in their visitations; wherein they may not presume to receive money of any when crimes are to be corrected or punished, nor sentence any unjustly, on purpose to extort money from them, on pain of double the summ to pious uses at the discretion of the bishop, besides other ecclesiastical punishment (f). ["The canon law doth distinguish of archdeacons; the whole title throughout (g) regularly speaks of an archdeacon. general, who hath not any archdeaconry distinctly limited, Sed tanquam vicarius fungitur vice episcopi universaliter, and doth represent the bishop (h). Otherwise it is in him who hath a distinct limitation of his archdeaconry, for then he hath a jurisdiction separate from the bishop, which, where it is by custome, may be prescribed (i). Consonant to this seems that difference which the judges took in the case between Chivertan and Trudgeon, wherein they held and agreed, That there is a jurisdiction of one archdeacon, and there is the jurisdiction of another, which is but a peculiar jurisdiction; for the archdeacon is an officer who hath a court of his own, in which he hath the probate of testaments de jure. And Doderidge, Justice, said, 'That he is a principal officer belonging to the bishop, et est quasi oculus episcopi;' but otherwise it is of one who hath but a special jurisdiction, as the archdeacon of Richmond hath to make institutions; and so 21 Hen. 6, 23, the dean of Paul's in that case hath special authority in St. Pancridge (k). ["In the case between Gastrell and Jones, it was said by Ley, Chief Justice, That it is to be considered, what authority the archdeacon hath in his own nature, as such, and what power he may have by prescription, or otherwise.' The archdeacon is a minister subordinate to the bishop, viz. deputy and vicar, or an officer under him: for, in case of induction, the bishop's warrant is necessary to impower him to give the same. He hath also judicial power, but it is not exclusive to the episcopal authority, but the bishop is his superiour (1).” far a Benefice [By the canon law, if one having a benefice with cure of Archdea souls accepts an archdeaconry, the archdeaconry is void, but it conry how is expressly provided by 21 Hen. 8, c. 13, "that no deanry, by Canon and archdeaconry, &c. shall be taken or comprehended under the Law. name of a benefice having cure of souls in any article above specified." This was so declared in Underhill's case (m). [Section 124 of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, though it seems to comprehend an archdeaconry under the title "Cathedral Prefer (f) [Constit. Othonis, de Archidiaconis.] (g) [De Offic. Archidiac.] (h) [Extra. de Consue. non putamus.] (i) [Gloss. in ver. Visitent. dict. Const. Otho.] (k) [Hill. 17 Jac. B. R. Case Chi- (m) [Leon. Rep.; Godolph. 62.] by Statute Number of Archdeaconries. ment," makes, as it has been stated, a special exception in favour of the office by allowing an archdeacon to hold two benefices with his archdeaconry, a permission not accorded to the holders of other cathedral preferments. [The term "Benefice," is defined by the 124th section of this act, and by 21st of 2 & 3 Vict., and neither of these definitions includes an archdeaconry. It is said (n), that a prebend being an ecclesiastical benefice and not a mere office, the crown may alienate it or annex to it an archdeaconry, the archdeacon being a corporation sole, and also a spiritual person capable of discharging all the duties and exercising all the functions belonging to a prebend, but an annexation once made cannot be severed. ["The dioceses within this realm of England," (says Godolphin), "are divided into several archdeaconries, they being more or less in a diocese according to the extent thereof respectively, and in all amounting to threescore; and they are divided again into deanries, which are also subdivided into parishes, towns, and hamlets." By a recent statute seven new archdeaconries are to be created and districts assigned to them (o): Bristol, Maidstone, Monmouth, Westmoreland, Manchester, Lancaster and Craven. Archidiaconal power also is to be given to the dean of Rochester within that part of Kent which will remain within the diocese of Rochester, and the limits of other existing deanries and archdeaconries are to be so newly arranged that every parish and extra-parochial place be within a rural deanry, and every deanry within an archdeaconry, and that no archdeaconry extend beyond the limits of one diocese; and all the archdeaconries of England and Wales are to be in the gift of the bishop of the diocese in which they are situated. These were prospective enactments to take effect from the time they are gazetted by the ecclesiastical commissioners; but sect. 19 of this act enacts positively "that all archdeacons throughout England and Wales shall have and exercise full and equal jurisdiction within their respective archdeaconries, any usage to the contrary notwithstanding. It has since been determined to preserve for the present the jurisdiction of all peculiar ecclesiastical courts (p).—ED.] In general the archdeacon's jurisdiction is founded on immemorial custom, in subordination to the bishop's; and he is to be regulated as to his dignity, office and power, according [97] to the law, usage and custom of his own church and diocese (q). For in some places the archdeacons have much greater power than in others. As in the diocese of Carlisle, the archdeacon hath no jurisdiction, but he retaineth still that more ancient (n) [1 B. & Ad. 761.] (p) [See also title Beans and Chap(o)[See preamble to 6 & 7 Will. ters, for the new regulations affecting archdeaconries by 4 Vict.-ED.] (9) 1 Still. 238. 4, c. 97.] right of examining and presenting persons to be ordained, and of inducting persons instituted. 4. The judge of the archdeacon's court (where he doth not Archdeacon's preside himself), is called the official (r). Official. 5. By the statute of the 24 Hen. 8, c. 12, an appeal lieth Appeal. from the archdeacon's to the bishop's court. [Ayliffe says (s), (citing Lindwood), that though an archdeacon's official cannot visit "jure proprio," he may in right of the archdeacon if the archdeacon himself is hindered. [There are very few reported cases of decisions by the official of the archdeacon. The most celebrated is that of The Churchwardens of St. John's, Margate, against The Parishioners, Vicar, and Inhabitants of the same, on an application for a faculty for accepting and erecting an organ, before Sir W. Scott, official to the archdeacon of Canterbury (t). Sir W. Scott here remarks that the archdeacon of Canterbury, by ancient composition with the archbishop, exercises episcopal jurisdiction in a great part of that diocese (u), and so Lindwood (x): "But besides these, archdeacons have likewise their officials to their exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in certain parts of the diocese, having acquired jurisdiction from their bishops, either by an express composition or grant, or else by prescription and length of usage time out of mind." In 1808 the official of the archdeaconry of London, decided, after hearing counsel on an act of petition and affidavits, that the secretary of the London Dock Company, occupying a furnished house belonging to the said company in the parish of St. Peter-le-Poor, was eligible to the office of churchwarden for the said parish. It should be remarked that the occupier paid taxes and rates in his own name, with the addition "for the Dock Company, for the house of which he was the sole inhabitant. The following extract is taken from the registry of the official's court. ["On Monday, the 14th day of March, in the year of our Lord 1808, before the worshipful Sir John Nicholl, Knight, Doctor of Laws, in and throughout the whole archdeaconry of London, official, lawfully constituted in the Dining Room adjoining to the Common Hall of Doctors Commons, situate in the parish of St. Benedict, near Paul's Wharf, London, and place of judicature there, in the presence of WILLIAM MOORE, Dep. Reg. Cobb. Bedford. tors. ["Both proctors consented to time and place and alleged and prayed as in acts of court. The judge having previously heard the act and affidavit read, and advocates and proctors on both sides, rejected Benford's petition, and assigned George Robin Wood. Com. L. b. iv. c. 1. () [P.161.] (u) [See Church Ornaments.] son, Bedford's party, to take upon himself the office of churchwarden within a week from this time, but gave no costs. "Cobb. Bedford." [Another case of more recent date, and yet one prima impressionis, was tried before the official of the same archdeacon (y), in which the court (z) refused to compel a quaker to take upon him the office of churchwarden, which he was cited to do by a churchwarden of the parish of Allhallows, having been duly elected to it by the parishioners (a). See Churchwarden. -ED.] M. 8 Will. Robinson and Godsalve. Upon motion for a prohibition to stay a suit in the bishop's court, upon suggestion that the party lived within a peculiar archdeaconry, it was resolved by the court, that where the archdeacon hath a peculiar jurisdiction, he is totally exempt from the power of the bishop, and the bishop cannot enter there, and hold court; and in such case, if the party who lives within the peculiar be sued in the bishop's court, a prohibition shall be granted; for the statute intends that no suit shall be per saltum: but if the archdeacon hath not a peculiar, then the bishop and he have concurrent jurisdiction, and the party may commence his suit, either in the archdeacon's court or the bishop's, and he hath election to choose which he pleaseth: and if he commence in the bishop's court, no prohibition shall be granted; for if it should, it would confine the bishop's court to determine nothing but appeals, and render it incapable of having any causes originally commenced there (b). [The question of appeals from inferior to superior ecclesiastical courts underwent an elaborate discussion in the case of Parham v. Templar (c), in the course of which Sir John Nicholl said, "The statute regulating appeals from archdeacons does not appear to me to regulate any appeals from dean and chapters; for a dean and chapter are of higher rank than an archdeacon." "The dean and chapter has in some instances a control over the bishop; while the archdeacon is only an officer of the bishop, and is sometimes called oculus episcopi, subordinate to him, and supervising for him." But he admits, "even archdeacons themselves may have their peculiars; and in that case they would not be bound by the statute of Hen. 8." The same learned judge, in Pronleard v. Deacle (d), says, "The general jurisdiction of the diocese is in the bishop, and archdeacons only have that which the bishop chooses to grant out to them;" and seemed to be of opinion that where the archidiaconal and episcopal courts were concurrent in jurisdiction, there was no irregularity, even in form, in invoking, on the death of the archdeacon, the causes (y) [Adey v. Theobald, 1 Curteis, 447.] (z) [Dr. Phillimore.] (b) Ld. Raym. 123. in his court into the episcopal court. Generally speaking then the appeal from the archdeacon's court is to that of the bishop of the diocese; but when the former has a peculiar, it lies, as it does in the case of a dean and chapter, to the court of the archbishop. Sir John Nicholl's opinion, that the jurisdiction of a dean and chapter is superior to that of the archdeacon, appears to be at variance with the declaration of Ayliffe (e). "An archdeacon," he says, "is by custom a greater person in his district than the dean of a cathedral church, and particularly in those things which do of common right or by custom belong to his office: for an archdeacon is greater than a dean in a point of jurisdiction out of the cathedral church. Because in all such matters a dean ought to be subject to him; but in the cathedral church, and in the celebration of divine service, an archdeacon ought to be subject to the dean; but in all these things the custom of churches ought to be regarded; according to which a dean, simply speaking, is inferior to an archdeacon." [By the 3d sect. of 3 & 4 Vict. c. 86, the archdeacon is enumerated among those who may be the assessors of the bishop in hearing proceedings against a clergyman; but it is not imperative on the bishop to appoint him. [See the title Deans and Chapters, for further privileges conferred on this important officer of the church by the recent act, 3 & 4 Vict. c.113.-ED.] Arches. THE person who administers justice in the court of arches is the official principal of the archbishop, who was called officialis de arcubus, and the court itself curia de arcubus, or Bowchurch (so called from the steeple being raised at the top with stone pillars archwise); and being the church where the dean of those peculiars (commonly called the dean of the arches) held his courts. And because these two courts were held in the same place, and the dean of the arches was usually substi- [98] tuted in the absence of the official while the offices remained in two persons, and the offices themselves have in many instances been united in one and the same person, as they now remain; by these means a wrong notion hath obtained, that it is the dean of the arches, as such, who hath jurisdiction throughout the province of Canterbury; whereas the jurisdiction of that office is limited to the thirteen peculiars of the archbishop in the city of London; and the jurisdiction throughout the province, for receiving of appeals and the like, belongs to him only as official principal (f). (e) [P. 99.] (f) Gibs. 1004; Johns. 257. |