BEN 



218 



BEN 



ner of investiture of benefice* In thow early time* wa* pro- 

 bably the uma at that of lay property, by the delivery of 

 actual pouenion. or of wine symbols of possession, as the 

 ring and cruzier, which were the symbols of investiture ap- 

 propriated to buhoprick*. 



Benefices being thus endowed, and recognised at a species 

 of private property, their number gradually multiplied 

 during the ages succeeding that of Charlemagne. In Eng- 

 land especially several causes contributed to the rise of paro- 



klly several causes contributed to 



ebial churches. ' Sometimes' (says Dr. Burn, Ecclet. 'Laic, 

 title Appropriation) ' the itinerant preachers found encou- 

 ragement to settle amongst a liberal people, and by their 

 assistance to raise up a church and a little adjoining manse. 

 Sometimes the kings, in their country vills and seat* ol 

 pleasure or retirement, ordered a place of worship for their 

 court and retinue, which was the original of royal free 

 chapels. Very often, the bishops, commiserating the igno- 

 rance of the country people, took care for building churches 

 as the only way of planting or keeping up Christianity 

 among them. But the more ordinary method of augment- 

 ing the number of churches depended on the piety of the 

 greater lords ; who, having large fees and territories in the 

 country, founded churches for the service of their families 

 and tenants within their dominion. It was this that gave 

 a primary title to the patronage of laymen ; it was this 

 made the bounds of a parish commensurate to those of a 

 manor : and it was this distinct property of lords and te- 

 nants that by degrees allotted new parochial bounds, by the 

 adding of new auxiliary churches.' [See ADVOWSON.] 



It appears, however, from the last-mentioned author, that 

 if there were any new fee erected within a lordship, or there 

 were any people within the precinct not dependent on the 

 patron, they were at liberty to choose any neighbouring 

 church or religious house, and to pay their tithes and make 

 their offerings wherever they received the benefits of reli- 

 gion. This by degrees gave rise to the arbitrary appropria- 

 tion of tithes, which, in spite of positive enactment, continued 

 to prevail till the end of the twelfth century, when Pope In- 

 n<ent III. by a decretal epistle to the archbishop of Can- 

 terbury, enjoined the payment of tithes to the ministers of 

 the respective parishes where every man dwelt. This in- 

 junction, though not having the force of a law, has been 

 complied with ever since, so that it is now a universal rule 

 of law in England, that tithes arc due of common right to 

 the parson of the parish, unless there be a special exemption. 

 [For the nature of these special exemptions, see TITHES.] 



The twelfth century was also the cera of an important 

 change in the manner of investiture of ecclesiastical bene- 

 li.-es in England. (See Blackstone, vol. ii. p. 23 ; Father 

 Paul, c. 24.) Up to this time the simple donation of the 

 patron was sufficient to confer a legal title to a benefice, 

 provided the person to whom it was given was in holy orders, 

 for otherwise he must be first presented to the bishop, who 

 had power to reject him in case of unfltness ; hut the popes, 

 who had in the eleventh and twelfth centuries successfully 

 contended against every other species of ecclesiastical in- 

 M'-tituru being exercised by laymen, now procured that the 

 presentation of the patron should not be of itself sufficient 

 to confer an ecclesiastical benefice, even though qualified 

 by the discretionary power of rejection (in case the benefice 

 was given to a layman), which was already vested in the 

 bishop. This was the origin of the ceremonies of institu- 

 tion, which is the mode of investiture of the spiritualities ; 

 and induction, which is the mode of investiture of the tem- 

 poralities of a benefice. Where the bishop was the patron 

 of the benefice, the two forms u( presentation and institu- 

 tion were united in that of collation. 



For the origin and nature of ecclesiastical patronage in 

 England as a subject of property, the rules of law which 

 apply to it as such, the limitations within which and the 

 forms according to which it must be exercised, and the 

 mode by which it may be vindicated ; together with the 

 respective rights of the bishop or ordinary, the arcli- 

 biahop, and the crown, in the case of lapse, see ADVOWSON ; 

 and also Burn's Eccletiaslical Law, art Advotcson, Bene- 

 fice. But it may be mentioned in this place, that a recent 

 tat. (3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27) has made some important 

 alteration* in the law on this subject. 1. By the old law, 

 tuiu for recovery of advowsons were not within the statutes 

 of limitations ; but the 30th sect, of the abovcmentioncd act 

 subject* them to a period of limitation of three successive 

 incumbencies or sixty years, during which the enjoyment 

 of the benefit* has been by virtue of a title adverse to that 



of the person instituting the' suit. By tho 33rd section tha 

 utmost penod within winch an advow*ou can be recovered, 

 is limited to a hunili <m the tnnu of an advene 



presentation, without any intermediate exert .-e of the right 

 of patronage by the person iiiMiintmi; the suit, or by any 

 parson* from whom he derives his title. The 36th section 

 of the act abolishes certain anlii i<t remedies for tho dis- 

 turbance of the right of patronage ; so that except in certain 

 case*, specified in the 37th and 38th section* of the act, the 

 sola method of vindicating the right now i* by writ of 

 Quart Imprdit. [See CJUAKK IMPBUIT.} 



Although the popes, in denying to laymen the right of 

 ecclesiastical investiture, had still left them in posn 

 of the substantial part of the patronage of benefices, <, , u 

 this privilege was for some centuries not only very much 

 questioned, but in many instances entirely wrested from 

 them by papal encroachment (Father Paul, c. 30, et ttq. ; 

 Hullam's Middle Agei, vol. ii. c. 7.) 



The first attacks by the popes upon the rights of private 

 patrons (which took place towards the laltur end of the 

 twelfth century) assumed the form of letters of request 

 called 'mandates' or ' expectatives,' praying that benefice* 

 might be conferred on particular individuals. What wag 

 first asked as a favour was soon after claimed as a right, 

 and rules were laid down as to grants and revocation* uf 

 expectativos. The popes next proceeded to claim the 

 patronage of all benefice* vacantia in curia, i. e. which 

 tell vacant by the incumbents dying at the court of Rome. 

 The number of these, through thu management of that 

 court, which contrived on various pretences to draw eccle- 

 siastics of all ranks to Rome from different parts of Europe, 

 became by degrees very considerable. But Clement V. in 

 the beginning of the fourteenth century went beyond all 

 his predecessors, by laying it down bruadly as a maxim, 

 that the full and free disposition of all ecclesiastical bene- 

 fices belonged to the pope. (Clementines, lib. ii. tit. 5. c. 1 ; 

 F. Paul, c. 35.) It followed as a consequence from this 

 principle, that the pope couW make reversionary grants or 

 jirucisions, as they were called, during the lives of the in* 

 cumbcnts ; and that he could reserve such benefices as he 

 thought fit for his own peculiar patronage. At the same time, 

 dispensations from the canons against non-residence and plu- 

 ralities, and permissions to hold benefices in commendam were 

 freely granted, so that by these and similar means in some in- 

 stances fifty or sixty preferments were held by the same per- 

 son at once. The evils of this system were felt all over Eu- 

 rope. The best benefices were everywhere filled with Italian 

 priests, ignorant alike of the language and habits of the people 

 to whose spiritual wants they were bound to minister. Eng- 

 land in particular suffered so much from papal encroach- 

 ments atlring the reign of Henry III., that the English 

 deputies at the Council of Lyons (about A. D. 1245) com- 

 plained to the pope that the foreign clergy drew annually 

 from England upwards of 70,000 marks. This remon- 

 strance produced no effect, but the system at length became 

 so intolerable, that a determined plan of opposition to it 

 was gradually formed in the principal nations of western 

 Europe. In this opposition our own ancestors took tho 

 lead, and their efforts were in the end completely success- 

 ful. The parliament, assembled at Carlisle in the 35lh 

 year of Edward I., wrote a strong remonstrance to Popo 

 Clement V. against the papal encroachments on the right* 

 of patronage and the numerous extortions of the court of 

 Rome. This remonstrance appears to have produced no 

 effect, but it may be cited as a proof of the spirit of the 

 times. The government of Edward II. was too feeble to 

 act upon this spirit. The first prince who was bold enough 

 to assert the power of the legislature to restrain the , 

 encroachments was Edward III. After complaining in- 

 effectually to Clement VI. of the abuse of papal reservations, 

 he (A.D. 1350) procured the famous Statute of Provisors 

 (25 Ed. III. stat 6) to be passed. This act provided that 

 all elections and collations should be free according to law, 

 and that in case any provision, collation, or reservation 

 should be made by the court of Rome of any archliislioprick, 

 bishoprifk, dignity, or other benefice, the king should for 

 that turn have the collation of such arcbbishoprick or other 

 dignities elective, &c. 



This statute was fortified by several others in this and 

 the succeeding reigns, 27 Ed. III. stat. I.e. ]; 38 Ed. 

 III. stat. I.e. 4 ; :t Rich. II. c. 3 ; 7 Rich. II. c. 12 (which 

 enacts that no alien shall be capable of being presented to 

 any ecclesiastical preferment) ; 12 Rich, II. c. 15; 13 Rich.. 



