Abolition of ecclesiastical courts and law. or, save in so far as may be rendered necessary by the passing of this act, in the formularies of the said Church, shall be binding on any ecclesiastical person now licensed as a curate or holding any archbishopric, bishopric, benefice, or cathedral preferment in Ireland, being an annuitant or person entitled to compensation under this act, who shall within one month after the making of such alteration signify in writing to the Church body hereafter mentioned his dissent therefrom, so as to deprive such. person of any annuity or other compensation to which under this act he may be entitled." Sect. 21. "On and after the first day of January, 1871, all jurisdiction, whether contentious or otherwise, of all the eccleecclesiastical siastical, peculiar, exempt, and other courts and persons in Ireland at the time of the passing of this act having any jurisdiction whatsoever exerciseable in any cause, suit, or matter, matrimonial, spiritual, or ecclesiastical, or in any way connected with or arising out of the ecclesiastical law of Ireland, shall cease; and on and after the said first day of January, 1871, the act" 27 & 28 Vict. c. 54, "shall be repealed, and on and after the last-mentioned day the ecclesiastical law of Ireland, except in so far as relates to matrimonial causes and matters, shall cease to exist as law." Incorporation of church body. Commutation. Provisions Sect. 22. "If at any time it be shown to the satisfaction of her Majesty that the bishops, clergy, and laity of the said Church in Ireland, or the persons who, for the time being, may succeed to the exercise and discharge of the episcopal functions of such bishops, and the clergy and laity in communion with such persons, have appointed any persons or body to represent the said Church, and to hold property for any of the uses or purposes thereof, it shall be lawful for her Majesty by charter to incorporate such body, with power, notwithstanding the statutes of mortmain, to hold lands to such extent as is in this act provided, but not further or otherwise." The act provided for dealings between the commissioners and the representative church body, with respect to redemption of annuities and life interest of ecclesiastical persons, by a process of commutation where the parties interested desired it. By sect. 25, provisions are made for the churches of the with respect Church of Ireland as follows: to churches. (1.) Churches not used for divine worship, but deserving preservation as national monuments, are to be vested in and preserved by the commissioners of public works. (2.) Churches in actual use, for which the representative body apply, stating that they mean to use the same or to build another in lieu of the present fabric, are, subject to the life interest of the incumbent, to be vested in the representative body. (3.) Churches in actual use, for which no application is made, may, when erected by a private founder, be vested in him or his representatives if he have died since the year 1800. (4.) Any other churches may be disposed of as the commis sioners think fit. Rights to vaults and of sepulture are to remain as before. Where churches are vested in the representative body, schoolhouses belonging to such churches may be so vested also. Sect. 26 contains provisions as to burial grounds to the Provisions following effect:with respect to burial (1.) Where a church vested in the representative body has a grounds. burial ground that is annexed to it and not separated by any carriage highway, or "that has been granted by a private donor to or exclusively used by the parishioners attending the said church," the commissioners, at the option of the representative body, shall (a) either vest it in the body, subject to any life interest and without prejudice to any such right of burial " as may be subsisting therein or may be thereafter declared to subsist therein by act of parliament," or (b) vest it in the guardians of the poor, subject to a right of way to the church, in which case the guardians are to take care that funerals do not take place during the time of ordinary church service and generally for the freedom of the clergy and congregation of the church from interference by those attending funerals, and shall preserve the burial ground in good order. (2.) In other cases the burial ground is simply to be vested in the guardians of the poor, to be by them holden as a ground purchased by a burial board, with an exception for burial grounds situate in private parks or grounds. Sects. 27, 28, contain provisions as to residence houses and Residence glebes as follows: Any residence house used by a clergyman performing or aiding in the services of any church vested in the representative body or in any building temporarily used for a church or any see house used by an archbishop or bishop shall, on application of the representative body, be, with the garden and curtilage thereto, vested in the body, subject to any life interest, upon payment by the body "of a sum equal to ten times the amount of the annual value of the site of such ecclesiastical residence estimated as land and of the said garden and curtilage; " or, where there is a building charge on the residence, of the smaller of these two sums, the amount of the ten years' annual value or the amount of such building charge. The payments are to be made either upon the vesting order, or, where there is a life interest, on the determination of the life interest. Where these residences are so vested, the commissioners may further on the application of the representative body vest in the body, on payment of the price thereof to be fixed by arbitration, land not exceeding thirty acres with every see house, and not exceeding ten acres with any other residence, or more if the commissioners shall think it necessary for the convenient enjoyment of the see house or residence. houses and glebes. By sect. 29, a lump sum of 500,000l. was to be paid to the Payment of representative body in lieu of all claims in respect of private £500,000. Moveable chattels belonging to see or church. Ultimate trust of surplus. Provision as to acts relating to United Church of England and Ireland. benefactions or the produce thereof: and any particular private endowment might within twelve months substantiate its claim to a share in this lump sum. By sect. 30. "All plate, furniture, and other moveable chattels belonging to any church or chapel, or used in connection with the celebration of Divine worship therein, shall vest in the representative Church body when incorporated; and, subject to the life enjoyment of same by the existing incumbents, all moveable chattels held and enjoyed by the incumbent for the time being of any see, cathedral preferment, and benefice in his corporate right, together with or as incident to the occupation of any ecclesiastical residence, shall also vest in the same body when incorporated; and where any property is vested in any ecclesiastical or cathedral corporation in Ireland in trust for the poor or any other charitable purpose, the dissolution of such corporation shall not affect the continuance of the trust, but such property shall immediately upon such dissolution vest in the representative body of the said church, or, in default of and until the same shall be constituted, in the commissioners for the execution of this act, but subject always to the trusts affecting the same, and under the same supervision, local or otherwise, as theretofore, or as near thereto as the circumstances of the case will admit; and in all cases where ecclesiastical persons are at present in right of their dignities or offices entitled to be members of any lay corporations constituted for the management of any private endowment, or are trustees for the management of property belonging to institutions of private foundation for purposes not ecclesiastical, then the persons (if any) who shall hereafter at any time discharge duties similar or analogous to those now discharged by such ecclesiastical persons shall be entitled to succeed in their room, and be members of such lay corporations, and to act as such trustees." The act disposed of the surplus of church property to the following imperfect extent: Sect. 68. "And whereas it is further expedient that the proceeds of the said property should be appropriated mainly to the relief of unavoidable calamity and suffering, yet not so as to cancel or impair the obligations now attached to property under the acts for the relief of the poor: be it further enacted, that the said proceeds shall be so applied accordingly in the manner Parliament shall hereafter direct" (h). The act contains these saving clauses. Sect. 69. "In all enactments, deeds, and other documents in which mention is made of the United Church of England and Ireland, the enactments and provisions relating thereto shall be read distributively in respect of the Church of England and the (h) Though the Irish Church Fund has been repeatedly pledged for loans made under the various Irish Land Acts, the Editor believes it has never been absolutely assigned, or disposed of in perpetuity. Church of Ireland, but, as to the last-mentioned church, subject to the provisions of this act." Sect. 70. "Nothing in this act contained shall affect the Saving rights patronage or right of presentation to any proprietary or district as to proprietary chapels parochial church or endowed chapel of ease which has been and chapels endowed out of private funds, or affect the property in any of ease. such church or chapel, or the property held for the purposes of or appropriated to the use of the same, or affect the continuance of the trust relating thereto as originally constituted.” Sect. 72 contains a series of definitions of words used in the act, amongst which the following definition is to be noted:"Jurisdiction shall mean legal and coercive power and shall not extend to or include any power or authority which may be exercised in a voluntary religious association upon the footing of mutual contract or agreement." Irish Notwithstanding the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the Marriages in clergy of that church are recognized by the "Matrimonial churches. Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1870," 33 & 34 Vict. c. 110, ss. 32-35, 38, and 40, as having authority to celebrate marriage (i), and the bishops as having authority to license any church or chapel within their "episcopal superintendence" for the celebration of marriage, and to depute persons to grant licences and themselves to grant special licences for marriage, when both parties are members of that church or of the Church of England or the Episcopal Church of Scotland: and provision is made for the terms on which such licences are to be granted and for an appeal from a refusal to grant one; and marriages in churches are directed to be preceded by banns, licence, special licence, or registrar's certificate. (i) See Reg. v. Magee, referred to at pp. 643 and 1755, supra. CHAPTER II. CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 6 Anne, c. 11. IN 1706 the act 6 Anne, c. 11, passed for the union of England and Scotland (a). Articles of Act for esta By sect. 2, her Majesty, with advice and consent of the Estates of Parliament, "ratifies, approves, and for ever confirms the fifth act of the first parliament of King William and Queen Mary, intituled Act ratifying the confession of faith, and settling Presbyterian Church government,' with all other acts of Parliament relating thereto, in prosecution of the declaration of the estates of this kingdom, containing the claim of right, bearing date the eleventh of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine. And her Majesty with advice and consent aforesaid expressly provides and declares, that the foresaid true protestant religion, contained in the above-mentioned confession of faith, with the form and purity of worship presently in use within this Church, and its Presbyterian Church government and discipline, (that is to say), the government of the Church by kirk sessions, presbyteries, provincial synods, and general assemblies, all established by the foresaid acts of Parliament, pursuant to the claim of right, shall remain and continue unalterable, and that the said Presbyterian government shall be the only government of the Church within the kingdom of Scotland." Sect. 3 of the same statute secures the Church of England. By sect. 4. . . . "all and every the said articles of union as Union and the ratified and approved by the said act of Parliament of Scotland, blishing Pres- as aforesaid, and herein before particularly mentioned and inbyterian serted; and also the said act of Parliament of Scotland for estabChurch Golishing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church government within that kingdom, intituled, An Act for securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government," and every clause, matter and thing in the said articles and act contained, shall be, and the said articles and act are hereby for ever ratified, approved and confirmed." vernment, &c. ratified and confirmed. Acts for settling the Church Go 6 By sect. 5, "The said act [that is, 6 Anne, c. 8] passed in this present session of parliament, intituled, 'An Act for se (a) See Grub, The Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 1861; Keith, Historical Catalogue of the Scottish |