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«nd tlic people of the parilh, province, or dioeefe, or of the 

 cltrj;)- ar.d laity, as thty were afterwards called ; nor did any 

 church apply to the neighbouring bilhops to affill at the or- 

 dination. IrenKiis was ordained by pricfts only ; and fuch 

 w:is the gencr.il cuftom of the church of Ale;iandri3, till 

 the beginninj^ of the fourth century. Cyprian a!fo iays, 

 that it belonged to the people chiefly to choofc worthy 

 pallors, and to refufe the unwortliy. Thus Alexander was 

 chofcn bifliop of Jcrufalcrn, Fabianns and Cornelius of 

 Rome, and Cyprian of Cartlia.;e. Wiien the pei-iple had 

 thus elcAed a bidiop, lluy profcnted him to the neigiibour- 

 injj bifliops for their approbation and confent ; becaufe, 

 without their concurrer.t alfcnt, no bilhop could be legally 

 inllitutcd, or conlirmcd. This was the cafe with regard to 

 Alexander, alreaJy mentioned, and Sabinuf, bifhop of 

 Enierita in Spain. After eleftion and confirmation, the 

 next aft was the ordination or inftalment of the bilhop, 

 which was done in his own church by the neighbouring bi- 

 fliops, who were invited to attend on the occafion. The 

 atterdanec of the neighbouring bidiops, which feems to have 

 been at firft voluntary on both fides, became cuftomary, 

 and at length neceflary ; and it was an ellablilhed rule, 

 that the coucurrcnce of thefe wasindifpenfible, one of whom 

 laid liis hand on the head of the new bilTiop, when he was 

 recommended by prayer to the bleffing of God. In the 

 third century, this was always done by the metropolitan 

 bifliop ; or at Ijall it was never done without his conleiit or 

 order. The fecond council of Nice ordered tliat bilhops 

 ftiould be chofen by other bifliops ; but in the well, the peo- 

 ple prcfcrved the right of choofiiig tiieir bilhops, till after 

 the reign of Charlemagne and his fons ; and it was not 

 taken from them till the council uf Avignon, in 1050. 

 Bafnage Hift. Eglifes Reformees, vol. iii. p. 24. 



Under the plea of tlie tumult that attended popular elec- 

 tions, the emperors, and other fovereigns of Europe, took 

 the appointment in fonie degree into their own hands ; re- 

 fervinj to themfelves the right of confirming thcfe cleAions, 

 and of granting invelliture of the temporalities, without 

 which corfirmation and invelliture, the tleded billiop could 

 neither be confecrated, nor receive anv fecular picfits. I'his 

 right was acknowledged in the emperor Cliarlemagr.c, 

 A. D. 773, by pope Adrian I. and the co<?nciI of L;itc;an, 

 and univerfally exerc fed by other Chriilian princts ; but 

 the policy of the court of Rome contrived to exclude the 

 la:ty from any (hare in thefe eleftions, and to confine them 

 wholly to the clergy ; but the mere form of eleftion ap- 

 peared to the people to be of little confequence, while the 

 crown was in pofl,.flion of an abfoiute negative, which was 

 almoll equivalent to a dircd right of ^nomination. Indeed, 

 princes a:id magiilratcs, patiiarchs and popes, have ufurped 

 the power cf cledir.g bifhops. The election was to be 

 within three months after the vacancy of the fee ; and the 

 perfon to be chofcn out of the clergy of that church. For- 

 merly the bilhop claimed a foare in the cleftion of an 

 archbiHiop ; but this was fct afide by the popes. 



In England, during the Saxon times, the right of ap- 

 pointing to bilhoprics is faid to have been in the'trown, be- 

 caufe the rights of confirmation and invelliture were, in cf- 

 feft, though not in form, a right of complete donation. 

 But when, by length of lime, the cullom of making elec- 

 tions by the clergy was fully eflablilhed, the popes began 

 to except to the ufual method of granting thefe inveftitures, 

 which was "perannulum et baculum," by'the prince's deliver- 

 ing to the prelate a ring, and pailoral ilalF, or crolier ; pretend- 

 ing that this was an encroachment on the church's authority, 

 and an attempt by thefe fymbols to confer a I'piritual jurifdic 

 »ion: aadpope Gregory VII. about the clofc of the iith cen- 



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tury, publiHied a bull of excommunication agnirtll sll piracy 

 who fhonld dare to confer inveftitures, and ;dl prelates wha 

 fliould venture to receive them. At length, however, whta 

 the emperor Henry V. agreed to remove ail fufpiclon of ea- 

 croaehment on the Ipiritual charaaer by conferrmg invefti. 

 tures for the future '• per fceptrum" and not " per anmilunt 

 et baculum ;" and when the kings of England and Franc« 

 confer.tcd aUb to alter the form in their kingdoms, and re- 

 ceive only homage from the bilhops for their temporalities, 

 inllead of invclling them by the ring and crolier; the court 

 of Rome found it prudent to fufpcnd for a while its other 

 prctenfior,<;. Thisconceffion was obtained from king Henry I. 

 in England, by means of that obfiinate arid arrogant pre- 

 late arehbifliop Anfelm ; but king John, about a century 

 afterwiirds, in order to obtain the protection of the pope 

 againll his difcontented barons, was alfo prevailed upon ta 

 give up bv a charter, to all the monafteries aiid cathedrals iu 

 the kingdom, the free right of electing their prelates, w^he- 

 ther abbots or bilhops ; referving only to the crown the cuf- 

 tody of the temporalities during the vacancy ; the form ct 

 granting a licence to eleft, which is the original of our 

 conge d'tiire," on refufal whereof the eleftors might pro- 

 ceed without it ; and the right of approbation afterwards, 

 which was not to be denied without a reafonablc and lawful 

 caufe. This grant was exprefsly recognized and confirmed 

 in king John's Magna Charta, and was again ettablillied by 

 flat. 25 Edw. III. (I. 6. § 3. But by itat.,25 Hen. VIII. 

 cap. 20. the ancient right of nomination wa?, in effeiS, re- 

 llortd to the crown. The Eiiglilh luccefiion of proteftant 

 bidiops llands on this laft ground. Tiie ki'.^g being certified 

 of the death of a bilhop by the d-.an and chapter, and 

 his leave requciled to eleft another, the con^e d'e/ire, or 

 ufual licence, is fent to them, with a letter miffive, nomi- 

 nating the perfon whom he would have chofen. The elec- 

 tion is to be within twelve d?.ys after the receipt of it, other- 

 wife the king by letters patent appoints whom he pleafes ; 

 and the chapter, In cafe of refuling the perfon named by 

 the king, incurs a praemunire. The election, or nomination, 

 if it be of a bidiop, mull be fignilied by the king's letters 

 patent to the archbiftiop of the province ; if it be of an arch- 

 bilhop, to the other archbifhop and two bifhop?, or to four 

 bidiops ; requiring them to confirm, inveft, and confecratt 

 the perfon fo eleiiled ; which they are bound to perform im- 

 mediately, without any application to the fee of Rome. - If 

 fuch archbifhop, or bidiops, refufe to confirm, invert, and 

 confecrate f«ch bidiop eleft, they fhall incur all the penal- 

 ties of a ^r.fOTwnire. After eletlion, and its being accepted 

 of by the bidiop, the king grarits a mandate under the great 

 feal for confirmation, which the archbidiop configns to his 

 vicar-general, confiding moftly in a folemn citation of fuch 

 as have any objeftions to the bidiop eledt, a declaration of 

 their contumacy in notappearing, and an adminiltration of the 

 oaths of allegiance and fuprem.acy, of fimony, and canonical 

 obedience. Sentence being read by the vicar-general, the 

 bifliop is inttalled in the province of Canterbury by the arch- 

 deacon : the faft is recorded by a public notary ; and ths 

 bidiop is inverted with full powers to exercife ail fpiritual 

 jurifdiclious, though he cannot fue for his temporalities till 

 after confecration. Then follows the confeciation by the 

 archbilhop, or fome other bidiop appointed by lawful com- 

 midions, and two afllrtant bilhops : the ceremony of which 

 is much the fame as in the Romi'li church, fave that, hwlng 

 put on the epilcopal robe, the archbilhop a>d bi'hops lay 

 their hands on the new prelate's head, and conftcate tiiin 

 with a certain form of words. The fees of the whole pro- 

 cefs are faid to amount to about 600I. 



The procefs of the tranfl?jtioa of a bilhop to another bi- 



fhopric 



