ilUY. 



CLEUK OK THE CROWN IX I'HANtT.KY. 



bishops or overseen, who had the superintendence of various i 

 offlomi. Then person*, though they might Dot perhaps I* entirely 

 relieved fp.m the ordinary duties of life to that tin y mi.-ht devote- 

 themselves exclu.-. ir sacred office, yet must necessarily lmvt> 



been nearly so, and it to certain that they were nominated i 

 office* by tome peculiar forms. Very early", however, the dUtin. -lion 

 became complete. The bishops, priests, and deacons of the I 

 Church, each ordained to the office In a m UHUT which it was believed 

 the founders of Christianity appointed, and each supposed to hare 

 received a peculiar spiritual grace l>y devolution from the apostles and 

 from the sacred founder of Christianity himself , soon formed a distinct 

 body of nii-ii demanding to be distinguished by some particular 

 appellation. 



In all Christian nations the distinction has been recognised by the 



1 authorities, who havo allowed certain social privileges or 



ions to the clergy. No inconsiderable share of temporal power, 



extending not only over the members of their own body, but over the, 



laity, has in most states been conceded to them. In the great German 



confederation the sovereign power in some of the states was vested in 



ecclesiastics ; while at Rome there has been for many ages an elective 



monarchy of ecclesiastics, in whom all temporal as well as spiritual 



authority has been vested. 



It is easy to account for the ascendancy of the clergy in the middle 

 ages, and for the acquisition by them of so many valuable exemption*, 

 and so much actual power. They were the best-instructed jart of the 

 population. The learning of the age was almost exclusively theirs ; 

 and knowledge, if it is not itself power, is at least a means of obtain- 

 ing it Besides this, they had a most powerful instrument with which 

 t<i work upon the ruder minds of the laity, in the power vested in them 

 of alone administering the sacraments of the Church, and of regulating 

 alone under what circumstances those sacraments ought to be adminis- 

 tered. This enabled them to win acquiescence in any favourite design, 

 sometimes by gentle influences and sometimes by terror. 



The history of almost every country of modern Europe presents 

 instances of struggles between the laity and the clergy for power or 

 privilege. Our limits will not permit us to enter on these, not even on 

 the struggles of this kind in our own country, where they were as 

 determined, and sometimes as fierce, as in any country of Christendom. 

 All power in the clergy of England to erect an authority dangerous to 

 the laity, or to secure to themselves political immunities or privileges 

 inconsistent with the general good, was broken at the Reformation. 

 The clergy of England then became but a fragment of a once great and 

 well-disciplined body, dispersed through the whole of Christendom, 

 which, when acting with common effort and putting forth all its 

 strength, it had been difficult for any single temporal uriuce to resist 

 with effect. 



We shall take from Blackstone a short statement of the privileges 

 which the law of England allows to the clergy. They are but a faint 

 shadow of the privileges which the clergy enjoyed before the Reforma- 

 tion : A clergyman cannot be compelled to serve on a jury, or to appear 

 at a court leet or view of fronkpledge. He cannot be compelled to 

 serve the office of bailiff, reeve, constable, or the like. He is privileged 

 from arrest in civil suits while engaged in divine service. He could 

 claim benefit of clergy more than once. [BENEFIT or CLEBOT.] Such 

 are the legal exemptions. On the other hand, the clergy cannot now 

 sit in the House of Commons, nor can they engage in any kind of trade, 

 though sometimes clergymen have been brought within the scope of 

 the bankrupt laws. It was held, even, that they could not legally be 

 shareholders Li a commercial company, but this restriction was removed 

 in 1888 by the 1 Viet. c. 10. By the law as it stood previously to the 

 67 Oeo. III. c. 99, they were not allowed to take lands to farm ; but by 

 that Act (s. 2) they are permitted (with the consent of the bishop of 

 the diocese) to farm lands to the extent of 80 acres for a term not 

 exceeding seven years. 



The clergy meet by delegates in convocation at the beginning of 

 every new parliament; and they have courts in which jun- 

 to exercised touching ecclesiastical affairs, and, till 1868, all causes 

 testamentary or matrimonial, as well as those where the church's 

 censure* are directed against particular classes of offenders. To them 

 al> belongs the whole ecclesiastical revenue, with divers fees or custo- 

 mary payments, and to them also the whole regulation of the terms of 

 admission to their order. 



The three great classes of the English clergy are the bishops, priests, 



and deacons To bo admitted into each of those classes requires a 



r ordination. This distinction to of an entirely different kind 



fan that which orie out of office or appointment. Of this kind 



is in the English clergy the archbishop, the bishop, 



the dean and canons of a conventual or collegiate church (some of the 



canons being in many instances invested with particular characters, as 



precentors, succentors, and the like), the archdeacon, the rand dean, 



aeon of some church whose constitution to peculiar, the rect. 



ear, the curate in some chapels called parochial, the minister in 

 wme newly founded chapel, whether a chapel of ease or what to 

 proprietary chapel, assistant ministers to aid the vicar or 

 the rector in some churches of ancient foundation, and finally, a 

 "J *?* '""d <"*, w " engaged by tho incum- 

 bents of benefice. t asrist them in the performance of their duties, 

 but who are not dlmUdbb at the caprice of the incumbent, nor 



left by law without a claim upon a certain portion of the profit* of the 

 ;oe. 



These are tho various office.- in which 



England ore distributed. As th,- - :l.j,-.-r rtance, and seems 



to be but imperfectly un :.. nin 



lies the distinction oi rtrlur, rirar, and rurate, to one of which belongs 

 individual of th' 



For this purpose, England must be regarded as divided iut- 

 what more than 17,150 small districts (returns were not ma<; 



rying in extent, colled parishes or parochial districts, according 

 to the census of 1851. Each of these parishes or districts nv 

 regarded as having its church, and one person (or in some in 

 mom than one) Who ministers divine ordinances in that church. Thin 

 person, whose proper designation to pertona eedetue, enjojv 

 right the tithe of the parish, and has usually a house M<-\ 

 belonging to his benefice. \V1,, n this, the original arrangen; 

 undisturbed, we have a parish and its rector. But in the t 

 the Reformation it was a very common practice of the 

 persons who had the right to nominate the persona or rector, to give 

 that right to some monastery or community f r<li. 'i cm- 



munity, instead of nominating some person as i M profess to 



discharge the duties of the parish l>y sending from time t<> ; 

 its own body to perform those duties, or by engaging some per*" 

 stipend settled by themselves, to perform tin y Liking (lie 



tithe anil other profits of the benefice to the use of their house. Sonic 

 few of the ancient parishes of England have thus \<c<-!< 

 of their tithe and the other property out of which a resident mini.-ti r 

 might havo been supported; but in nearly every instance the ni-l.op, 

 interfered, and compelled the religious houses to settle H.IIH 

 minute shore of the profits of those benefices upon a clergyman who 

 should be fixed in the parish upon the nomination of the monastery, 

 but no more removable than if he had really been the person.. < i 

 This person is called the near, ri'mriiw, that is, one w-ho stands in the 

 place of another; and the other whom the vicar represented 

 this instance the religious community, in whom vested the two 

 characters of patron and rector. 



The provision made for the support of the vicar varied in di' 

 parishes, but it was usually some fixed portion of the tithe with the 

 oblations. The agreement, however, which was between the r< 

 community and the bishop was arbitrary, and henc 

 the vicars so variously endowed. At the Reformation, wis- 

 est the religious communities possessed in the parishes was seUcd l>y 

 the crown, and has since been cither retained by it, or, what has 

 usually been the cose, has been sold to private persons, whence arises 

 the class of the lay impropriUon, who are, in fact, the rectors of the 

 parish, the performance of the spiritual duties devolving on the vicar. 

 Cum let who are not merely assistants to a rector or a vicar are, in 

 genera], incumbents of churches in which no vicarage was ever 

 ordained, or incumbents of chapels of foundation Inter than the 

 the foundation of parishes, and endowed by the special bounty of parti- 

 cular persona. 



CLERGY, BENEFIT OF. f BENEFIT OF CLERQT.] 



( I.KKK IN OKDKliS. [Ci.i:ii(;v.] 



CLERK OF ASSIZE to an officer attached to each circuit, who 

 accompanies the judges at the assizes, and performs all the ministerial 

 acts of the court. He issues subpoenas, orders, writs, and oth< 

 ceases; draws indictments; takes discharges, and respites recogni- 

 zances; files informations, affidavits, and other instruments, enters 

 every nolle protcqui, records all the proceedings of the court. :uid 

 its judgments. He to associated with the judges in the commisM. 

 take assizes ; and he to restrained by statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. '24, from 

 being counsel for any person on his circuit. He was formerly paid l>y 

 the fees charged upon the several official acts performed by him ; 

 but now, by the 15 & 16 Viet. c. 73, and 18 4 19 Viot. c. ]-_v,, 

 clerks of assize and their officers are paid by salary, the fees 

 receivable in respect of their duties being accounted for by them to 

 the government. 



CLERK OF THE CROWN IN CHANCERY, to an ..nicer ,.i th- 

 crown in attendance upon both Houses of Parliament, and upon tho 

 greatseal. In the House of Lords he makes out and issues all writs of 

 summons to peers, writs for the attendance of the judges, commissions ' 

 to summon and prorogue Parliament, and to pass bills ; and he attends 

 at the table of the House to read the titles of bills whenever the royal 

 assent to given to them. He receives and has the custody of the 

 returns of the representative peers of Scotland, and certifies them to 

 the House; and makes out and issues writs for ill ile-iion of repre- 

 sentative peers of Ireland and their writs of summons. He to the 

 registrar of the Lord High Steward's Court for state trials and for t In- 

 trial of ]>eers ; and he is also registrar of the Coronation Court of 

 Claims. 



In connexion with the House of Commons, he makes out and issue* 

 all writ* for the ' members in Great Britain (those for 



I l>cing issued by the clerk of the crown in Ireland) ; gives 

 notice thereof to the secretary for war, under Act 8 Oeo. II. c. 3d. for 

 the removal of troops from the place of election ; receives and retains 

 the custody of .-ill rrtuini. to Parliament for the United Kingdom; 

 notifies each return in the ' London Gazette,' registers it in the books 

 of his office, and certifies it to the House. By Act & 7 Viet. c. 18, he 



