill them up. But the statute 1 Geo. I. sess. 2, c. 10, 

 provides that all churches, curacies, or chapels, which shall be aug- 

 mented by the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, shall be thenceforth 

 perpetual cures and benefices, and the ministers duly nominated and 

 licensed thereunto shall be in law bodies politic and corporate, and 

 have perpetual succession, and be capable to take in perpetuity ; and 

 that if suffered to remain void for six months they shall lapse in like 

 manner as presentative livings. [CHAPEL ; CURATE.] 



The district churches built in pursuance of the Church Building 

 Acts, which form an almost unbroken series of statutes from 

 58 Geo. III. e. 45 to the present day, are perpetual cures, and the 

 incumbents corporations. 



A donative is a spiritual preferment, whether church, chapel, or 

 vicarage, which is in the free gift of the patron, without making any 

 presentation 'to the bishop, and without admission, institution, or 

 induction by mandate from the bishop or any other ; but the donee 

 may by the patron, or by any other authorised by the patron, be put 

 into possession. Nor is any licence from the bishop necessary to per- 

 fect the donee's title to possession of the donative, but it receives its 

 full effect from the single act and sole authority of the donor. The 

 chief further peculiarity of donatives is their exemption from episcopal 

 jurisdiction. The visitation of donatives is by commissioners appointed 

 by the patron. If the patron dies during the vacancy of a donative 

 I fin 'lice, the right of nomination descends to his heir-at-law, and does 

 not belong to his executors, as is the case with the patronge of pre- 

 nentatire livings. Donatives, if augmented by Queen Anne's Bounty, 

 i i; liable to lapse, and also to episcopal visitation. (1 Geo. I. 

 ess. 2, c. 10.) But no donatives can be so augmented without the con- 

 sent of the patron in writing, under his hand and seal. Both perpetual 

 curates and incumbents of donatives are obliged to declare their assent 

 to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer, and must 

 take the oath of allegiance ; and the right of patronage, both of 

 l*rpetual curacies and donatives, is vindicated by writ of Quare 

 /it. 



Neither the augmentation nor the alienation of benefices with cure 



of souls has ever been favoured by the policy of the English law. To 



pit-vt;iit the former was one of the objects of the statutes of Mortmain, 



one of which (23 Hen. VIII. c. 10) expressly makes void all assurances 



'- in favour of parish churches, chapels, &c. [MORTMAIN.] 



It might have been reasonably expected that, at the time of the 

 dissolution of monasteries, the clergy would have received back those 

 revenues which, being originally vested in them for religious purposes, 

 had been subsequently appropriated by the monks. Such a measure, 

 however, was not agreeable to the temper either of Henry VIII., or of 

 his ministers and courtiers. When ho came to a rupture with the 

 pope, he resolved to free his dominions from the payment of first fruits 

 and tenths to the papal treasury. The first of these taxes consisted of 

 one year's whole profits of every spiritual preferment, according to a 

 valuation of benefices made by the pope's authority ; the second, of 

 the tenth part of the annual profit of each benefice, according to the 

 -ami' valuation. The payment of these to the pope was prohibited by 

 statute 'lli Henry VIII. c. 20; but the impost was not abolished, for 

 ili>'itxt year by statute 26 Henry VIII. c. 3, the whole of the revenue 

 ' therefrom was annexed to the crown. The last-mentioned 

 statute directed these taxes to be paid according to a new valuation of 

 ecclesiastical benefices to be made by certain commissioners appointed 

 for the purpose. This valuation in what is still called the valuation of 

 the king's !> -Ututc 2'i Henry VIII. '.. 3, was confirmed by 



statute 1 Eliz. c. 4. [FniST FRUITS. J 



The subsequent proceedings of Henry VIII., after the appropriation 

 of the possessions of the monasteries, tended rather to enrich the 



collegiate and other corporations aggregate with the revenues of the 

 Church, than to revest them in their ancient possessors. Nor was the 

 latter object the aim of his successors, until more than a century after 

 his death ; but after the restoration of Charles II., the scandal of lay 

 impropriations gave rise to some relaxation of the statutes of mortmain. 

 Thus by statute 17 Car. II. c. 3, power was given to lay impropriators 

 of tithes to annex such tithes to, or settle them in trust for, the 

 parsonage or vicarage of the parish church to which they belonged, or 

 for the perpetual curate, if there was no vicarage endowed ; and by the 

 same statute, in cases where the settled maintenance of the parsonage 

 or vicarage, with cure, did not amount to the full sum of 100. a-year, 

 clear of all charges and reprizes, the incumbent was empowered to 

 purchase for himself and his successors, lauds and tithes, without 

 licence of mortmain. Another statute of the same reign (29 Car. II. 

 c. 8) confirms, for a perpetuity, such augmentations of vicarages and 

 perpetual curacies as had been already made for a term of years by 

 ecclesiastical corporations, on granting leases of impropriate rectories. 

 The Act also confirms future augmentations to be made in the same 

 manner, subject to a limitation which has since been taken oft' by 

 statute 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 45, by which the provisions of 29 Car. II. 

 c. 8 have been considerably extended. But the principal augmentation 

 of the revenues of the Church was made under the provisions of the 

 statute 2 & 3 Anne, c. 11. By this Act, and by the queen's letters- 

 patent made in pursuance of it, all the revenue of the first fruits and 

 tenths was vested in trustees, for the augmentation of small benefices. 

 This fund is what is usually called Queen Anne's Bounty, the adminis- 

 tration of which has been regulated by several statutes. 



The trustees, who are certain dignitaries of the Church, and other 

 official personages for the time being, are incorporated by the name of 

 " the governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of 

 the maintenance of the poor clergy," and have authority to make rules 

 for the distribution of the fund, which rules are to be approved of by 

 the crown under the sign manual. Every person having any estate or 

 interest in possession, reversion, or contingency, in lands or personalty, 

 is empowered to settle such estate or interest, either by deed enrolled 

 or will, upon the corporation, without licence of mortmain ; and the 

 corporation are empowered to aJmit benefactors to the fund into their 

 body. Agreements made with benefactors to Queen Anne's Bounty, 

 concerning the right of patronage of augmented churches in favour of 

 such benefactors, where the agreements are made by persons or bodies 

 corporate having such an interest in the patronage of such churches as 

 the Act renders necessary are made valid ; but an agreement by a 

 parson or vicar must be made with consent of his patron and ordinary. 

 The governors are also empowered by the same statute to make 

 agreements with patrons of donatives or perpetual cures for an aug- 

 mented stipend to the ministers of such benefices when augmented, to 

 augment vacant benefices, and with the ' concurrence of the proper 

 parties, to exchange lands settled for augmentation. 



It should be observed that a modern statute of mortmain, the 

 Statute of Charitable Uses, 9 Geo. II. c. 36, imposed certain forms, a 

 strict compliance with which was necessary in all gifts to Queen 

 Anne's Bounty, whether by deed or will. But these restrictions have 

 been removed by statute 43 Geo. III. c. 107, as far as respects gifts of 

 real property for augmentation of the bounty ; and a recent provision 

 for the augmentation of benefices not exceeding 150/. per annum is 

 made by 46 Geo. III. c. 1 33, which discharges all such benefices from 

 the land-tax, without any consideration being given for the discharge, 

 with a proviso that the whole annual amount thus remitted shall not 

 exceed 6000/. 



The alienation of the temporalities of benefices, even in perpetuity, 

 was not forbidden by the common law, provided it were made with the 

 concurrence of the principal parties interested, namely, the parson, 

 patron, and ordinary. Thus, at the common law, lands might have 

 become exempt from the payment of tithe by virtue of an agreement 

 entered into between the tithe-payer and the parson or vicar, with the 

 necessary consent, for the substitution of land in lieu of tithe. But 

 the statute 13 Eliz. c. 10 prohibits, among other bodies corporate, 

 parsons and vicars from making any alienation of their temporalities 

 beyond the life of the incumbent, except by way of lease for twenty- 

 one years, or three lives, " whereupon the accustomed yearly rent or 

 more shall be reserved and payable yearly during the said term." 

 Further restrictions are imposed by the statute 18 Eliz. c. 11, which 

 requires that where any former lease for years is in being, it must be 

 expired, surrendered, or ended within three years next after the making 

 of the new lease, and all bonds and covenants for renewing or making 

 leases contrary to this and the last-mentioned statute are made void. 

 The statute 14 Eliz. c. 11, as to houses in towns, extends the term 

 specified in the 13 Eliz. c. 10 to forty years, but prohibits leases of 

 such housert in reversion, and allows of absolute alienation by way of 

 exchange. But the consent of patron and ordinary is still necessary in 

 order to make the leases of parsons and vicars binding upon their 

 successors. It is said that about the time when these statutes were 

 passed, it was a practice for patrons to present unworthy clergymen to 

 their vacant benefices, on condition of having leases of those benefices 

 made to themselves at a very low rate. The consequences of this 

 were not unlike what ensued from the appropriation of benefices by 

 monastic corporations ; the incumbents did not reside, and the churches 

 were indifferently served by stipendiary curates. To remedy this evil, 



