75 BEN'EFICE. 



it WM provided by statute IS Eli*, e. 80 (nude perpetual by 8 Car. I. 

 c. 4 . that no lease of a benefice with cure should endure longer than 

 while the levee should be ordinarily rwident and serving the cure, 

 without absence for mar* than eighty day* in any one year, but *h. mid 

 immediately, upon noo-retadeooe, become void; and that the im-uin- 

 beat should forfeit one year's profit* of the benefice, to be distributed 

 among the poor ; but the statute contains an exception of the case 

 where a parson, allowed by law to bare two benefices, demises the one, 

 upon which he is not most ordinarilr resident, to his curate. The 

 18 E1U. c. 11, provides that process of sequestration shall be granted 

 by the ordinary to obtain the profits so forfeited. By statute 14 Kliz. 

 c. 11, bonds and covenants, and by statute 43 Eli*, c. 9, judgments 

 entwed into or suffered in fraud of the statute 13 Eli*, c. 20. are made 

 . 



The 13 Eli*, e. 20, also renders void all charges upon ecclesiastical 

 benefices by way of pension or otherwise. This last provision has been 

 held to extend to mortgages and annuities, even if made only for the 

 life or incumbency of the mortgager. But the strictness of the laws 

 prohibiting all alienations by or in favour of ecclesiastical persons, has 

 in modern times been somewhat relaxed by the legislature for purposes of 

 public convenience, such as the General Inclonure Acts. Other statutes- 

 empower ecclesiastical incumbents, with consent of patron and ordinary, 

 to raise money by sale or mortgage of the profits of the benefice, for a 

 term, for the purpose of building and repairing parsonage houses ; and 

 the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty are permitted to advance money 

 for the same object. Incumbents, with consent of pntron and ordinary, 

 may exchange their parsonage houses and glebe lands, and purchase 

 ana annex to their benefice other parsonage houses and glebe lands. 

 Rectors and vicars are also enabled to charge their benefices in favour 

 of chapels of ease within their cures. 



Although an ecclesiastical benefice cannot be alienated for the satin- 

 faction of the incumbent's debts, the profits may be sequestrated for 

 that purpose. [SEQUESTRATION.] 



The duties and liabilities of spiritual persons come more properly 

 under the head of CLEROT, but it is not inconsistent with the subject 

 of the present article to mention the non-residence of spiritual persons 

 upon their benefices, which (besides being cognisable in the ecclesias- 

 tical courts) is visited with severe penalties by different acts of par- 

 liament. The principal of the old enactments on the subject is stat. 

 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13 (amended and enlarged by 25 Hen. VIII. c. 16, 

 28 Hen. VIII. c. 13, and 83 Hen. VIII. c. 28), which imposes certain 

 penalties upon persons wilfully absenting themselves from their benefices 

 for one month together, or two months in the year. 



But this act excepts the chaplains to the king and royal family, those 

 of peers, peeresses, and certain public officers, during their attendance 

 upon the household of such as retain them ; and also all heads of 

 colleges, magistrates, and professors in the universities, and all students 

 under a certain age residing there bond .tidt for study. And the king 

 may grant dispensations for non-residence to his chaplains, even when 

 they are not attending his household. The residence intended by tho 

 law must be in the parsonage house, if there be one ; but if there be no 

 house of residence, the incumbent must reside within the limits of the 

 benefice, or of the city, town, or parish where the benefice U situate, 

 provided such residence be within two miles from the church or chapel of 

 the benefice ; and in all such cases a residence may be appointed by 

 the bishop, even without the Hmit* of the benefice. These acts (which 

 extend also to archdeaconries, deaneries, and dignities in cathedral and 

 collegiate churches) have been consolidated and amended by stat. 57 

 Oeo. III. c. 99. By this act, every incumbent absenting himself from a 

 benefice with cure, without licence, for the period of three months 

 consecutively, or at several times for so many days as are equal 

 period, and abiding elsewhere than at some other benefice, forfeits for 

 an absence exceeding three months, but not above six months, one- 

 third of the annual value of the benefice, clear of all outgoings except 

 the curate's salary. Absences of a longer duration are subjected to 

 proportional penalties, and the whole of the penalty in each case is 

 given to the party suing, together with such costs as are allowed by the 

 practice of the court where the action is brought. All wh 

 exempt from residence before the last statute are still exempt, an.) the 

 exemption is extended to several others, including public officers in 

 either of the two univrrxities, and tutors anil public otlicers in any 

 college. Students in the university are exempted till they an- thirty 

 years of age ; and the royal prerogative to grant dispensations for non- 

 residence to his chaplains is not affected by the statute. But no person 

 can have the benefit of an exemption unless he makes a notification of 

 y yew, within six weeks from the 1st of January, to the bishop 

 of the diocese. Besides the exemptions, the bishop may grant a licence 

 for non-residence for the illnera or infirmity of an incumbent, his wife, 

 or child, or for other causes specified in the Act; and if the bishop 

 refuses a licence, the incumbent may appeal to the archbishop. The 

 bishop may also grant licences for non-residence for causes not specified 

 in the Act, but in that cane the licences must be allowed by the arch- 

 bishop. Licences may be revoked, and no licence can continue in force 

 above three years from the time of its being granted, or after the 81st 

 of December in the second year after that in which it is granted. The 

 Act also contains directions with respect to the list* of exemptions and 

 licences for non-residence, which are to be kept in the registry of each 

 diocese for public inspection. 



BENEFICE. : 



The Act 67 Oeo. III. a 99 provides also for the appointment of 

 licensed curates In benefices, the incumbent* of which are absent with 

 or without licence or exemption, and regulates the salaries of suoh 

 curates upon a seal. :ied to the value of each benefice m 



number of the population within its precincts ; and in all oases of non- 

 residence from sickness, age, or other unavoidable cause, the 

 may fix smaller salaries at his discretion. 



There are other liabilities which parsons, vicars, and oil 

 persons necessarily incur in respect of their benefices. Tl> 

 43 Eliz. c. 2, they are rateable in respe. l>enefiees i 



i the poor ; and although the burden of the repairs of the body 

 of the church fall* ujn tl,-- parishioners, the rector (anil 

 parsonage is appropriated, the impropriator) i liaMe for the repairs of 

 the chancel. And the stat 36 Ed. I. sess. 2, the object of which waft 

 to prohibit rector* ing down trees in churchyards, contains 



an express exception of the case where such trees are wanted i 

 repair of the chancel. 



Besides the liability implied in the last-mentioned prohibit: 

 ecclesiastical incumbents are liable for dilapidation.". A itilapid 

 said to be the pulling down or destroying in any manner any 

 honsesor building* lielonging to a spiritual living, or suffering then) 

 into ruin or decay, or wanting or de.-troying the woods of the church, or 

 committing or Buffering any wilful waste in or upon the inheritance of 

 the church. Such proceedings may be prevented by the spiritual cen- 

 sures of the ordinary ; and the profits of the benefice may be seques- 

 tered until the damage be repaired ; and the Court of Chancery 

 the suit of the patron, gi- int. an injunction to restrain this as well as 

 every other species of vaste ; or the next b may recover 



damages for dilapidation* either in the Spiritual Court or in an action 

 at common law against his predecessor, or, if he be dead, against hi* 

 personal representatives. 



The remedies for the subtraction of tithes given by the law of 

 England to the clergy are sufficiently ample. The stat. 2*3 Ed. VI. 

 enables them to recover the tithes in the Spiritual Courts; while 

 modem statutes, and particularly 53 Geo. III. c. 127, and 7 Ci 

 c. 1 .") . have given a summary remedy for the recovery of tithes under 

 a certain amount before two' justices of the peace, who are empowered 

 to levy them by distress. But questions of title to tithes belong to 

 the temporal courts only, a subject which will be more pi. 

 considered under the head of TITHES. 



With respect to actions and suits for recovery of lands or rents by 

 parsons, vicars, or other spiritual corporation* Hole, the etot. 3 & 4 

 Will. IV. c. 27 subjects them to the period of limitation of t\v 

 cessivc incumbencies, together with six years after the appointment of 

 a third person to the benefice, or in case of this period not amounting 

 to sixty years, then to the full ]K-I iod of limitation of sixty years. 



Having thus shown how possession of the different kinds of bei 

 in England is acquired and maintained, and what 

 legal incidents of such possession, it remains to consider how benefices 

 may be vacated or avoided. And this may happen several ways : 

 1. By the death of the incumbent. 2. By resignation, which is made 

 into the hands of the ordinary, except in the case of donatives, which 

 must be resigned into the hands of the patron, who alone has juris- 

 diction over them. The resignation must be absolute, unless it be for 

 the purpose of exchange, in which case it may be made on the condition 

 that the exchange shall take full effect. Where two parsons wish to 

 exchange benefices, they must obtain a licence from the ordii 

 that effect ; and if the exchange is not fully executed by both parties 

 during their lives, all the proceedings ore void. 3. A benefice may be 

 avoided by the incumbent's being promoted to a bishopric ; but the 

 avoidance in this case does not take place till the actual consecration of 

 the new prelate. The patronage of the benefice so vacant belongs for 

 that turn to the crown, except in the case of a clergyman, beneficed in 

 England, accepting an Irish bishopric ; for no person can accept a 

 dignity or benefice in Ireland until he has first resigned all his ; 

 ments in England ; so that in this case the patron, and n< 

 has the benefit of the avoidance. If the incumbent tin be 



promoted to a bishopric, no cession takes place; and it seems that he 

 tin the donative without a commendam. 



4. If an incumbent of a ben. -lice with cure .if SOU]H accept* a second 



of ii like nature without procuring a dispense 



the provisions of the canon law. IK so far void, that the patron may 

 present another clerk, or the bishop may deprive ; but til! 

 no advantage can be taken by lapse. And the stat. 21 !! > \ III. 

 c. 13 provides, that where a person, having a 1 

 8/. per annum or upwards, according to the valuai 

 books, accepts any other, the first shall be adjudged void, unless he 



with tin' piovi ,. 



And dispensations not in conformity with the nt. ( .-lared 



void, and heavy |K naltics arc imposed ii]x>n person .ing to 



procure tli. -in. IJut by virtue of such di.|wn: . persons 



of the king's council may hold three benefices with cure, and the other 

 - qualified by the itatute to receive disp. h hold 



two such benefices. The statutes 1 A 2 Viet. c. 106, amended by 13 ft 

 14 Viet c. 98, have how.\.i provided that i M cannot be 



held by the same person, unless they be within three miles of each 

 other, and the value of one doe* not exceed 1001. 



The persons who may receive dispensations ore the king's chaplains, 



