The clergy were before the Reform- | who filled the office of lord high chanation in England divided into regu- cellor was Bishop Williams, from 1621 lar and secular. The regular clergy to 1625 [CHANCELLOR, p. 480]; and the were the religious orders who lived under last who acted publicly in a diplomatic some religious rule (regula), such as capacity was the Bishop of Bristol, at abbots and monks. The secular clergy Utrecht, when the treaty of 1713 was were those who did not live under a re- negotiated. In 1831 a parliamentary ligious rule, but had the care of souls, as paper was issued (No. 39), which showed bishops and priests. The phrase the clergy the number of clergymen in the commisnow means in the English and Irish esta- sion of the peace in England. In many blished church all persons who are in holy counties the proportion of clergymen was orders. The privileges which the law one-third of the whole number of jusof England allows to the clergy are but tices; in several counties above onea faint shadow of the privileges which half; in Derbyshire and Sussex there they enjoyed before the Reformation. was not one clergyman in the commisA clergyman cannot be compelled to sion, and in Kent only two. Lord-lieuserve on a jury, or to appear at a court tenants have in some cases made it a rule leet or view of frankpledge. He cannot not to recommend clergymen to the lord be compelled to serve the office of bailiff chancellor. This is in strict accordance reeve, constable, or the like. He is pri- with some of the old constitutions, which vileged from arrest in civil suits while were founded on the principle that clergyengaged in divine service, and while men should not be entangled with temgoing to or returning from it; and it is a poral affairs. misdemeanour to arrest him while he is so engaged. (5 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 23.) He is exempted from paying toll at turnpike-gates, when going to or returning from his parochial duty. He could claim benefit of clergy more than once. [BENEFIT OF CLERGY.] The clergy cannot now sit in the House of Commons. This was formerly a doubtful point, but it was settled by 41 Geo. III. c. 63, which enacted that "no person having been ordained to the office of priest or deacon, or being a minister of the Church of Scotland, is capable of being elected;" and that if he should sit or vote, he is liable to forfeit 500l. for each day, to any one who may sue for it. The Roman Catholic clergy are excluded, by 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, § 9. (May's Parliament, p. 27.) The old ecclesiastical constitutions prohibited clergymen acting as judges in causes of life and death; but there was usually a clause saving the privilege of the king to employ whom he thought proper in any way, and the prohibition was therefore of little practical effect. The bishops, however, do not at the present day vote in the House of Lords in any case of life or death. [BISHOP, p. 376.] Ecclesiastical persons have sat as chief justices of the King's Bench in former times. (Blacks. Comm. c. 17.) The last ecclesiastic By 21 Henry VIII. c. 13, the clergy were forbidden to farm lands, or to buy any cattle or merchandise to sell for profit; but if their glebe-lands were insufficient, they might farm more, in order to maintain their families, and might buy cattle to obtain manure. By 57 Geo. III. c. 99, they were permitted, with consent of the bishop of the diocese, to farm lands to the extent of eighty acres for a term not exceeding seven years. The act which now applies to farming and trafficking by the clergy is the 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, which consolidated former acts on this subject: its provisions do not extend to Ireland. The term " spiritual persons" includes persons "licensed or otherwise allowed to perform the duties of any ecclesiastical office whatever." The clause (§ 28) which relates to farming is substantially the same as in 57 Geo. III. c. 99. The clause (§ 29) respecting spiritual persons engaging in trade, or buying to sell again for profit, enacts that it shall not be lawful for such persons "to engage in or carry on any trade or dealing for gain or profit, or to deal in any goods, wares, or merchandise, unless in any case in which such trading or dealing shall have been or shall be carried on by or on behalf of any number of partners exceed ing the number of six, or in any case in which any trade or dealing, or any share in any trade or dealing, shall have devolved or shall devolve upon any spiritual person or upon any other person for him or to his use, under or by virtue of any devise, bequest, inheritance, intestacy, settlement, marriage, bankruptcy, or insolvency; but in none of the foregoing excepted cases shall it be lawful for such spiritual person to act as a director or managing partner, or to carry on such trade or dealing as aforesaid in person." Spiritual persons holding benefices could not legally become members of a jointstock banking company before the passing of a short act, 1 Vict. c. 10, which enacted that no association or co-partnership or contract should be void by reason only of spiritual persons being members thereof; and the principle of the act is now adopted in 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106. It is enacted in § 30 of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106,"That nothing herein before contained shall subject to any penalty or forfeiture any spiritual person for keeping a school or seminary, or acting as a schoolmaster or tutor or instructor, or being in any manner concerned or engaged in giving instruction or education for profit or reward, or for buying or selling or doing any other thing in relation to the management of any such school, seminary, or employment, or to any spiritual person whatever, for the buying of any goods, wares, or merchandise, or articles of any description, which shall without fraud be bought with intent at the buying thereof to be used by the spiritual person buying the same for his family or in his household; and after the buying of any such goods, wares, or merchandises, or articles, selling the same again or any parts thereof, which such person may not want or choose to keep, although the same shall be sold at an advanced price beyond that which may have been given for the same; or for disposing of any books or other works to or by means of any bookseller or publisher; or for being a manager, director, partner, or shareholder, in any benefit society, or fire or life assurance society, by whatever name or designation such society may have been constituted; or for any buying or selling again for gain or profit, of any cattle or corn or other articles necessary or convenient to be bought, sold, kept, or maintained by any spiritual person, or any other person for him or to his use, for the occupation, manuring, improving, pasturage, or profit of any glebe, demesne lands, or other lands or hereditaments which may be lawfully held and occupied, possessed, or enjoyed by such spiritual person, or any other for him or to his use; or for selling any minerals, the produce of mines situated on his own lands; so nevertheless that no such spiritual person shall buy or sell any cattle or corn, or other articles as aforesaid, in person in any market, fair, or place of public sale." Under § 31 of the act the bishop of the diocese might suspend a spiritual person for illegally trading, and for the third offence such person might be deprived; but proceedings for this offence would now be regulated by 3 & 4 Vict. c. 86. This act (3 & 4 Vict. c. 86, commonly called the Church Discipline Act) was passed in 1840, "for better enforcing Church Discipline," and it repeals the old statute (1 Henry VII. c. 4) under which bishops were enabled to proceed against their clergy and sentence them to imprisonment. Before this act was passed, the mode of procedure against spiritual persons for ecclesiastical offences was "by articles in the diocesan or peculiar court, or by letters of request to the court of the metropolitan." (Phillimore's Burn, iii. 365.) Dr. Phillimore states, that "any person, it has been held, may prosecute a clergyman for neglect of his clerical duty." The 3 & 4 Vict. c. 86, enacts, "that no criminal suit or proceeding against a clerk in holy orders of the United Church of England and Ireland, for any offence against the laws ecclesiastical, shall be instituted in any ecclesiastical court otherwise than is hereinbefore enacted or provided," nor in any other mode than that pointed out by the act (§ 3). The act provides, "that in every case of any clerk in holy orders in the United Church of England and Ireland, who may be charged with any offence against the laws ecclesiastical, or concerning whom there may exist scandal or evil report, as having offended against the said laws, it shall be lawful for the bishop of the diocese within which the offence is alleged or reported to have been committed, on the application of any party complaining thereof, or if he shall think fit, of his own mere motion, to issue a commission under his hand or seal to five persons, of whom one shall be his vicar-general, or an archdeacon or rural dean within the diocese, for the purpose of making inquiry as to the grounds of such charge or report: provided always, that notice of the intention to issue such commission under the hand of the bishop, containing an intimation of the nature of the offence, together with the names, addition, and residence of the party on whose application or motion such commission shall be about to issue, shall be sent by the bishop to the party accused fourteen days at least before such commission shall issue." The bishop may pronounce sentence without further proceedings, by consent of the clerk; and such sentence is good and effectual in law. If he refuse or neglect to appear and make answer to the articles alleged, other than an unqualified admission of the truth thereof, "the bishop shall proceed to hear the cause, with the assistance of three assessors, to be nominated by the bishop, one of whom shall be an advocate who shall have practised not less than five years in the court of the archbishop of the province, or a serjeant-at-law, or a barrister of not less than seven years' standing; and another shall be dean of his cathedral church, or of one of his cathedral churches, or one of his archdeacons, or his chancellor; and upon the hearing of such cause the bishop shall determine the same, and pronounce sentence thereupon, according to the ecclesiastical law." When the charge is under investigation the bishop may inhibit the party accused from performing any services of the church within his diocese until sentence has been passed; but if the person accused be the incumbent of a benefice, he may nominate any person or persons to perform such services during his inhibition, and such persons are to be licensed by the bishop, if they are approved of by him. Appeals under the act are to the arch | bishop, and are to be heard before the judge of the court of appeal of his province; but if the cause has been heard and determined in the first instance in the court of the archbishop, the appeal is then to the queen in council, and is to be heard before the judicial committee of Privy Council; and at least one archbishop or bishop, who is a member of the Privy Council, must be present. In the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical of 1603, canons 31 to 76 inclusive relate to "Ministers; their Ordination, Function, and Charge." By the 76th canon "no man, being admitted a deacon or minister, shall from thenceforth voluntarily relinquish the same, nor afterwards use himself in the course of his life as a layman, upon pain of excommunication." The clergy meet by delegates in convocation at the beginning of every new parliament, but this is now merely a form; the king, as supreme head of the Church of England, invariably dissolves the convocation before they can proceed to any business. They have however still courts in which jurisdiction is exercised touching ecclesiastical affairs, and causes matrimonial, and testamentary so far as concerns the granting of probates and letters of administration, and where the church's censures are directed against particular classes of offenders. To them also belongs the whole ecclesiastical revenue in the Established Church of England, with divers fees or customary payments, and to them also the whole regulation of the terms of admission to their order. The three great classes of the English clergy are the bishops, priests, and deacons. To be admitted into each of those classes requires a peculiar ordination. This distinction is of an entirely different kind from that which arises out of office or appointment. Of this kind of distinction there is in the English clergy the archbishop, the bishop, the dean and canons of a conventual or collegiate church (some of the canons being in many instances invested with particular characters, as precentors, succentors, and the like), the archdeacon, the rural dean, the dean of some church whose consti tution is peculiar, the rector, the vicar, the curate in some chapels called parochial, the minister in some newlyfounded chapel, whether a chapel of ease or what is called a proprietary chapel, assistant ministers to aid the vicar or the rector in some churches of antient foundation, and, finally, a body of persons called curates, who are engaged by the incumbents of benefices to assist them in the performance of their duties, but who are not dismissable at the caprice of the incumbent, nor left by law without a claim upon a certain portion of the profits of the benefice. England is divided into 10,780 districts, varying in extent, called parishes. Each of these parishes must be regarded as having its church, and one person (or in some instances more than one) who ministers divine ordinances in that church. This person, whose proper designation is persona ecclesia, enjoys of common right the tithe of the parish, and has usually a house and glebe belonging to his benefice. When this, the original arrangement, is undisturbed, we have a parish and its rector; and in other cases the vicar and perpetual curate. [BENEFICE, pp. 341-343.] CLERGY, BENEFIT OF. FIT OF CLERGY.] [BENE be found in Parl. Paper, No. 631 of 1843. (Parl. Paper, 1843, No. 631; Wood's Institutes.) CLERK OF THE CROWN IN CHANCERY, is an officer of the crown in attendance upon both Houses of Parliament, and upon the great seal. In the House of Lords he makes out and issues all writs of summons to peers, writs for the attendance of the judges, commissions to summon and prorogue Parliament, and to pass bills; and he attends at the table of the House to read the titles of bills whenever the royal assent is given to them, either by the queen in person or by commission. He receives and has the custody of the returns of the representative peers of Scotland, and certifies them to the House; and makes out and issues writs for the election of representative peers of Ireland and their writs of summons. He is the registrar of the Lord High Steward's Court for state trials and for the trial of peers; and he is also registrar of the Coronation Court of Claims. In connexion with the House of Commons, he makes out and issues all writs for the election of members in Great Britain (those for Ireland being issued by the clerk of the crown in Ireland); gives notice thereof to the secretary-atwar, under act 8 Geo. II. c. 30, for the removal of troops from the place of election; receives and retains the custody of all returns to Parliament for the United Kingdom; notifies each return in the London Gazette,' registers it in the books of his office, and certifies it to the House. By act 6 & 7 Vict. c. 18, he has the custody of all poll-books taken at elections, and is required to register them, to give office copies or an inspection of them to all parties applying, and to prove them before election committees. He attends all election committees with the returns of members; and when a return is to be amended in consequence of the determination of an election committee, he attends at the table of the House to amend it. CLERK IN ORDERS. [CLERGY.] CLERK OF ASSIZE is an officer attached to each circuit, who accompanies the judges at the assizes, and performs all the ministerial acts of the court. He issues subpænas, orders, writs, and other processes, draws indictments; takes, discharges, and respites recognizances; files informations, affidavits, and other instruments, enters every nolle prosequi, records all the proceedings of the court, and enters its judgments. He is associated with the judges in the commissions to take assizes; and he is restrained by statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 24, from being counsel for any person on his circuit. He is paid by fees which are charged upon the several official acts performed by him, some, by virtue of established usage, and He is an officer of the lord high chanothers, under various statutes, 55 Geo. cellor, not in his judicial capacity, but as III. c. 56; 7 Geo. IV. c. 64; 7 & 8 Geo. holding the great seal; and in this deIV. c. 28; 11 Geo. IV. ; & 1 Wm. IV. c.partment he makes out all patents, com58. The fees payable on each circuit will missions, warrants, appointments or other instruments that pass the great seal, except patents for inventions and other patents and charters which are passed in the Patent Office. He also administers the oaths of office to the lord chancellor, the judges, the serjeants-at-law, and all other law officers, and records the same in the books of his office. For these several duties he receives a salary of 1000l. a year, under 7 & 8 Vict. c. 77. (Parl. Report, No. 455, of Session 1844.) The office of the Clerk of the Crown is commonly called the Crown Office; but there is also an office in the Court of Queen's Bench called the Crown side of the Court, of which there is a master and other officers. CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. The chief officer of that House is appointed by the crown for life, by letters patent. Upon entering office he is sworn before the lord chancellor "to make true entries, remembrances, and journals of the things done and passed in the House of Commons; in which duties he is aided by the clerk-assistant and second clerk-assistant. These three officers are more commonly known as "clerks at the table." The chief clerk signs all orders of the House, endorses the bills, and reads whatever is required to be read in the proceedings of the House. He is also responsible for the execution of all the official business of the House, which is under his superintendence. In the patent he is styled " Under Clerk of the Parliaments to attend upon the Commons;" whence it is inferred that on the separation of the two Houses, the underclerk of the Parliaments went with the Commons, leaving the clerk of the Parliaments in the Upper House. His salary is 3500l. a year, that of the clerk-assistant 2500l., and that of the second clerk-assistant 1000l.; but under act 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 70, the salaries of the two first offices will be reduced to 2000l. and 1500l. respectively, on the first vacancy. (Hatsell's Precedents, vol. ii. p. 251; May's Proceedings and Usage of Parliament, p. 157 and Index.) CLERK OF THE MARKET. [WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.] CLERK OF THE PARISH. [PARISH CLERK.] CLERK OF THE PARLIAMENTS is the chief ministerial officer of the House of Lords. His duties (which are executed by the clerk-assistant and additional clerk-assistant) are to take minutes of all the proceedings, orders, and judgments of the House; to sign all orders, to endorse bills, to swear witnesses at the bar, to wait upon the queen when she comes to give the royal assent to bills, and to take her command upon them; and to signify the royal assent in all cases, whether given by the queen in person or by commission. He is also sent occasionally with a master in chancery as a messenger from the Lords to the Commons in the absence of another master. Besides these and other special duties, he is charged with the general superintendence of the official establishment of the House of Lords. He is paid out of the Lords' Fee Fund, of which no account is ever given. It is understood that on the death of Sir G. Rose (aged 73) the office will not be filled up. (May's Proceedings and Usage of Parliament.) CLERK OF THE PEACE is an officer attached to every county or division of a county, city, borough, or other place in which quarter-sessions are held; being the ministerial officer of the court of quarter-sessions. He is appointed by the Custos Rotulorum of the county, and holds his appointment so long as he shall well demean himself. In case of misbehaviour the justices in sessions, on receiving a complaint in writing, may suspend or discharge him, after an examination and proof thereof openly in the sessions; in which case the Custos Rotulorum is required to appoint another person residing within the county or division. In case of his refusal or neglect to make this appointment, before the next general quarter-sessions, the justices in sessions may appoint a clerk of the peace. (1 Will. III. c. 21, § 6.) The Custos Rotulorum may not sell the office or take any bond or assurance to receive any reward, directly or indirectly, for the appointment, on pain of both himself and the Clerk of the Peace being disabled from holding their respective offices, and forfeiting double the value of the consi |