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Apoftolical Practice is obferved by us, and • almost all Provinces, that for the due cele'brating Ordinations, all the nearest Bishops of the fame Province fhould affemble, toge'ther with that People over which a Prelate is to be Ordained, and that the Bishop fhould • be chosen in the prefence of that People which is most fully acquainted with the Life of all the Candidates, and has throughly looked into the Converfation of every one of them. Which we fee has been done by you in the Ordination of our Collegue Sabinus, that the Bishoprick should be conferred on him, and he should receive impofition of Hands in the room of Bafilides, by the Suffrage of the whole Fraternity, and the Judg ❝ment of the Bishops who were prefent, and • of those who Wrote Letters to you concerning him. The Right of Election therefore (as Dr. Beveridge obferves from this Place) Ad Can, 4. was in the Bishops prefent, but the Confent Council Nicar and Approbation of the Election, with a Teftimony of the Converfation of the Perfon Elected, appertained to the People: That is, the Peoples Suffrage and Teftimony was ask'd, and then the Bishops acted what themfelves Judged expedient. The Confent of the People was ask'd, not that it was thought abfolutely needful, but only that thereby they might be the better pleafed and fatisfied with their Bifhop, because they themselves, alfo gave their Suffrage to his Election. But it is certain that the whole Power of Election as well as Ordination was in the Bishops, even as it had been in their Predeceffors the Apoftles. For we may read of many Epifcopal Ordinations and Elections, celebrated by the Bishops without Cc 3

the

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the People, but of none by the People without the Bishops. However, it was not convenient that the Bishops fhould exercise this Power frequently, leaft the People offended with fuch a defpotick proceeding, might make a Schifin from their Paftor. Wherefore I am perfwaded, that the People, amongst which I alfo include the Clergy, generally nominated fome fit Perfon or Perfons, whom the Bishops if they approv'd of, Confecrated, or otherwife Ordered them to make a new Choice; which if they refused to do, then the Bishops themselves appointed whom they thought fit.

The like Method was observed in the Ordination of a Prieft or Deacon, faving that in this cafe the Diocefan only was concerned, and no other Bishop. He Ordained whom he thought fit, but generally demanded the Suffrage and Teftimony of the People, as may be Collected from the preceding Passage to that already cited from St. Cyprian, and from Balfamons comment on the Thirteenth Canon of the Council of Laodicea, which Practice is ftill obferved in the Church of England. For altho' the Bishop Ordains whom he pleases; yet the Peoples Confent, Suffrage and Testimony is always demanded, and they have any of them free Liberty to make their Objections against any Perfon to be Ordained, and if they do make any, the Ordination is to be deferred till they are heard, as is moft apparent from our Forms of Ordination. This was the Ancient and Primitive manner of Ordaining and Electing in the Christian Church, and still continues the fame for the Two inferiour Orders.

After

Afterwards when the Empire became Chriftian, and the Church was Incorporated with the State, the Form and Manner of Electing, tho' not of Confecrating Bishops was a little

..

1.

varied. The Emperor Juftinian Decreed, Nov. 123. cap. That when a Bifhop was to be Ordained, the I. & 137. cap. 2, Clergy and chief Men of the City should Af femble, and having taken an Oath upon the Gofpels to make an impartial Choice of Three Perfons well qualified, (whofe qualifications are particularly expreffed in the Oath) and He of thofe Three Perfons fhall be Confecrated, whom the Bishops that are to Ordain him fhall judge the most worthy. But this Edict could oblige only the Eaftern Church, and fo much of the Western as was under the Empire of Juftinian. But the other Western Churches (amongst which the British Churches are to be number'd) followed, no doubt the † Decree of the Council of Arles, Can. g: A. D. 452. Wherein it is Ordained, That to avoid Ambition and Simony, the Bishops fhall name Three Perfons, of whom the Clergy and People shall choose one.

VV

CHA P. XVI.

Of Feuds or Benefices.

Hen the Goths, Vandals, Germans, and other Northern Nations broke violently like a Torrent upon the Roman P pire, and in fome places drove out and es

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pated, and in others Conquer'd and Incorporated with the old Inhabitants, and fet up their own Leaders or Generals for Kings and Lords in the Countries where they fettled, they brought in with them their own Laws, Cuftoms and Tenures, amongst which the Feudal Tenure is the moft eminent, as totally differing from all the ancient Tenures of the Romans. Tho' fome will pretend to derive it from the old Clientela amongst them, but 'tis certainly very different from it. Others derive it from the time of Alexander Severus, who as Lampridius tells us in the Life of that Prince, gave fuch Lands as he won out of the Enemies hands to his Officers and Soldiers, that they should be theirs and their Heirs for ever, on condition they would continue Soldiers: And fuch fome pretend the ancient Border-ground to have been, of which we have a Title in the Code de fundis Limitrophis. And 'tis not improbable that the Roman Emperors might learn to difpofe of their conquer'd Lands after this manner, from the Example of thofe Enemies who fo frequently infested them. However, it is certain that they came Originally from the Northern Nations, who as old * De Bell. Gal. as Cafar's time had their Ambacti or Feuda* tary Vaffals, long before any thing of the like Nature was established in the Empire. These Feuds probably received their name from Fœdus (if from any Latin Word) because of the Covenant between the Lord and his Vaffals: But the Feudifts fay a fide quam præftat Vafallus

lib. 6.

Feud. 2 Tit.

Domino.

Obertus de Orto to his Son Anfelm, defines 23 § In primis. Or defcribes a Feud which he alfo calls a Benefice, after this manner:

This kind of

• Benefice

• Benefice whereof we now treat, is volunta⚫rily and of meer good Will fo given to ano. ther, that the Propriety of a thing immove

able thus granted, shall still remain in the "Giver: But the Ufus Fructus [that is, whatever Profit or Benefit accrues from it] of the thing thus given, fhall be transferred to the Receiver, and to his Heirs Male or Fe male (if they be exprefly mentioned in the • Grant) for ever: On this Condition, that he and his Heirs, fhall faithfully ferve the Lord of the Fee, whether that Service be particularly < expreffed what it ought to be, or indefinitely promifed. Dr. Ridley defines it thus. A Feud is a Grant of Lands, Honours or Fees, made to a Man, either at the Will of the Lord or Soveraign, or for the Feudatary's own Life, or to him and his Heirs for "ever, under Condition that he and his Heirs fo long as they poffefs thofe Lands, Honours or Fees, do acknowledge the Giver and his Heirs to be their Lord and Soveraign, and 'fhall bear Faith and Allegiance to him and his for the faid Tenure, and fhall do fuch Service to him and his, for the fame as is • between them covenanted, and proper to

&

I.

View of Civ.
Eccl. Law. par.

c. 4. §. I.

the Nature of a Feud. These were at Feud. 1. Tito 1. first granted only during the Will of the.. Lord: Afterwards they were firm for a Year: Then it was decreed that they fhould be continued during the Feudatary's own Life: But because the Sons could challenge no Right of Succeffion to the Feud, in Procefs of Time the Lord commonly gave it to one of them, yet made his own Choice of which Son he pleafed, till at length it was decreed by the Emperour Conradus Salicus, A. D. 915, that all the præcipimus.

Sons

Feud. s. Tit. 1.

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