assented to by the King, if contrary to the common or statute law, or any custom of the realm (a). As the laity are not represented by any portion of the members of the Convocation or Synod, canons are not proprio vigore, binding on the laity (b). The consent of the people is not included in the royal confirmation of the canons (c).

Ecclesiastics, and the ecclesiastical laws, and the execution of them, are peculiarly subject to the royal authority and superintendence, though the King does not execute this prerogative in person. Thus, the King has in general the power of visiting and reforming abuses in the church (d), through the medium of the Lord Chancellor, or of Commissioners appointed under the Great Seal. Free chapels, hospitals, and donations of the King's foundation, are visitable only by his Majesty; and where a King and a subject join in a foundation, the King shall visit, for he is founder (e).

The right and power of the Crown to dispense with the ecclesiastical law, in matters not repugnant to the law of God, existed before the time of Henry the Eighth (ƒ), and still exists, notwithstanding the statute 25 Hen. 8. c. 21. which vests a right to grant dispensations in the Archbishop of Canterbury, for there are no words in the statute expressly depriv ing the King of his prerogative, who enjoys it concurrently with the Archbishop of Canterbury (g). This power is confined to ecclesiastical regulations, and does not apply where any express provisions are pointed out by a statute with which the King cannot dispense (h); but in most ecclesiastical affairs the power applies. Thus, the King may grant an exemption from the visitation and jurisdiction of the ordinary (2), might enable a bastard to be a priest (k), and may grant dispensations in

(a) 12 Co. 72. 4 Inst. 322. 25 Hen. 8. c. 19. Stra. 1058.

(b) Stra. 1056.

(c) Ibid. See further as to Convocations or Synods. Burn's Eccl. Law, tit. Convocation.

(d) Com. Dig. title Visitor; and see post. 55.

(e) Ibid. 2 Inst. 68.

(f) Dav, 70, b. and 73. Godb. 108. Com. Dig. Prerogative, D. (D. 29), 6 V. 38. Vin. Ab. Prerogative, K. f. 17 yol, 255. 2 Burn's Eccl. Law, 164.

commendam, the nature of which will be considered in a subsequent part of this chapter (a). The right of the King to appoint and direct superstitious uses to such uses as are truly charitable (b), and to pardon offences against the ecclesiastical laws, flows from the same principle (c). So the King may, by proclamation, appoint fasts and days of thanksgiving and humiliation, and issue proclamations for preventing and punishing immorality and profaneness, and enjoin the reading of the same in churches and chapels (d).

"At the Council-Chamber, Whitehall, the 18th of November, 1818, present, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord President, Duke of Montrose, Lord Steward, Earl Bathurst, Earl of Liverpool, Viscount Melville, Viscount Sidmouth, Bishop of London, Lord St. Helens, Sir William Scott, Sir John Nicholl, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Lord Chief Baron.

"Whereas in the Act of Uniformity, which establishes the Liturgy of the Church of England, provision is made for such alterations in the Prayers for the Royal Family, as from time to time shall become necessary, and be directed by lawful authority: it is thereupon this day ordered in Council, that in the Morning and Evening Prayers, in the Litany, and in all other parts of the Public Service, as well in the occasional Offices as in the Book of Common Prayer, where the Royal Family is appointed to be particularly prayed for, the following form and order shall be observed, viz.

"Their Royal Highnesses George

Prince of Wales, the Princess of
Wales, and all the Royal Family.

"And it is further ordered, that no edition of the Common Prayer be from henceforth printed, but with this amendment; and that in the mean time, till copies of such edition may be had, all Parsons, Vicars, and Curates, within this Realm, do (for preventing of mistakes) with the pen, correct and amend all such prayers in their Church Books, according to the aforegoing direction; and for the better notice hereof, that this Order be forthwith printed and published, and sent to the several Parishes; and that the Right Reverend the Bishops do take care that obedience be paid to the same accordingly.

A

"CHETWYND.

"In pursuance of an Act passed in the tenth year of Her late Majesty Queen Anne, and of another Act passed in the thirty-second year of His present ~ Majesty, wherein provision is made for, praying for the Royal Family in that part of Great Britain called Scotland; it is hereby ordered in Council, that henceforth every Minister and Preacher shall, in his respective Church, Congregation, or Assembly, pray in express words,

"For His Most Sacred Majesty King George, their Royal Highnesses George Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family.

"Of which all persons concerned are hereby required to take notice, and govern themselves accordingly.

"CHETWYND."

On

On the same principles, the King was at common law, and is, the ultimate judge and dernier resort in ecclesiastical causes, though he does not exercise this jurisdiction in person (a).

By the statute 25 Hen. 8. c. 19. it is declared, that "For lack of justice, at or in any the Courts of the Archbishops of this realm, or in any the King's dominions, it shall be law-ful to the parties grieved to appeal to the King's Majesty in the King's Court of Chancery, and that upon every such appeal, a Commission shall be directed under the Great Seal, to such persons as shall be named by the King, like as in case of appeal from the Admiral's Court, to hear and definitively determine such appeals, and the causes concerning the same; which Commissioners, so by the King to be named or appointed, shall have full power and authority to hear and defi-. nitively determine every such appeal with the causes, and all circumstances concerning the same; and that such judgment and sentence as the said Commissioners shall make and decree in and upon any such appeal, shall be good and effectual, and also definitive; and no further appeals to be had or made from the said Commissioners for the same."

Upon this statute is considered that the appeal does not lie from a local visitor, nor in any case of a temporal nature (b).. The Commission is granted on petition, (which may be preferred by a person who is not an original party in the cause, if he be interested) (c), to the Lord Chancellor, who appoints the Commissioners or Delegates (d). These Commissioners, who may be laymen as well as ecclesiastics (e), have power to reverse or affirm the sentence of the inferior Court; but have no original jurisdiction, that is, a jurisdiction not by way of appeal, as to grant administration, &c (f). There are, however, some instances in which the Commissioners appointed by the King seem to possess an original jurisdiction, as where the Archbishop himself is interested, in which case the Commissioners may begin the suit; or in similar cases (g),‹

as where the object is to deprive ecclesiastical persons for offences against the canons (a). The proceedings of the Delegates must be according to the ecclesiastical laws; wherefore a suit before them does not abate by the death of either of the parties (b); and if they exceed their authority, or proceed in matters not properly within their conusance, they may be pro→ hibited by the Courts of Law (c)..

The statute 25 Hen. 8. c. 19. s. 4. enacts, it will have been remarked, that the sentence of the Delegates shall be definitive, and that no further appeal shall be had from them, and consequently no appeal lies even to the House of Lords (d). It is however settled, that after a sentence of the Delegates, the King may by his prerogative, on petition to him in Council, grant a Commission of Review under the Great Seal, appointing new or adding more to the former judges, to revise, review, and rehear the cause; and such Commissioners may reverse the sentence of the Delegates; for, as observed by Sir Edward Coke (e), the statute does not expressly restrain the King in this respect, and after a definitive sentence the Pope used to grant a Commission, ad revidendum, and such authority as the Pope had, claiming as supreme head of the Church, of right belongs to the Crown, and is annexed (or rather reannexed) thereunto, by the statutes 26 Hen. 8. c. 1. and 1 El. c. 1. However, the granting a Commission of Review is matter of discretion and not of right; and if it be a hard case, as where issue might be bastardized, the Chancellor will advise the Crown not to grant it (f).

"

Where the King is interested, an appeal to him in Chancery would be absurd; and therefore the party grieved" may appeal to the spiritual prelates and other abbots and priors of the upper house, assembled and convocate by the King's writ in the convocation being, or next ensuing within the province or provinces where the matter of contention is or shall be

begun, so that every such appeal be taken by the party grieved within fifteen days next after the judgment or sentence thereupon given or to be given: and that whatsoever shall be so done and affirmed, determined, decreed and adjudged by the said prelates, abbots and priors of the upper house of the said convocation, appertaining, concerning or belonging to the King, in any of these said causes of appeals shall stand and be taken for a final decree, sentence, judgment, diffinition and determination, and the same matter so determined never after to come in question and debate, to be examined in any other court or courts (a).”

६

With respect to appeals from places exempt, the statute 25 Hen. 8. c. 19. s. 6. enacts, "that such appeals shall be made immediately to the King's Majesty of this realm into the Court of Chancery, in like manner and form as they used afore to do to the see of Rome; which appeals and provocations so made shall be definitively determined by authority of the King's commission, in such manner and form as is mentioned in the act; so that no archbishop nor bishop of this realm shall intermit or meddle with any such appeals, otherwise or in any other manner than they might have done afore the making of this act."

The disposal of the principal ecclesiastical preferments belongs also to the King, as the head of the national church. The statute 25 Hen. 8. c. 20. enacts, that " on every avoidance of every archbishoprick or bishoprick within this realm, or in any other the King's dominions, the King may grant to the prior and convent, or the dean and chapter of the cathedral churches or monasteries where the see of such archbishoprick or bishoprick shall happen to be void; a licence under the great seal, as of old time hath been accustomed, to proceed to election of an archbishop or bishop of the see so being void, with a letter missive, containing the name of the person which they shall elect and choose: by virtue of which licence the said dean and chapter, or prior and convent, to whom any such licence and letters missive shall be directed, shall with all speed and celerity in due form elect and choose the same person named in the said letters missive, to the dig

(a) 24 Hen. 8. c. 12. s. 9. This statute does not appear to have been re

pealed by the 25th Hen. 8. c. 19. See 1 Wooddn. V. L. 77. 1 Bla, Com. 67.