pew-owners, in any house of public worship in the State, may desire to repair the house or pews, or modify the interior of such house, or remove the pews and provide for the use of the pew-holders, alter pews or sell the pews in such house, a meeting may be called of the pew-holders in the manner aforesaid, stating in the notice the object of the meeting; and, when assembled, the pew-holders may, by a vote of three-fourths of the pew-owners present and voting thereon, so modify the interior of such house, or remove the pews, or provide slips or alter pews in such house of worship, or sell all the pews therein, in such way and manner as shall then and there be determined; and may appoint such agents or officers, for and in the name of the proprie tors of said house, or the pew-owners therein, or corporation, to make and execute a valid deed thereof; and the selectmen of the town in which such house may be situated are empowered to apportion the proceeds of the sale among the pew-owners, unless the pew-owners present, by a unanimous vote of those voting, agree upon a committee for that purpose. It is also provided that no pew-holder shall be held to the payment of any tax or assessment for the repair or alteration of the house, who may offer to the proprietors to convey to them his interest in such house, or in any pew or pews, at a sum mutually agreed upon or determined by the selectmen of the town. (Lavs of 1860, Chap. 2355, Sec. 1.) § 369. Whenever any meeting-house in the State, built by any town or corporation, may have ceased to be used or occupied as a place of public worship, it is made lawful for such town or corporation to sell the same at public auction, and to appoint a committee to make such sale and execute a conveyance to the purchaser. Public notice of the sale must be given by putting up notices thereof, on the door of the meeting-house to be sold, and at two or more public places in the town where the house is situated, at least fifteen days previous to the day of sale. The proceeds of the sale must be equitably divided among the proprietors, owners and pew-holders of the house, according to the value of their respective interests therein; which interests must be determined by the county commissioners of the county in which the house is situated. Whenever any town shall vote to repair, for town purposes, any such meeting-house, it must cause the pews to be appraised by a committee of three disinterested persons, and pay to the pew-holders the full value of their respective interests, as determined by such appraisal, upon demand. Any pew-holder, dissatisfied with the appraisal of his pew, or such town, may appeal to the next trial term of the supreme judicial court for the county in which such house is situated, where the same proceedings may be had as in the case of appeals from the assessment by selectmen of damages for land taken for highways. (Laws of 1857, Ch. 2107, Secs. 1 and 2, and Laws of 1860, Ch. 2355, Sec. 2.) CHAPTER XXVIII. RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES IN VERMONT-HOW INCORPORATED-POW- MINISTRY § 370. In the State of Vermont they have a very simple and convenient method of incorporating a religious society. Any number of persons may associate together and have all the powers of a corporation, for the support of the gospel and the maintenance of public worship, and may procure, hold and keep in repair a house of public worship, a parsonage and suitable grounds and other conveniences for burying the dead. The use and avails of such parsonage must in all cases be appropriated to the support of public worship. (Compiled Statutes of 1863, Ch. 90, Sec. 1.) § 371. The association is formed by written articles, subscribed by the members, and specifying the objects of the association, and the condition on which it is formed. The modus operandi is precisely similar to that in cases of literary and other associations, and is so simple that no form need be given. The first meeting of the association must be notified, organized and held in the manner prescribed in the articles of association. (Ib., Secs. 2 and 3.) § 372. The association may adopt a corporate name, either in the original articles or by a vote at the first meeting of its members regularly convened, and may adopt a corporate seal at any regular meeting, and alter the same at pleasure. (Ib., Sec. 4.) § 373. The corporation, when organized, may adopt all such by-laws and regulations as may be thought expedient to regulate the mode of notifying, and the times and places of holding the meetings; to regulate the number of officers of the corporation, their powers and duties, and the mode of electing them; to provide for the mode of admitting and discharging members; to provide for the mode of selling or forfeiting the shares or rights of the members for nonpayment of assessments, and all other matters which may be necessary to promote the object of the association, not inconsistent with the articles of association or the laws of the State. (Ib., Sec. 5.) § 374. Though the association might declare in their con stitution and by-laws that such constitution and by-laws were not to be altered, except in a certain manner, the same may be altered or even abrogated by the same power which created them; and the vote of any subsequent meeting abrogating or altering such constitution or by-laws, though passed only by a majority, has as much efficacy as a previous vote establishing them. (Smith v. Nelson, 18 Vt. R., 511.) §375. The corporation may sue and be sued, appear, prosecute and defend to final judgment and execution, in any court of law or equity, or elsewhere, and may purchase and hold all the real and personal estate which may be necessary to promote the object of the association, and the same must be devoted exclusively to that object. The corporation has power also to raise money in any manner agreed upon in the articles of association. (Compiled Statutes of 1863, Ch. 90, Secs. 6 and 7.) §376. The corporation may also by its articles of associa tion or by-laws, or by both, divide its stock or corporate property into shares, and determine the terms on which and the manner in which such shares shall be held by the several members; and whenever the stock or corporate property is so divided into shares, the corporation, at any meeting notified for that purpose, may raise money by assessment on the shares or rights of the members in proportion to their several interests; and the payment of such assessments may be enforced by the sale or forfeiture of the estate of any member in the corporation, in such manner as the corporation may provide; but no other estate of the members can be taken or forfeited for the payment of such assessments. (Ib., Secs. 8 and 9.) 377. An association for religious purposes in Vermont has no authority, simply by virtue of the statute authorizing the formation of societies for the support of the gospel, to enforce the collection of its taxes or assessments by a forfeiture or sale of the shares of its delinquent members. The statute simply confers upon the association the power to provide for such sale or forfeiture, and in order to accomplish that end the constitution or by-laws of the association must contain a provision to that effect prescribing the mode of such sale or forfeiture. (Perrin, adm'r v. Granger, 30 Vt. R., 595.) § 378. The clerk or secretary of the association is required to keep fair records of all the proceedings of the corporation, in a book provided for that purpose; such records are made evidence in any court where the interest of the corporation may be concerned. (Comp. Stat. of 1863, Ch. 90, Sec. 10.) §379. Religious societies formed under any law of the State, for the purposes before stated, may have and exercise all the powers conferred by the laws under which they were respectively organized. (Ib., Sec. 11.) § 380. Where several individuals signed articles of association expressing the purpose to be the building of a meeting-house, and provided for the election of three trustees, a secretary, treasurer and other officers, and no words were used indicating an intention not to form themselves into a body corporate, it was held that they became a body corporate, and that no action lay against the individual members or trustees for labor or materials performed or furnished for the society. (Rogers v. Danby Universalist Society, 19 Vt. R., 187.) § 381. So where a number of persons associate themselves together, in pursuance of the statute, for the expressed pur |