L A W. 



637 



Lav bishops ; requiring them to confirm, invest, and con- 

 iBgtai secrate the person so elected ; which they are bound to 

 *"Y"*' perform immediately without any application to the 

 see of Komi-. After which, the bishop elect shall sue 

 to the king for his temporalities, shall make oath to the 

 king and none other, and shall take restitution of his 

 secular possessions out of the king's hands only. And 

 .^h dean and chapter do not elect in the manner by 

 the act appointed ; or if such archbishop or bishop, 

 do refuse to confirm, invest, and consecrate such bishop 

 elect, they shall incur all the penalties of a pnemunire. 



3. An archbishop is the chief of the clergy in a whole 

 ice ; and has the inspection of the bishops of that 



province, as well as of the interior cler/y, and may de- 

 them on notorious cause. The archbishop has 

 also liia own diocese, wherein he exercises episcopal 

 jurisdiction, as in bis province he exercises archiepis- 

 iiipiil 



4. The power and authority of a bishop, besides the 

 administration of certain holy ordinances peculiar to 

 the sacred order, consist principally in inspecting the 

 manners of the people. and clergy, and punishing them 

 in or .nualion, by ecclesiastical censures. To 

 this purpose he has several courts under him, and may 



at pleasure every part of his diocese. 

 b. Archbishopricks, and bi&hopricks, may become 

 void by death, deprivation for any very gross and no- 

 ' torious crime, and also by resignation. All resignations 

 t must be made to some superior. Therefore, a bishop 

 must resign to his metropolitan ; but the archbishop 

 can resign to none but the king himself. 



6. A dean and chapter are the council of the bishop, 

 to assist him with their advice in affairs of religion, and 

 temporal concerns of his see. The bishop 

 is their ordinary and immediate superior ; and has, 

 generally speaking, the power of visiting them, and cor- 

 recting their excesses and enormities. Deaneries and 

 prebends may become void, like a bi.ihoprick, by death, 

 itioii, or by resignation to either the king or 

 the bishop. 



A panon, persona tcclttiac, is one that has full 

 possession of all the rights of a parochial church. He 

 is called parson, pmona, because, by his person, the 

 church, which is an invisible body, is represented ; and 

 ha is in luin-flf a body corporate, in order to protect 

 and defend the rights of the church, (which he perso- 

 . rpetual succession. A parson has, dur- 

 freehold in him v It" of the parsonage 

 hvuM, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues. 



method of becoming a parson or vicar is much 

 the same. To both there are four requisites necessary ; 

 holy order*, presentation, institution, and induction. 

 method of conferring the holy orders of deacon 

 and priest is according to the liturgy and canons. 

 9- Ooe may cease to be a parson or vicar: I. By 

 death, 2. By ceMion, in taking another benefice. 3. 

 By consecration , lor, as was mentioned !>. fore, when 

 a clerk is promoted to a bishoprick, all his other pre- 

 ferments are void the instant that he is consecrated. 4. 

 By resignation. 5. By deprivation. 



10. A curate is the lowest degree in the church; 

 being in the same state that a vicar was formerly, an 

 officiating temporary minister, instead of the proper in- 

 cumbent. 



1 1. Church- wardens are the guardians or keepers of 

 the church, and representatives of the body of the 



h. They are sometimes appointed by the minis- 

 ter, tomethaea by the parish, sometimes by both to- 

 gether, as ttutom directs. Their office also is to repair 

 2 



the church, and make rates and levies for that purpose ; Law 

 but these are recoverable only in the ecclesiastical court. of England. 

 They are also joined with the overseers in the care and ''"""Y" 

 maintenance of the poor. There are a multitude of 

 other petty parochial powers committed to their charge 

 by divers acts of parliament. 



12. The military slate is constituted of the whole sol- Military 

 diery of the country. That part which is called the state, 

 militia, cannot be sent out of the United Kingdom. 



13. Officers, soldiers, and mariners, who have been its privileg- 

 in his Majesty's service, are enabled at the close of the es. 



war to use any trade or occupation they are fir. for, in 

 any town in the kingdom, notwithstanding any custom 

 or statute to the contrary. Soldiers or mariners in ac- 

 tual service, may make nuncupative wills, and dispose 

 of their personal chattels, without the usual forms that 

 are at oiher times required : The military of the coun- 

 try are governed by martial law. 



14. The maritime stale consists of all officers and sea- Maritime 

 men employed in his Majesty's navy, who are impres- state. 

 sed or volunteer into the service ; neither soldier nor 

 mariner can be arrested for a less sum than 20 ; and, 



if a seamen, after the debt is discharged the sheriff is 

 bound to return him safe to some officer empowered to 

 receive sailors ; upon the sheriff's failing so to do, he 

 is liable in a penalty of 100. 



15. The law recognises marriage simply as a civil Husband 

 contract ; the spiritual courts take notice of all inces- ar 

 tuous or unscriptural marriages. By this union the 

 husband and wife become one person in law ; so that. 



if an estate be granted to an husband and wife, and an- 

 other person, the husband and wife take but one half. 



16. Marriage is voidable when solemnized without How mar. 

 license or publication of banns in the church of the ria 8 e voi(J - 

 parish where the parties dwell, in the time of divine r 1 .' "* 

 service, three several Sundays, or holy days, and if the trary tolaw. 

 ceremony be performed before a less number of witnes- 

 ses than two, besides the minister ; it is also voidable 



where the parties are a boy under fourteen years of 

 age, or a girl under twelve years of age ; by a pre-con- 

 tract, if accompanied with bodily knowledge ; consan- 

 guinity ; affinity by marriage ; and some corporeal in- 

 firmities. The common law will not allow these disa- 

 bilities after either of the parties is dead. When par- 

 ties contract to marry, one above the age of twenty-one 

 years, and the other under, the one of full age is bound 

 but the minor is not. 



17. A party, marrying by license, if a minor, Consent of 

 and not having been married before, must have the parents or 



consent of a father, if living ; if he be dead, of a guar- BP rii IU 

 i- , / ,, . i !> *i_ i_ when ncccs- 



dian lawtullif appointed j it there be no such guar- s 



dian, then of the mother if she is unmarried; if there 

 be no mother, then of a guardian appointed by the 

 court of chancery. The guardian whose consent is 

 interposed between that of the father and that of the 

 mother, must either be a testamentary guardian ap- 

 pointed by the father's will, or a guardian appointed 

 by chancery ; but the marriage of an infant, without 

 such consent, may still be good where banns are regu- 

 larly published ; unless a dissent is openly declared by 

 the parent or guardian in the church or chapel at the 

 time of publishing ; in which case the banns are void. 



18. No license can be granted by any archbishop, L; censeSt 

 bishop, &c. to solemnize any marriage in any other 

 church than that of the parish wherein the parties or 

 either one of them shall have dwelt for the space of 



four weeks, immediately before, the granting such li- 

 cense ; but the statute does not prevent the archbishop 

 of Canterbury from granting spwial licenses. 



