ERRATA. For 7 & 8 Vict. c. 77, wherever it occurs, read 6 & 7 Vict. c. 77. Page 17, line 18. Saunders-read Sanders. 108, lines 21, 22, "that this should be so, according to the "theory of ecclesiastical law. No considerable action " -read "that this should be so. According to the theory "of ecclesiastical law no considerable action." 158, note (o). 17 Adol. & El. p. 1-read 17 Adol. & El., N. S. p. 1. 159, note (p). 15 Adol. & El. p. 513—read 15 Adol. & El., N. S. p. 513. 227, note (0) should be placed to end of line 3 instead of end of line 8. The paragraph as to 13 & 14 Vict. c. 94, s. 20, should follow the subsequent paragraph. 279, note (q). Britton and Wade's case-read Britton and Ward's case. 281, line 14. 285, note (o). 286, line 24. 292, line 22. 362, note (t). 445, note (e). 530, note (e). Pringle v. Child-read Pringe v. Child. 22 Edw. 6-read 1 Edw. 6. Britton v. Wade-read Britton v. Ward. 3 Atk. 596-read 3 Atk. 576. Sir W. Elwis v. Abp. of York-read Elvis. Bp. of Lincoln and Whitehead v. Wolvershamread Wolferstan. 552, line 21. 586, note (d). 660, note (q). 675, note (a). 754, note (q). 32 & 33 Vict. c. 94, s. 19-read s. 9. 3 Atk. 599-read 3 Atk. 576. 1.G. & W. 483-read 1 J. & W. Shephard v. Bennett-read Sheppard. Sullivan v. Sullivan, 1 Consist. 254-read 2 Consist. 254. 755, note (u). Brockley. Wilkinson v. Brockley-read Wilson v. 832, note (a). Palm. 286-read 296. 898, second line from bottom. Saurez-read Suarez. Page 1092, line 5. respect-read respect. 1164, note (q). Wolverstan v. Bp. of London-read Wolferstan v. Bp. of Lincoln. 1441, note (¿). 1561, note (s). 1667, note (i). 1778, note (1). Rex v. Clive, Blanch. Rep.-read Black. Rep. Shepherd v. Payne-read Shephard v. Payne. Bp. of Norwich v. Pearce-read Pearse. Funacan-read Funucan. Omit words Ed. 3. Lonsler v. Haywood-read Lonsley v. Hayward. Churton v. Frewen, L. R., 2 Ex.-read Eq. 621-read 261. 1 Hagg. 394-read 1 Hagg. 39. 1 Consist. 332-read 1 Consist. 322. ECCLESIASTICAL LAW. PART I. INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH GENERALLY. THE Church (a) is a society of men instituted for the "The Church." worship of God, bound together by the profession of a. common faith, the practice of divinely ordained rites, andresting upon a visible external order. Such a society was unknown to heathen antiquity, and is the peculiar creature of christianity. Heathen antiquity had a priesthood, but not a church. Its religion was inseparably interwoven with the civil life and municipal law of the citizen (b). Its creed was not a regular system of doctrine directly affecting practice, but a variety of incoherent legends and traditions mingled with remnants of divine revelations, more or less believed by the people. Christianity is inseparable from a community, in which it imparts its truths by a regular course of instruction, and endeavours to secure the observance of its precepts by a moral and religious education; and being a revelation of the will of God is necessarily independent of municipal (a) Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts aller christlichen Confessionen von Ferdinand Walter (14th ed.), Bonn, 1871. A work of great knowledge and research -perhaps the best compendium of ecclesiastical law extant. The author has, however, an imperfect notion of the status of the English VOL. I. .. P. Church-and does not avoid the (b) "Publicum jus in sacris, B Divisions in the Church. institution, and unconfined by the limits of places or kingdoms. The Church of Christ ought to be, and once was, like the robe of its Blessed Founder, and like its faith, one. But in the lapse of time various errors have been introduced from various causes into the faith and practice of the Primitive Apostolic Church. This unity has been broken, and various communities of christians have formed separate churches. The great separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, originally caused by the arrogance, ambition and un-catholic conduct of Rome, remains from the same cause not only unhealed up to the present day, but vated by the new dogmas which Rome has recently promulgated, founded upon a new theory of development which shakes the stability of all christian faith. aggra From ke causes came the independence of our branch of the batholic church in England, Ireland and Scotland, and, their offshoots in the United States of America, in India in the British colonies and in heathen lands, and of the imperfectly constituted churches of the Protestants (c). From a like cause it seems probable that an independent Episcopal Church will be formed in Germany by those who, holding fast the ancient doctrine of the church and rejecting the novelties of the last Roman Council, adopt the title of "Old Catholics" and avoid the error and confusion generated by the ambiguous title of Protestant (d). (c) "Patet non dari universalem Ecclesiam Protestantium sed plures particulares Protestantium Ecclesias; sola enim unio in eandem fidem, quæ liberi assensus est, ad illam non sufficit, sed requiritur unio in unam eandemque societatem." G. L. Boehmer, Princip. Jur. Can., § 6, not.; Walter, ubi supra. "Si jamais les Chrétiens se rapprochent comme tout les y invite, il semble que la motion doit partir de l'Eglise de l'Angleterre." De Maistre, Considérations sur la France," ch. ii. (d) The Church of Ireland since its disestablishment has in some measure avoided a name which would imply that it was a sect แ rather than a branch of the Church. The preamble to their new canons 18 as follows:"Whereas it is expedient to "amend the canons of the Church "of Ireland, &c. ... That the canons hereinafter expressed "and enacted and none other "shall henceforth have full force "and effect as the canons of the "Church of Ireland." The preamble to this constitution speaks of 66 we the archbishops and bishops of this the ancient Catholic and Apostolic Church of Ireland," but speaks afterwards of it as "a Reformed and Protestant Church," rejecting innovations upon the Primitive Faith. CHAPTER II. CHARACTER AND STATUS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 66 one Catholic THE Church of England requires her members to believe Belief in the in "one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church," or Catholic and Apostolic Church" (a). A very grave and carefully considered manifesto, put forth in March, 1851, at the time of the last papal aggression, on her behalf by two archbishops and twenty bishops of England, distinctly declared "the undoubted identity of the church before and after the Reformation" (b): and that at this epoch she purged herself from certain corruptions and innovations of Rome, and established "one uniform ritual," but "without in any degree severing her connexion with the ancient Catholic Church." So also at the time of the foundation of the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave the new bishop a "letter commendatory" to the "right reverend our brothers in Christ, the prelates and bishops of the ancient and apostolic churches in Syria, and the countries adjacent ;" and in an explanatory statement published by authority, it was declared to be the duty of the new bishop "to establish and maintain, as far as in him lies, relations of christian charity with other churches represented at Jerusalem, and in particular with the Orthodox Greek Church" (c). In 1867, eight primates and sixty-eight bishops assembled from all parts of the globe, under the presidency of the metropolitan of Canterbury. The resolutions of this conference were prefaced by the following introduction: "We, bishops of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, in visible communion with the United Church of England and Ireland, professing the faith delivered to us in holy scripture, maintained by the primitive church, and by the fathers of the English reformation, now assembled, by the good providence of God, at the Archiepiscopal Palace of Lambeth, under the presidency of the primate of all England, desire, first, to give hearty thanks to Almighty God for having thus brought us together for (a) Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, English Prayer Book. (b) 2 Phill. Intern. Law, 476, 477. The Guardian, April 2nd, 1851. (c) 2 Phill. Intern. Law, 482, 483. |