BEN 



220 



15 li N 



porstions, but to all spiritual person* and corporations, who, 

 either liy virtue of antient appropriations, or by grants from 

 tin- crown since the dissolution of the religious I'r.itcriHties, 

 are entitled to the ntlios and other revenues of the churrli, 

 without performing any spiritual duties. By statute :t-j 

 Henry VIII. c. 7, the remedies which the law had provided 

 Vi the ecclesiastical courts for the subtraction of tithes are 

 communicated to laymen, and their title lo tithes is put on 

 the same footing with that to land, by giving them the same 

 or similar actions for vindicating their estates in those and 

 other ecclesiastical profits against all adverse claimants 

 whatsoever. In short, tithes and other fruits of benefices 

 when vested in laymen, arc liable to the same process of 

 execution for debt, and subject I* the same incidents of 

 alienation, descent, escheat, and forfeiture as all other incor- 

 porated real property. Moreover, by statute 43 Eliz. c. 2, 

 tithes impropriate are made liable to poor-rates. They are 

 also included in the Land-tax Acts : and by the late statute 

 of Limitations, 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 27, actions and suits for 

 their recovery are subject to the same periods of limitation 

 as those for the recovery of land. 



Another consequence of appropriation in England, be- 

 sides the vesting the possessions of the church in laymen, 

 was the endowment of vicarages. The appropriating corpo- 

 rations at first used to depute one of their own body to re- 

 Bide and officiate in the parish churches by turns or by lot, 

 and sometimes byway of penance; but as this practice 

 caused scandal to the church, especially in the case of mo- 

 nastic orders whose rules were thereby violated, the monks 

 by degrees ceased to officiate personally in the appropriated 

 churches, and this duty was committed to stipendiary vicars 

 or curates, who were, however, removable at the will of the 

 appropriates. One of the numerous pretexts urged by the 

 monastic bodies for obtaining appropriations had been that 

 they might be the better enabled to keep up hospitality in 

 their respective houses, and that they might relieve the poor. 

 These duties, however, were so far neglected as to give rise 

 to general discontent. In addition to which the officiating 

 priests were very poorly paid, and oppressed with hard ser- 

 vice, and consequently unable to answer the calls of hospi- 

 tality and charity. At length the legislature, by way <>r a 

 partial remedy to these evils, enacted (15 Richard II. c. 6), 

 "That in every licence for the appropriation of a parish 

 church it should be expressed that the diocesan bishop 

 should ordain, in proportion to the value of the church, a 

 competent sum to be distributed among the poor parish- 

 ioners annually, and that the vicarage should be sufficiently 

 endowed.' Still, as the vicar was removable at pleasure, he 

 was not likely to insist too strictly on the legal sufficiency 

 of the endowment. Therefore, to establish the total inde- 

 pendence of vicars upon the appropriate, the statute 4 

 Henry IV. c. 12, provided, ' That from thenceforth in every 

 church appropriated there should be a secular person or- 

 dained vicar perpetual, canonic-ally instituted and inducted, 

 and covenably (fitly) endowed by the discretion of the ordi- 

 nary, to do divine service, and to inform the people, and to 

 keep hospitality there ; and that no religious, i. f. regular 

 priest, should in anywise be made vicar in any church appro- 

 priated.' From the endowments made in pursuance of this 

 statute have arisen all the vicarages that exist at the present 

 day. The title of the vicar to tithes and other ecclesiastical 

 dues, such as Easter offerings (which are said to be due to 

 the parson or vicar of common right), and customary pay- 

 ments for marriages, burials, and baptisms, depends primarily 

 upon the deed of endowment. As, however, the rector and 

 Mcar are persons equally capable in law of holding such pro- 

 perty, the deed is not always conclusive evidence in any 

 question that may arise between these parties as to their re- 

 spective rights ; but it is said, that where either of them has 

 for a long time had undisputed enjoyment of any particular 

 portion of the tithes or other fruits of the benefice, which is 

 not consistent with the terms of the original deed, a variation 

 of that deed by some subsequent instrument may be presumed 

 in favour of such long enjoyment. The endowments of 

 \icarage* have generally consisted of a part of the glebe- 

 land of the parsonage, and what are technically called the 

 mall tithes of the parish. In some places, also, a portion 

 of the great tithes has been added to the vicarages. [For 

 the legal distinction between great and small tithes, see 

 TITHES.] 



A vicarage by endowment becomes a distinct benefice, of 

 which the patronage is vested in the impropriator or sine- 

 cure rector, and is said to be appendaut to the rectory. It 



follows that the vicnr, being endowed with separate revenues, 

 is enabled to recover his temporal rights without the aid of 

 thcpatron. 



The lost of the original Act of Endowment is supplied by 

 prescription ; '. e. it the vicar has enjoyed any parlicular 

 tithes or other fruits by constant usage, tiie law will presume 

 that he was legally endowed with them. 



If the impropriator, cither by design or mistake, presents 

 the vicar to the parsonage, the vicarage ill be di-sulvcd, 

 and the person presented will be entitled to all r 

 astical dues as rector. [On the subject of the dissolution 

 of vicarages, sec VICARAGE.] 



It is to be observed that the statute 4 Henry IV. c. 1.', 

 did not extend to appropriations made before the li. 

 Richard II. Hence it happens that in some appropi, 

 churches no vicar has ever been endowed. In this case 

 the officiating minister is appointed by the 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, from Dr. 

 Burn (Eccles. Late, tit. 'Curate'), that there were some 

 benefices which, being granted for the purpose of support- 

 ing the hospitality of the monasteries (in mrn*a muna- 

 rhnrum), ana not appropriated in the common form, escaped 

 the operation of the statute of Henry IV. In this case, ac- 

 cording to the same author, the benefices were served by 

 temporary curates belonging to the religious houses, and 

 sent out as occasion required ; and sometimes the liberty 

 of not appointing a perpetual vicar was granted by dispen- 

 sation, in benefices not annexed to taV.es of the monas- 

 teries. When such appropriations, together with the charge 

 of providing for the cure, were transferred (after the < 

 lution 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 bo removable at the pie 

 of the impropriator, but only for such causes as would occa- 

 sion the depriving of a rector or vicar, or by the rc\oration 

 of the bishop's licence. (Burn, ibid.) 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 case 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 ore not corporations in 

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

 other perpetual curates. Neither arc chapels of ease subject 

 to lapse, although the bishop may, by process in the eccle- 

 siastical courts, compel the patrons to fill them up. But the 

 statute 1 Geo. I. scss. 2, c. 10, provides that all churches, 

 curacies, or chapels, which shall be augmented by the 

 !_ r "vcrnors of Queen Anne's Bounty, shall be from thence- 

 forth 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 pre- 

 scntative livings. [See CHAPEL ; CBRATK.] 



The district churches built in pursuance of several recent 

 acts (as 58 Geo. III. c. 45 : 59 Geo. 111. c. 134 ; 3 Geo. IV. 

 c. 72 ; 5 Geo. IV. c. 91 ; 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 7-J : 1 and > 

 Will. IV. c. 38; '2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 61) arc made perpe- 

 tual 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 j>erfcct the 

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

 full effect from the single act and sole authority of tho 

 donor. Tho chief further peculiarity of donatives is their 

 exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. 



The manner of visitation of donatives is by commissioners 

 appointed by tho patron. If the patron dies during lh<! 

 vacancy of a donative benefice, the right of nomination de- 

 scends to his heir-at-law, and docs not belong to his <\ 

 ecutors, as is the ca.se with the patronage of prcsentativo 



