Page images
PDF
EPUB

form the Spiritual Peerage. Certain Irish prelates sat from 1801 to 1871.

The chief powers and privileges of a bishop are:-ordination, confirmation, consecration of bishops and churches, visitation and correction of the clergy, institution and induction to livings, licensing curates, appointing honorary canons, acting as an ecclesiastical judge, granting common marriage licences, and some minor dispensations (q. v.). A bishop may also perform all the functions of the priestly office, and when so doing is a "minister" and bound by the rubrics (d). No clergyman, and, it would seem, no layman (except in an emergency), can officiate in any way in church without the bishop's licence. His charge to his clergy is a "privileged " communication, and no action for libel can be founded on it (e).

Nothing is more clear than that under the general ecclesiastical law, the power of the ordinary over the clergy of the diocese, and of correcting them, is established and exercised by proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts. Private admonition may in some cases be sufficient, but where it is necessary to take proceedings they must be according to due legal procedure (ƒ).

When a clergyman is made bishop of a diocese in England or Wales, all his other preferments are vacated, and the right of presentation to them devolves on the Queen, but not so if he becomes a suffragan bishop (2. v.). Also promotion to an Irish, Scotch, American, or colonial bishopric, does not confer on the Crown any rights of presentation (g).

Bishops (and archbishops (q. v.)) now have what are practically fixed annual incomes secured by means of an assignment to them by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of such lands as will secure as nearly as may be, after deducting costs of management, a net annual income equal to that named by

(d) Read v. Bishop of Lincoln (1889), 14 P. D. 148.

(e) Laughton v. Sodor, &c. (1873), 21 W. R. 204.

(f) Per Sir H. Jenner Fust, 2 N. of C. 374. See CHURCH DISCIPLINE, and P. W. R. A. Acts.

(g) See Queen v. Eton College (1857), 8 Ell. & Bl. 610.

any statute or order in council for the time being in force. Such lands form the endowment, and are to be taken in lieu of a fixed income, but are subject to re-valuation on every avoidance (h). The incomes appointed in 1836 were:London, 10,0007., Durham, 8,0007., and Winchester, 7,000, the others, about 5,0007. each (i). Some of the bishops have not had an assignment of lands, but are paid out of the common fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and the bishops of new dioceses are partly paid out of the incomes of trust funds voluntarily subscribed. Before 1836, the variations were very great, the revenues of Durham being from 20,0007. to 40,000l. a year, and of Llandaff at one time only 8007. a year. The stipends of the prelates of the disestablished church of Ireland vary from 1,000l. to 2,500l. (k).

When a bishop (or archbishop) becomes incapacitated by age or some mental or permanent physical infirmity, her Majesty may, under the Bishops Resignation Act, 1869 (7), if satisfied of such incapacity, and that the bishop has canonically resigned, declare the see vacant. The retiring bishop is to receive out of the revenue of the see one-third of the income, or 2,0007. a year, whichever is the greater, and may have assigned to him for his use for life any episcopal residence occupied by him. The new bishop is not required to pay the usual fees and charges on accession till the death of the retiring bishop, except the necessary expense of his election and consecration (1). In a case of mental incapacity a bishop coadjutor (q. v.) may be appointed. The usual course in the case of an aged or overworked prelate, is to appoint a suffragan bishop (7. v.)

The Queen has power to create a bishopric in any part of her dominions, except where, as in Scotland, such an exercise of prerogative is forbidden (m), or where there is a responsible

(h) 23 & 24 Vict. c. 124, ss. 3-6. (i) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 77. This does not apply to Sodor and Man, see 1 & 2 Vict. c. 30.

(k) See Whitaker's Almanack.

(7) 32 & 33 Vict. c. 111, made perpetual by 38 & 39 Vict. c. 19.

(m) Per Lord Campbell, in Queen v. Eton College, ubi supra.

government (n). In a newly settled colony there is no established church, and imperial legislation may raise any sect to that position or leave them all equal. When a bishop of the Anglican Communion is planted in Scotland or in a foreign country, he is usually styled bishop in, not of, the particular place, e. g., bishop in Jerusalem, bishop in Edinburgh; but it must be remembered that such titles are of no civil value, and give no precedence in civil rank, they must not be confused with the titles used by the Church of England. Consequently an Irish, Scotch, or colonial bishop has no legal authority to assume the title of "lord" bishop, or to be addressed as "my lord"; except such Irish bishops as were appointed before the disestablishment.

The fees and stamp duties payable by a newly made bishop of one of the ancient sees in respect of his appointment amount to about 4007. (o).

The stamp duty on a congé d'élire, and also on the royal assent and the restitution of temporalities is 30l. (p).

BLASPHEMY, an offence against God and religion by indecent abuse of the Almighty, or of our Saviour Christ. It is an offence both at common and statute law (9).

By a statute passed in the 17th century, the mere denial by an apostate of the truth of Christianity, or of the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures (and formerly of the doctrine of the Trinity), constitutes the offence of blasphemy. And as recently as 1867, it was held that this statute was in full force, and that the delivery of lectures maintaining that the character of Christ is defective, and His teaching misleading, and that the Bible is no more inspired than any other book, is blasphemy; and a person who hired rooms for the delivery of these lectures hired them for an "unlawful

(n) See Long v. Cape Town (1863), 1 Moore, P. C. (N. S.) 411. And see ANGLICAN COMMUNION.

(o) See FEES. The fees paid by the late Archbishop Magee on his

translation to York were 5731.: 6s. (p) 54 & 55 Vict. c. 39.

(9) 9 & 10 Will. 3, c. 35 (or 32) as amended in favour of Unitarians by 53 Geo. 3, c. 160, s. 2.

purpose," and the lettor was not bound by his contract (r). But this decision has been adversely criticised in several cases, and especially in the celebrated judgment of Lord Coleridge, L. C. J., in the Foote case, which decided that the maxim that Christianity forms part of the law of England (in the old sense) is now obsolete; as also is the above-mentioned statute; and that the mere denial of the truth of the Christian religion is not sufficient to constitute the offence of blasphemy. There must be added a wilful intention to pervert, insult, and mislead others by means of licentious and contumelious abuse applied to sacred subjects or by wilful misrepresentations or artful sophistries calculated to mislead the ignorant and unwary. It seems that if the decencies of controversy are observed, even the fundamentals of religion may be attacked without committing blasphemy (s).

Every person guilty of atheism, blasphemy, or any damnable doctrine or opinion (not punishable at common law) may also be proceeded against in the ecclesiastical court (f), but the proceedings would not be attended with much success. Any person who being present at a burial under the Burial Law Amendment Act, 1880, shall endeavour to bring into contempt or obloquy the Christian religion or Christian ministers of any denomination is guilty of a misdemeanour (u).

BRAWLING is riotous, violent, or indecent behaviour in a place of worship, whether during the celebration of divine service or at any other time, or in any churchyard or burial ground (x).

Brawling by a layman (as also molestation of a minister) is no longer punishable by the ecclesiastical courts, but as a civil offence it is a misdemeanour under several statutes.

(r) Cowan v. Milbourn (1867), L. R. 2 Ex. 230.

(s) Reg. v. Ramsay and Foote (1883), 48 L. T. 733; 15 Cox, C. C. 235.

(t) Stephen's Crim. Dig. 98; and Phillimore v. Machon (1876), 1 P. D. 481.

(u) 43 & 44 Vict. c. 41, s. 7.
(x) 23 & 24 Vict. c. 32, s. 2.

The penalty under 52 Geo. 3, c. 155, is 407., under 23 & 24 Vict. c. 32, 57, or two months' imprisonment, and under the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 36, two years' imprisonment with or without hard labour, and the offender may also be fined and required to give sureties (sect. 71).

Under 23 & 24 Vict. c. 32, any constable or churchwarden of the parish has power to apprehend the offender and take him before a justice. There is an appeal to quarter sessions from a conviction under this Act (y). A man may be convicted for brawling, although acting in the bona fide assertion of a claim of right, and that independently of the question whether the claim is a good one or not (z).

The 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 36, is to the following effect: "Whosoever shall, by threats or force, obstruct or prevent, or endeavour to obstruct or prevent, any clergyman or other minister in or from celebrating divine service or otherwise officiating in any church, chapel, meeting-house, or other place of divine worship, or in or from the performance of his duty in the lawful burial of the dead in any churchyard or other burial place, or shall strike or offer any violence to, or shall, upon any civil process, or under the pretence of executing any civil process, arrest any clergyman or other minister who is engaged in, or to the knowledge of the offender is about to engage in, any of the rights or duties aforesaid, or who, to the knowledge of the offender, shall be going to perform the same or returning from the performance thereof, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof, is liable to two years' imprisonment with or without hard labour" (a).

Also, by the Burial Law Amendment Act, 1880, provision is made to prevent improper conduct at burials. See BURIAL. A clergyman may also be guilty of brawling if he uses intemperate and scolding language in the pulpit, or preaches

(y) Sects. 2, 3 and 4. (N.B.-Sect. 4, from "which shall be holden," is repealed.)

(z) Asher v. Calcraft (1887), 18 Q. B. D. 607.

(a) As to what is " see CONGREGATION; ALMS.

officiating,"

« PreviousContinue »