Philip Vernon Smith

“ But an incumbent ought not, without that sanction, to permit a layman to take any other part in any service in a consecrated building. The officiating of a layman in an unconsecrated building does not stand quite on the same footing; but, as a matter of Church order and regularity, the approval of it by the bishop should be procured, through the layman being expressly authorised as a lay reader, or in some other manner, especially if the building is licensed for Divine worship. All such laymen must, of course, act with the consent, and under the direction, of the incumbent of the parish. ”

“ Like all other human arrangements, our English Church law is, of course, far from being ideally perfect. It may be safely affirmed that there has never been either a Church or a State in which the law has actually been what it ideally ought to have been. It is important to recognise the difference between the two positions; for there has sometimes been a disposition on the part of individuals to confuse them, and to treat what they consider to be the ideal law, as if it were the actual law, and as if, as such, it demanded their loyal obedience. ”

“ The minister simply exhorts that if any person cannot by his own confession to God, with full purpose of amendment of life and by reconciliation with any neighbours whom he may have offended, quiet his own conscience with a view to receiving Holy Communion, he should come to the incumbent of the parish, or to some other discreet and learned minister of God's word, and open his grief, "that by the ministry of God's holy word he may receive the benefit of absolution together with ghostly counsel and advice to the quieting of his conscience and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness." ”

“ An incumbent has an absolute discretion as to permitting or refusing any other clergyman, not being licensed as a curate to the parish, to officiate within his parish, with this qualification, that he has no right to permit any clergyman to officiate in his parish who by law is debarred from taking duty in the diocese. With regard to this, no unbeneficed clergyman has, strictly speaking, a right to officiate publicly in a diocese, either in church or elsewhere, without the licence or consent of the bishop, and his doing so is an ecclesiastical offence. ”

“ The minimum legal age for contracting marriage is fourteen for the husband and twelve for the wife. In the case of minors the consent of parents or guardians is necessary to their marriage after banns. In the case of the marriage by licence of a minor who is not a widower or widow, the consent to the marriage must be obtained from the father if living, and if he is dead, from some one guardian of the minor (if any) . The mother, whether still a widow or remarried, is by law a guardian of the minor unless she has been removed from the office by the High Court of Justice. ”

“ A person divorced in England has, therefore, a legal right to require his or her banns to be published and marriage to be solemnised in church in like manner as if he or she were a widower or widow, with the exception that no clergyman is by law bound to marry a person whose marriage has been dissolved on account of the person's own adultery ”

“ The right to the cure of souls in a parish naturally carries with it the right of the incumbent to a voice in the erection of a new church in the parish and the severance of any portion of the parish from his benefice and its formation into a new ecclesiastical district or parish. ”

“ The money received in respect of any destruction or damage of a building which the insurance office does not cause to be reinstated at its own expense, is to be paid to Queen Anne's Bounty, and dealt with in the same manner as money standing to a dilapidation account. If the building cannot be reinstated for the amount for which it was insured, the diocesan surveyor is to certify the additional sum required for the purpose, with the same liberty to the incumbent or sequestrator to object and the same final order of the bishop as in the case of a report as to dilapidations. ”

“ Assistant unbeneficed clergy are contemplated by the canons, in which they are styled curates; and with the licence of the bishop any incumbent may employ one or more curates to assist him in serving the parish. A curate frequently comes in the first instance on probation without being licensed, and his tenure of office is then entirely dependent on the will of the incumbent. ”

“ The incumbent for the time being, whether of an ancient or new parish, has a freehold interest for his life, if he so long remains incumbent, in the possessions of the benefice, and for the purpose of holding them is a corporation sole, with a continuous succession in himself and all future incumbents. ”

“ If there is any doubt as to the validity of their marriage, he will always be on the safe side in adopting the affirmative view and acting upon the assumption of their being validly married. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the law will presume a valid marriage from the fact of long reputation and cohabitation as man and wife, without actual proof of the ceremony having taken place. ”

“ And the curate who ministers in a parish church, being at home and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, is to say the same in the church, after summoning the people by a bell to come and hear God's word and pray with him. A bishop, however, has no power to enforce daily services ”

“ An incumbent can perform Divine service in any consecrated building in his parish without a licence from the bishop; but, strictly speaking, he requires the bishop's licence to authorise him to do so in any unconsecrated building, whether within or outside his parish, or anywhere in another diocese; and a bishop can inhibit an incumbent of his diocese from officiating within the diocese elsewhere than in the consecrated buildings within his own parish. If an incumbent transgresses in any of these respects he is liable to be sued for an ecclesiastical offence. ”

“ Where a foreigner of French or Belgian nationality, whose permanent residence is in England, is a party to an intended marriage after banns with an English subject, the incumbent of the parish should require before solemnising it the production of a certificate from the French Consul or Belgian Minister, as the case may be, that all the legal requirements necessary to the recognition of the marriage as valid in France or Belgium have been complied with. ”

“ A clergyman, whether priest or deacon, is not compellable to serve on a jury, though it is not illegal for him to do so. He may be appointed a justice of the peace or guardian of the poor, may be a member of a parish or district council, and may act as chairman, alderman, or councillor of a county council, and as mayor, alderman, or councillor of any of the Metropolitan boroughs. ”

“ An incumbent cannot hold more than one benefice at the same time, except that upon a certificate of the bishop as to the facts, and with a licence or dispensation from the archbishop of the province (from the refusal of which there is an appeal to the King in Council) , he may hold a second, the church of which is within four miles of that of the first by the nearest road, if the annual value of one of the benefices does not exceed the net sum of £200, after deducting rates, taxes, tenths, dues, and permanent charges, but not the stipend of a curate. ”

“ Much discussion has arisen upon a fourth source of Church law, namely, the decisions of our ecclesiastical courts. It is important to draw a clear distinction between legislative and judicial functions. A court, whether ecclesiastical or civil, has nothing to do with enacting laws. ”

“ A marriage may be solemnised, without banns or registrar's certificate, under a licence of the bishop of the diocese or the Archbishop of Canterbury for that purpose. A bishop's licence is granted by the chancellor of the diocese, through the diocesan registry, for the marriage of the parties in the church or chapelry of the parish in which one of the parties has dwelt for fifteen days immediately preceding. ”

“ A clergyman is not punishable who, without notice of the fact, solemnises the marriage of a party under the lawful age, or the marriage of a minor without the consent of parent or guardian; and the marriage of a minor above the marriageable age without such consent, if it actually takes place, is valid, and cannot be made void. [225] But the marriage of a person under the lawful age can be declared void by him or her on attaining that age. If, however, he or she then consents to the union, no remarriage is necessary. [226] ”

“ And neither incumbent nor churchwardens, nor both together, can make a valid sale or grant to individuals or families of a grave-space in the churchyard for their use in perpetuity. Any such attempted transaction is worthless in point of law. An exclusive right of burial in not more than one-sixth part of land given as an addition to a churchyard may be reserved by the donor to himself, his heirs, and assigns in perpetuity, [274] but with this exception no such exclusive right can be acquired in a spot within a churchyard except by faculty. ”

“ In every country where a Christian Church is permitted to exist, the power and authority of her clergy to exercise their functions will rest upon a triple basis and be subject to twofold restrictions and limitations. ”

“ Every ancient church ought of right to have glebe as well as a manse or parsonage house attached to it. [340] In a parish where there is an impropriate rectory and a vicarage, glebe may be attached to both or either. Rectorial glebe is not liable to pay vicarial tithe to the vicar, nor is vicarial glebe liable to rectorial tithe to the rector. [341] Since the interest of the incumbent in the house of residence and glebe is limited to his life or tenure of the benefice, he cannot deal with them in a way prejudicial to the rights of the patron or of his successors in the incumbency. ”

“ Every person dying in this country and not within the exceptions mentioned below (§ 3) has a common law right to be buried in the churchyard or burial ground of the parish in which he dies, by the clergyman of the parish. [270] Canon 67 prescribes that besides the passing bell (see Ch. VIII. § 1 below) there shall be rung after a person's death no more than one short peal, and one other before the burial and one other after the burial. If he dies out of his own parish, the persons who are responsible for his burial may claim that he be buried in his own parish. ”

“ But a person who holds preferment or a curacy in an English diocese under the Act of 1874, and who has held preferment or acted as curate for a period or periods exceeding in the aggregate two years, may, with the written consent of the bishop, request from the archbishop of the province a licence to exercise his clerical office according to the provisions of the Act; and this licence, if issued by the archbishop and registered in the provincial registry, will place him in the same position as if he had been ordained for service in England by an English bishop. ”

“ If the sick person is too ill to receive the Communion in the prescribed way, or is otherwise impeded, he is to be instructed that, without doing so with his mouth, he eats and drinks the Body and Blood of Christ to his soul's health if he truly repents of his sins, and steadfastly and thankfully believes in the redemption wrought by Christ's death on the Cross for him.
2. The Prayer Book requires the incumbent of every parish to bring or certify in writing to the bishop all persons within the parish whom he thinks fit to be presented to the bishop for confirmation. ”

“ If the patron refuses consent to the resignation, the question of its acceptance is to be decided by the archbishop. If the incumbent is a lunatic, found such by inquisition or certificate of a master of lunacy, the resignation may be carried out in his name by the committee of his estate; but no provision exists for effecting the resignation of an incumbent of unsound mind, not so found. If any part of the income of the benefice is derived from tithe rentcharge or glebe lands, the pension is to vary like the tithe rentcharge with the corn averages ”

“ The rights and duties of the incumbent on the one hand, and of the churchwardens on the other, in respect of the church and churchyard and the money and property of the Church, are so interlaced, that on many points friction cannot be avoided without that harmonious co-operation which should always exist between them, or, if this is unfortunately impossible, at any rate without mutual forbearance and concession. ”

“ The Form for the ministration of Private Baptism in houses contains a service for the public reception in church, as one of the flock of true Christian people, of a child who, in case of emergency, has been baptized at home, and also a formula of conditional baptism to be substituted for the words of actual baptism in cases where there is a doubt whether the essential parts of the Sacrament were observed in the private performance of the ceremony. ”

“ A curate who is appointed to serve in a benefice on which the incumbent does not reside during four months in the year is to be required by the bishop to reside within the parish, or within three miles of the church of the benefice, if no convenient residence can be procured within the parish, except in cases of necessity approved by the bishop. If the population of the benefice exceeds 2000, the bishop may require the incumbent to nominate two or more curates, and, if this is not done, may himself appoint them. ”

“ The sequestrators pay the costs of serving the cure out of the revenue of the benefice, and account for the balance to the succeeding incumbent, upon whom on the other hand any deficiency falls if these costs exceed the net revenue received by the sequestrators. ”