Amendments relating to minor canons. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113. It is enacted by sect. 15 of 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39: Notwithstanding any thing in the secondly-recited act contained, any minor canon in any cathedral or collegiate church may take and hold, together with his minor canonry, any benefice which is within the distance prescribed by the said act; and that in every case in which any dean before the passing of the same act enjoyed a right, as such dean, to appoint any minor canon, nothing Ss. 44, 45, 46. therein contained shall be construed to deprive him or his successors thereof; and that, in the construction of the same act and of this act, the term minor canon' shall not be construed to extend to or include any other than a spiritual person." Sect. 93. What the term "minor canon" includes. Estates of &c. Returning to 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, it is enacted by s. 93, that "the term minor canon' shall be construed to extend to and include every vicar, vicar-choral, priest vicar, and senior vicar, being a member of the choir in any cathedral or collegiate church." Provision for vesting the estates of the minor cathedral minor canons, corporations in the ecclesiastical commissioners is made by 27 & 28 Vict. c. 70. By 29 & 30 Vict. c. 111, s. 18, the commissioners are enabled in certain cases to raise the salaries of minor canons, vicars-choral, and lay clerks. As to other portions of these statutes. Commissioners may contribute, in certain cases, to fabric fund. The provisions in the acts 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, and 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39, as to new and old archdeaconries, their estates, and the annexation of canonries to them; as to new rural deanries, residence houses and certain hospitals; benefices and their augmentations; sinecure preferments, exchange of advowsons, consent of patrons, are treated of hereafter. But it may be observed here, that by sect. 22 of 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, it is provided that non-residentiary prebends and officers, extended by sect. 7 of 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39, to the offices of sacrist, custos, and hospitaller, shall not convey a right to any endowment or emolument. By ss. 51, 52, estates of non-residentiary prebends and certain other offices are vested, with a proviso respecting the separate estates, in the ecclessiastical commissioners. And the following important enactment as to the sustentation of the fabric of the cathedral should be noticed: Sect. 53. "Provided also, that in any cathedral church on the old foundation in which any contribution to the fabric fund of such church has heretofore, either usually or occasionally, been made out of the rents, profits or proceeds of any lands, tithes or other hereditaments so vested or to be vested in the ecclesiastical commissioners for England, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners to contribute to such fund such sum as they shall deem necessary out of the rents, profits or proceeds of the same lands, tithes or other hereditaments, not exceeding in amount the proportion of such rents, profits or proceeds which has usually been applied to like purposes" (b). ferred to By 31 Vict. c. 19, the transference of the estates of Estates of several deans and chapters to the ecclesiastical commis- deans and sioners is confirmed; and by 31 & 32 Vict. c. 114, the chapters transcommissioners are empowered in like manner to take over ecclesiastical by scheme, confirmed by Order in Council, the estates of commissioners. the other deans and chapters (c). A bill concerning the resignations of deans and canons Resignation of has passed the House of Commons and is now before the deans and House of Lords. If it become law it will be mentioned hereafter. (b) See as to Manchester Cathedral, p. 230, supra. (c) See these acts treated at length in the chapter on the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. canons. CHAPTER V. ARCHDEACONS. SECT. 1.-Under the Old Law. 2.- Under Modern Statutes. THE ancient and important office of archdeacon (d) must now be considered under two heads: First, under the old law; Secondly, under the recent law. Primitive office of archdeacon. 1.-Under the Old Law. Though archdeacons in these latter ages of the church have usually been of the order of presbyters, yet anciently they were no more than deacons. So Hieron. ep. 85, ad Evagr. "aut diaconi eligant de se quem industrium noverint et archidiaconum vocent." He was the principal deacon, as the archpresbyter was the principal presbyter of each church. It is matter of great dispute whether he was elected by the deacons or appointed by the bishop; but it would seem that he was usually a person possessing such influence in the Church as to be chosen the bishop's successor. The primitive offices of the archdeacon may be all enumerated under five heads. First, to attend the bishop to the altar and to order all things relating to the inferior clergy and the ministrations in the church. condly, to assist the diocesan in the distribution and management of the ecclesiastical revenues. Thirdly, to assist him also in preaching; for as any deacon was authorized to preach by the bishop's leave, so the archdeacon, being the most eminent of the deacons, was more frequently selected for the discharge of this duty. Fourthly, he also bore a part with the bishop in the ordination of the inferior clergy; such as subdeacons, acolythists, &c. Fifthly, the archdeacon was also invested with authority to censure the inferior clergy, but not the presbyters, that is to say, not in the first ages of the Church; but some time before the (d) Godolphin, Rep. Can. c. viii. of Archdeacons; Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Se Church; Stillingfleet's Miscell. 242; and Ecclesiastical Cases, 14; Wilkins's Concilia, 1. compilation of the Decretum by Gratian, the practice of choosing archdeacons from the order of presbyters had begun. So also it appears doubtful whether the archdeacon's power anciently extended over the whole diocese or was confined to the city or mother church. During the middle ages of the Church it was undoubtedly co-extensive with the diocese. Isidorus Hispalensis, who lived at the beginning of the seventh century, describes his office as follows (e): "Solicitudo quoque parochiarum et ordinatio et jurgia ad ejus pertinent curam. Pro reparandis diœcesanis basilicis ipse suggerit sacerdoti. Ipse inquirit parochias cum jussione episcopi et ornamenta vel res basilicarum parochiarum et libertatum episcopo idem refert." As deacons were called the eyes, ears and mouth of the bishop (f), so the archdeacon was called the "oculus Episcopi," as he is designated in the Decretals (g), and by the Council of Trent (h), as well as by more ancient authors. The origin of this office is lost in great obscurity, and its exact date has been the subject of much dispute. All that can be alleged with certainty seems to be, that inasmuch as it is mentioned by St. Jerome and other writers of the fourth century, it must have been instituted before that period. Stillingfleet says, "By the 4th council of Toledo the bishop was to visit his whole diocese parochially every year. The Gloss saith, if there were occasion for it; and that the bishop may visit as often as he sees cause; but if he be hindered, the canon saith, he may send others (which is the original of the archdeacon's visitation) to see not only the condition of churches, but the lives of the ministers." The early ecclesiastical records of our own country mention the archidiaconal dignity as a part of the cathedral constitution. The archdeacons are described as members of the chapter, whose particular office it was to assist the bishop in the exterior government of the Church, while the duty of others, such as the dean and chancellor, was connected with their residence in the cathedral (¿). Thus the chapter of Lincoln is said to have been transplanted by Remigius, Bishop of Lincoln, from Dorchester, who placed there a dean, treasurer, precentor, and seven (e) See ep. ad Ludifred. et apud Grat. Dist. 25, c. 1. (f) Greg. i. 23, de officio Archidiaconi; Lyndwood, de officio Archidiaconi, lib. i t. 10; Const. Apost. lib. ii. c. 44, 1. 3, c. 19. (g) Lib. i. tit. 23, c. 9. (h) Sess. 24, c. 12, de Reform. (i) See stat. Lichefield, A.C. 1194; Wilk. i. p. 498. "Archidiaconi officiales sunt episcopi, quorum officium in exterioribus administrationibus consistit." Primitive office of archdeacon. archdeacons (k). In Salisbury, a narrower diocese, there were four archdeacons. "Quatuor itaque sunt personæ in ecclesiá Sarisburiensi: decanus, cantor, cancellarius, thesaurarius, quatuor archidiaconi," &c. (1). When Bishop Douglas, of Moray in Scotland, erected the church of Spyny into the cathedral church of Moray, he wrote to the dean and chapter of Lincoln for advice, in obedience to which he appropriated one canonry to an archdeacon. "Investietur autem archidiaconus et installabitur in prædictâ canoniâ sicut canonicus in ecclesiâ Lincoln" (m). The archdeacons were empowered to hold rural chapters and elect rural deans (n), and at such rural chapters they communicated to the clergy the canons enacted by the bishop, with the consent of the chapter. It seems that longer leave of absence from his cathedral was granted to an archidiaconal canon on account of the particular nature of his duties (o). When the see and cathedral church of Peterborough was founded by Henry VIII., the charter expressly states that the archdeacon of Northampton, now removed from the diocese of Lincoln to that of Peterborough, should have the same place in the new cathedral which he had held in that of Lincoln (p). The laxer practice of modern times has allowed archdeacons to be prebendaries of cathedrals in another diocese, and to reside at a considerable distance from that over which they preside. Nor are there wanting instances where archdeacons hold no cathedral appointment in any diocese. By the canon law (q), a person may have a prebend in one church, and a prebend in another, but not an archdeaconry in two churches at one and the same time. The archdeacon, being always near the bishop, and the person mainly entrusted by him, grew into credit and power, and came by degrees (as occasion required) to be employed by him, in visiting the clergy of the diocese, and in the dispatch of other matters relating to the episcopal care: so that by the beginning of the seventh century, he seems to have been fully possessed of the chief care and inspection of the diocese, in subordination to the bishop (r). But this is to be understood with a twofold distinction from the present state and measure of archidiaconal power; (k) Anglia Sacra, i. p. 150. (n) See Ayliffe, Par. p. 99, (0) Wilkins, i. p. 559. (P) Dugdale, Mon. Anglic. Peterborough. (g) X. 3, 5, 14. |