alterations. In addition to the members constituted ex-officio commissioners under the act 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 77, the following were by this act also appointed: with a view of doing away with commendams and diminishing the motives for translations, they recommended a different distribution of episcopal revenues. The Third Report also related to epis--all the bishops of England and Wales, copal matters. The Second and Fourth Reports, and the draft of the Fifth Report, related to the cathedral and collegiate churches and to parochial subjects. They recommended the appropriation of part of the revenues of the cathedral and collegiate churches, and the entire appropriation of the endowments for non-residentiary prebends, dignities, and officers, and that the proceeds in both cases should be carried❘ to the account of a fund out of which better provision should be made for the cure of souls. The Commissioners stated in their Second Report that they had prepared a bill for regulating pluralities and the residence of the clergy; and in 1838 an act was passed (1 & 2 Vict. c. 106) relating to these matters. The chief provisions of the act are given in BENEFICE, p. 347 and p. 351. On the 13th of August, 1836, an act was passed (6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 77) which established the ecclesiastical commissioners as "one body politic and corporate, by the name of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England."" The number of commissioners incorporated was thirteen, of whom eight were ex-officio, namely, the archbishops of Canterbury and York, the bishop of London, the lord chancellor, the lord president of the council, the first lord of the Treasury, the chancellor of the exchequer, and such one of the principal secretaries of state as might be nominated under the sign manual. There were five other commissioners, of whom two were bishops; and these five were removable at the pleasure of the crown. The laymen who were appointed were required by the act to subscribe a declaration as to their being members of the United Church of England and Ireland by law established. By an act passed 11th August, 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 113), the constitution of the Ecclesiastical Commission was considerably modified by increasing the number of ex-officio members, and by other the deans of Canterbury, St. Paul's, and Westminster, the two chief justices, the master of the rolls, the chief baron, and the judges of the Prerogative and Admiralty Courts. By this act the crown is empowered to appoint four, and the archbishop of Canterbury two laymen as commissioners in addition to the three appointed under the former act. Under the former act the commissioners were removeable by the crown; but now each commissioner continues a member of the corporation "so long as he shall well demean himself in the execution of his duties." Lay members are required as before to subscribe a declaration that they are members of the Established Church. Five commissioners are a quorum at meetings of which due notice has been given. The chairman, who has a casting vote, is the commissioner present first in rank; and if the rank of all the commissioners present be equal, the chair is to be taken by the senior commissioner in the order of appointment. Two of the episcopal commissioners must be present at the ratification of any act by the common seal of the corporation; and if they, being the only two episcopal commissioners present, object, the matter is to be referred to an adjourned meeting. The commissioners may summon and examine witnesses on oath, and cause papers and documents to be produced before them. The act (6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 77) empowers the ecclesiastical commissioners to prepare and lay before his majesty in council such schemes as shall appear to them to be best adapted for carrying into effect the recommendations contained in the five Reports already mentioned, with such modifications or variations as to matters of detail and regulation as shall not be substantially repugnant to any or either of those recommendations. The king, by an order in council, ratifies these schemes, and appoints a time for their coming into operation. This order must be registered by the diocesan registrar of the diocese within which the place or district affected by the order is situated, and it must also be published in the London Gazette.' A copy of all the orders issued during the preceding twelve months must be presented annually to Parliament within a week after its meeting. As soon as an order is registered in the diocese, and gazetted, it has the same force as if it had been included in the acts for carrying into effect the Reports of the Commissioners. By special enactments, and by the joint authority of the Queen in council and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, changes of great importance have been made in relation to ecclesiastical revenues and duties. The first act (6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 77) is entitled An Act for carrying into effect the Reports of the Commissioners appointed to consider the state of the Established Church in England and Wales, with reference to Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues, so far as they relate to Episcopal Dioceses, Revenues, and Patronage.' By this act the dioceses of England and Wales have been re-arranged, four sees have been consolidated into two, two new sees have been created, the patronage of the several bishops has been more equally divided, commendams are abolished, and the revenues of the different sees have been also more equally apportioned. [BISHOP, p. 385.] The jurisdiction of archdeacons was also settled by the Act. [ARCHDEACON, p. 180.] The second act (3 & 4 Vict. c. 113) was passed 11th August, 1840, and is entitled An Act to carry into effect, with certain modifications, the Fourth Report of the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues;' but its enactments also comprehend some of the propositions of the Second Report and of the draft Fifth Report. The main subject of the act is the cathedral and collegiate churches, and the application of parts of their revenues to spiritual destitution in parishes. The act made some change in the constitution of deans and chapters, suspended a large number of canonries, founded honorary canonries [CANON, p. 443], abolished non-residentiary deaneries and sinecure rectories in public patronage; deprived non-residentiary prebends and other non-resident offices in cathedral and collegiate churches of the endowments formerly attached to such offices. Self-elected deans and chapters are abolished: deans are to be appointed by the crown, and the canons by the bishops. Sinecure rectories in private patronage may be bought by the Commissioners and suppressed. The profits of these dignities and offices, and sinecure rectories, are vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and are carried to a common fund, out of which additional provision is to be made for the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required. Thus the act provided that a portion of the proceeds of prebends suppressed in Lichfield Cathedral should be devoted to making provision for the rector of St. Philip's, Birmingham, and for the perpetual curate of Christ Church in the same town; that the endowments belonging to the collegiate churches of Wolverhampton, Heytesbury, and Middleham should be applied to making better provision for the cure of souls in the districts with which those places are connected; and that the endowments of the collegiate church of Wimborne minster should be applied with a like object to the parish of Wimborne minster. The act empowers the Commissioners to annex the whole or any part of the endowments of sinecure rectories abolished by the act or purchased to the vicarages or perpetual curacies dependent on them, when the extent of the population or the incompetent endowment of such vicarages or curacies may render it expedient. Sinecure preferments may be annexed to benefices with cure of souls. Benefices may be divided or consolidated with consent of patrons. Arrangements may be made for a better provision for the spiritual duties of ill-endowed parishes by exchange of advowsons or other alterations in the exercise of patronage. When two benefices belong to the same patron, the income may be differently apportioned with his consent. A third Act was passed 21st June, 1841 (4 & 5 Vict. c. 39). Its chief object was to amend and explain the two former acts, but it contains various enactments calculated to carry out the principle of the first two acts as to various regulations | in 1831, was signed by the archbishop of and details. In each of the acts for carrying into effect the recommendations of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, vested interests are specially protected. Canterbury, and three of the bishops, the two chief justices, the chief baron, and several other persons of authority and eminence. This report gives the most correct and authentic account which ex From a return presented to Parlia-ists of: 1, The nature of the ecclesiastiment, it appears that, down to May 1st, 1844, the number of benefices and churches whose incomes had been augmented by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, was 496, and that the annual augmentation amounted to the sum of 25,7791. cal courts. 2, Of the course of proceeding in ecclesiastical suits; and 3, The nature of the processes, practice and pleadings of the ecclesiastical courts. The report in question has been almost solely used in the present article with such abridgment and slight alterations, as were necessary to bring it within the requisite space which could be devoted to the subject. There is in Ireland a body styled the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who were appointed under the act 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 37 (Church Temporalities Act'), and The ordinary ecclesiastical courts areare empowered to receive the incomes of 1. The Provincial Courts, being, in the bishoprics on their becoming extinct in province of Canterbury, the Court of pursuance of the abovementioned act. Arches, or Supreme Court of Appeal, the ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS. Prerogative or Testamentary Court, and Courts in which the canon law is admi- the Court of Peculiars; and in the pronistered [CANON LAW], and causes ec- vince of York, the Prerogative or Tesclesiastical determined. Coke, in treat-tamentary Court, and the Chancery Court; ing of the distinction between temporal and spiritual causes, says :-" And as in temporal causes, the king, by the mouth of his judges in his courts of justice, doth iudge and determine the same by the temporal laws of England; so in causes ecclesiastical and spiritual, as, namely, blasphemy, apostacy from Christianity, heresies, schisms, ordering admissions, institutions of clerks, celebration of divine service, rights of matrimony, divorces, general bastardy, subtraction and right of tithes, oblations, obventions, dilapidations, reparation of churches, probate of testaments, administration and accounts upon the same, simony, incests, fornications, adulteries, solicitation of chastity, pensions, procurations, appeals in ecclesiastical causes, commutation of penance, and others, (the cognizance whereof belongeth not to the common laws of England.) the same are to be decided and judged by ecclesiastical judges according to the king's ecclesiastical laws of this realm." In July, 1830, a Commission was appointed to inquire into the Practice and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts in England and Wales. The Report of the Commissioners, which was presented 2. the Diocesan Courts, being the consistorial court of each diocese, exercising general jurisdiction; the court or courts of one or more commissaries appointed by the bishop, in certain dioceses, to exercise general jurisdiction, within prescribed limits; and the court or courts of one or more archdeacons, or their officials, who exercise general or limited jurisdiction, according to the terms of their patents, or to local custom. 3. There are also Peculiars of various descriptions in most dioceses, and in some they are very numerous royal, archiepiscopal, episcopal. decanal, sub decanal, prebendal, rectorial and vicarial; and there are also some manorial courts, which exercise testamentary jurisdiction. The Provincial courts of the archbishop of Canterbury, and the archbishop of York, are independent of each other; the process of one province does not run into the other, but is sent by a requisition from the court of one province to the local authority of the other, for execution, when it is necessary. The appeal from each of the provincial courts lies to the Judicial Committee of Privy Council; but before the passing of the statute 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 92, the ap peal was to the king, and a commission | twenty-one dioceses, and therein the dioissued under the Great Seal in each indi- cese of Canterbury itself, where the orvidual case of appeal, to certain persons dinary episcopal jurisdiction is exercised or delegates, to hear and determine the by a commissary, in the same manner as matter in contest. [DELEGATES, COURT in other dioceses. OF.] The province of York includes five dioceses, besides that of Sodor and Man, and the archiepiscopal jurisdiction is exercised therein much in the same manner as in the province of Canterbury. The Archdeacon's Court is generally subordinate, with an appeal to the bishop's court; though in some instances it is independent and co-ordinate. Of the three Archiepiscopal Courts of Canterbury, the Arches Court is the first. [ARCHES, COURT OF.] This court exercises the appellate jurisdiction from each of the diocesan and most of the peculiar The Diocesan Courts take cognizance of courts within the province. It may also all matters arising locally within their take original cognizance of causes by let- respective limits, with the exception of ters of request, from each of those courts; places subject to peculiar jurisdiction. and it has original jurisdiction, for sub- They may decide all matters of spiritual traction of legacy given by wills proved discipline; they may suspend or deprive in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. clergymen, declare marriages void, proThe Prerogative Court has jurisdiction nounce sentence of separation à mensâ et of all wills and administrations of personal thoro, try the right of succession to perproperty left by persons having bona nota-sonal property, and administer the other bilia, or effects of a certain value, in divers branches of ecclesiastical law. ecclesiastical jurisdictions within the province. A very large proportion, not less than four fifths of the whole contentious business, and a very much larger part of the uncontested, or as it is termed commonform business, is dispatched by this court. Its authority is necessary to the administration of the effects of all persons dying possessed of personal property to the specified amount within the province, whether leaving a will or dying intestate; and from the very great increase of personal property, arising from the public funds and the extension of the commercial capital of the country, the business of this jurisdiction, both as deciding upon all the contested rights, and as registering all instruments and proofs in respect of the succession to such property, is become of very high public importance. The Court of Peculiars, which is the third Archiepiscopal Court of Canterbury, takes cognizance of all matters arising in certain deaneries: one of these deaneries is in the diocese of London, another in the diocese of Rochester, another in the diocese of Winchester, each comprising several parishes; and some others, over which the archbishop exercises ordinary jurisdiction, and which are exempt from and independent of the several bishops within whose dioceses they are locally situated. The province of Canterbury, includes The archdeacons' courts, and the various peculiars already enumerated, in some instances take cognizance of all ecclesiastical matters arising within their own limits, though the jurisdiction of many of the peculiar courts extends only to a single parish: the authority of some of them is limited to a part only of the matters that are usually the subject of ecclesiastical cognizance; several of the peculiars possess voluntary, but not contentious, jurisdiction. The total number of courts which exercise any species of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England and Wales is 372, which may be classed as follows:Provincial and diocesan courts Courts of bishops' commissaries Archidiaconal courts PECULIAR JURISDICTIONS. Royal Rectorial and vicarial 36 14 37 11 44 44 88 63 17 48 In 1843 the gross fees, salaries, and emoluments of the judges, deputy judges, The ecclesiastical jurisdiction comprehends causes of a civil and temporal nature; some partaking both of a spiritual and civil character, and, lastly, some purely spiritual. In the first class are testamentary causes, matrimonial causes for separation and for nullity of marriage, which are purely questions of civil right between individuals in their lay character, and are neither spiritual nor affect the church establishment. The second class comprises causes of a mixed description, as suits for tithes, church-rates, seats, and faculties. As to tithes, however, the courts of common law can restrain the ecclesiastical courts from trying any cases of modus or prescription, if either of the parties apply for a prohibition. The canon law has been practised in the Ecclesiastical courts as a distinct profession for upwards of three centuries. The rules for the admission of advocates are given in BARRISTER, p. 317. The residence of the judges and advocates, and the proper buildings for holding the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts, are at Doctors' Commons, the site of which was purchased by some members of this body in 1567. [DOCTORS' COMMONS.] The members of the society were incorporated in 1768 by a royal charter, under the name of "The College of Doctors of Laws exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts." The proctors discharge duties similar to those of solicitors and attorneys in other courts. [PROCTOR.] The course of proceeding in these courts is as follows:-The mode of commencing the suit, and bringing the parties before the court, is by a process called a Citation, or summons. This citation, in ordinary cases, is obtained as a matter of course, from the registry of the court, and under its seal; but in special cases, the facts are alleged in what is termed an act of court, and upon those facts the judge or his surrogate decrees the party to be cited; to which, in certain cases, is added an intimation, that if the party does not appear, or appearing does not show cause to the contrary, the prayer of the plaintiff, set forth in the decree, will be granted. The party cited may either appear in person, or by his proctor, who is appointed by an instrument, under hand and seal, termed a proxy. The proctor thus appointed represents the party, acts for him and manages the cause, and binds him by his acts. The third class includes church discipline, and the correction of offences of a spiritual kind. They are proceeded upon in the way of criminal suits, pro salute animæ, that is, for the safety of the of fender's soul, and for the lawful correction of manners. Among these are offences committed by the clergy themselves, such as neglect of duty, immoral conduct, advancing doctrines not conformable to the articles of the church, suffering dilapidations, and the like offences; also by laymen, such as brawling, laying violent hands on any person, and other irreverent conduct in the church or churchyards, violating churchyards, neglecting to repair ecclesiastical buildings, incest, incon-rested in the effects of the deceased person, tinence, defamation; all these are termed "Causes of Correction," except defamation, which is of an anomalous character. These offences are punished by monition, penance, excommunication, formerly, and now in place of it imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months [ExCOMMUNICATION]. suspension ab ingressu ecclesiæ, suspension from office and deprivation. In Testamentary causes, the proceeding is sometimes commenced by a Caveat, which may be entered by a party inte against the grant of probate of will or letters of administration, without notice being first given to him who enters the caveat. This caveat is then warned by the party who claims the representation either as executor or administrator, which is in effect a notice to the proctor who enters the caveat, that he must appear and take further steps, if he intends to continue his opposition. Both parties are then |