ADVERTISEMENT. THE subject of this Supplement to the Author's Volume on "Parochial Law," was not included therein, with the view of its forming part of a contemplated work on Church Law. The prospect, however, of being able to accomplish this becoming every year more distant, and the Law of Patronage being attended at present with a peculiar interest, the Author has been induced to publish the following sheets as a Supplement to the "Parochial Law," with the matters treated of in which, the Law of Patronage is nearly connected. The Author has had occasion, in reference to certain points, to refer to decisions of the General Assembly; but the difficulty of ascertaining the nature of the causes decided, and of obtaining information as to the facts or the grounds of decision, is so great, that he has contented himself with such scanty notices as he has found in other publications, and the abridgment of the proceedings of the Assembly to which these refer. EDINBURGH, April 27, 1833. T LAW OF PATRONAGE AND SETTLEMENT OF PAROCHIAL MINISTERS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. 1. THE parochial ministers of Scotland, like those of other established churches, unite in their persons two different classes of rights, viz. the right to the holy office of a spiritual pastor in the church of Christ, and the right to the temporal emoluments, or benefice, wherewith the office has been endowed. These, however, are in no respect necessarily connected, and the former may perfectly subsist without the latter. Even when conjoined, being diverse in their origin, the title by which they are held is also generally different. The holy office rests on warrant of Scripture alone, and the admission thereto is only by the church. The right to the temporal endowments flows directly or indirectly from the civil power, and the title to it is regulated by the rules prescribed by the civil power, and agreed to by the church, as the condition of the endowment. Sometimes such endowment is conferred on whatever persons may be by the church admitted to the spiritual office, without any reservation as to the appointment to the temporal rights, as was the case in Scot A land for a few years immediately prior to the restoration of Charles II. More generally, a right of presentation to the benefice is constituted in favour either of the state or of private individuals. In such case, it necessarily happens that the full and free exercise of election in the choice to the spiritual office, and in the appointment to the civil rights, by the respective parties entitled thereto, must in both suffer some limitation, so as to attain the object of combining the two classes of rights thereby conferred in one and the same person, or else the one must be in substance absorbed by the other, though the form of a separate exercise of choice may still be maintained. 2. For some years after the Reformation in Scotland, the ministers scarcely enjoyed any legal provision; and, accordingly, their appointment was, in general, not to a benefice, but to the spiritual office of pastor alone. To this office no one might enter without being lawfully called thereto. "Besides the calling of God, and inward testimony of a good conscience," without which it is declared "none ought to presume to enter into any office ecclesiastical," there is required an outward calling or vocation, which is described in the books of discipline as having two parts: viz. 1. Election; and, 2. Ordination or admission, which includes examination. 3. According to the first of these books, "it appertaineth to the people, and to every several congregation, to elect their minister;" and in the second, election is defined to be "the chusing out of a person or persones maist abill to the office that vaikes be the judgement of the elderschip [presbytery] and consent of the congregation to whom the person or persones beis appointed ; "3 while in both it is equally strongly provided that no one should be intruded on a congregation contrary to their will, the consent of the congregation being assumed as the requisite title for taking any one on trial with a view to his admission to the spiritual office. 4. At an early period after the Reformation, however, claims to the right of presentation were advanced by the ancient patrons as to the proper benefices not previously ap Second Book of Discipline, c. 3, § 3.— 2 4. 1. 2.- 3 |