corporation be dissolved to which the benefice is annexed, the parsonage becomes disappropriate at common law. 1 Bl. Com. 386 n.

Archdeacon.

Is he who (according to the canon law) hath obtained a dignity in a cathedral church to have a priority among deacons, and is sometimes called oculus episcopi, is the officer of the bishop for all ecclesiastical matters within the diocese, excepting only such as by law are specially prohibited. Godol. Ab. 60; 1 Hag. 188. It would seem that an archdeacon is inferior in rank to a dean, the latter being archi presbyter, the former archi diaconus. 3 Phill. 240. The canon law distinguishes of archdeacons; there being an archdeacon general who hath not any archdeaconry distinctly limited, but generally supplies the place of bishop as his vicar, and therefore doth represent the bishop; and also another archdeacon who hath a distinct limitation of his archdeaconry, and hath a peculiar jurisdiction, for which, where it is by custom, he may prescribe. Godol. Ab. 65. Of common right it seems that archdeacons have no power to usurp to themselves greater matters, but only to report the same to the bishops. Beyond this, all the rights that any archdeacon enjoys, of what kind soever they may be, subsist by grants from the bishops, either made voluntarily to enable archdeacons to visit with greater authority and effect; or of necessity, as claimed and insisted on by archdeacons upon the foot of long usage and custom. But whatever might have been the motive for these concessions on the part of the bishops, it seems that the powers enjoyed by archdeacons beyond that which they claim of common right, accrued to them by express grant or composition, it being hard to imagine how deans and chapters, archdeacons or any other persons should be allowed to prescribe against a bishop for any branches of episcopal jurisdiction, and much more for an exemption from it. Gibs. 969; (a) Degge, P. C. 231, 235.

(a) When William the Conqueror deprived the county courts of their ecclesiastical jurisdiction, prohibiting the bishops to sit as judges, the clergy to attend as suitors, and the causes of the church to be tried in them, he appointed distinct courts to be held in every diocese for the

The different dioceses are divided into several archdeaconries, being more or less in a diocese according to the extent of it, and in all amounting to sixty. Co. Litt. 94; 5 Rep. Archdeaconries are again divided into deaneries, which also are divided into parishes, towns, and hamlets. Of these archdeaconries, some are by prescription, some by law, and some by covenant, which difference hath this operation in law, that the jurisdiction of an archdeaconry by prescription or de jure is peculiar and exclusive of the jurisdiction of the bishop. 3 Phill. 241. Insomuch that a prohibition lies for such archdeacon against the bishop if he intermeddle judicially with any matters or things within such archdeaconries. 1 Ld. Raym. 123; Cro. Car. 115. The archdeaconry of Richmond is by prescription. Y. B. 8 H. 6, c. 3. Otherwise it is where the archdeaconry is only by contract or covenant made between the bishop and archdeacon; for in that case if the bishop so intermeddle within the jurisdiction of such archdeacon or hold plea within the same, he can have an action of covenant against the bishop, but no prohibition lies. Godol. Ab. 61. But in ordinary cases the bishop and archdeacon have a concurrent jurisdiction, and the party may commence his suit either in the archdeacon's court or the bishops, 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 incompetent to have causes commenced there. 4 Inst. 339; 1 Ld. Raym. 123. And therefore it seems that there is no irregularity on the death of an archdeacon to invoke a cause to the episcopal court, and proceed with it there, especially if the usage of the diocese warrants it. 1 Hag. 188.

By the canon law, a man cannot be an archdeacon under the age of twenty-five, and by the council of Trent, he ought to be a licentiate in law or divinity. They are called the chief of the deacons, in whom there is an ecclesiastical dignity inherent

cognizance of ecclesiastical causes; this was the origin of what we now call the consistorial court of the bishop, who by degrees assigned to particular persons such share of episcopal jurisdiction as he thought fit, to be exercised archidiaconally within the districts by him appointed; this assignment of power to be exercised within limited districts, put an end to the general vicarial character of archdeacons throughout the whole diocese, and made way for those officers who are known by the names of vicar-general, official, and chancellor to the bishop; and who are vested with a delegated power to exercise in the place of the bishop all such jurisdiction as has not been granted away to others, or that he has not in the commission reserved to himself. Gibs. 970, “Chancellor,” post.

jure communi. This dignity may be held without any duties being attached to it. Godol. Ab. 64.

Archdeaconries are commonly given by bishops who do therefore prefer to the same by collation. But if an archdeaconry be in the gift of a layman, the patron presents to the bishop in like manner as to any other benefice, and then the dean and chapter induct him, that is, after some ceremonies place him in a stall in the cathedral church to which he belongeth, whereby he is said to have a place in the choir, Wats. c. 15; in respect of this locum in choro, a quare impedit doth lie for an archdeaconry. Cro. Eliz. 141; Godol. Áb. 62, 66. By 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 4, they are to read the common prayer and declare their assent thereto, and subscribe the same before the ordinary, but they are not obliged by the 13th Eliz. to subscribe and read the thirty-nine articles. But they are to take oaths at the sessions as persons qualifying for offices. In general the archdeacon's jurisdiction is founded on immemorial custom in subordination to the bishops, and he is to be regulated as to his dignity, office, and power, according to the law, usage, and custom of his own church and diocese. 1 Still. 238; Godol. Ab. 64; 1 Hag. 1, 189; Cro. Eliz. 663.

For some purposes an archdeacon is a ministerial officer, as for instance, he cannot refuse to administer the oath of office to churchwardens, 1 Ld. Raym. 138, vide "Churchwardens." Court of, vide "Appeal."

By the late act to regulate pluralities, 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, an archdeaconry is, by s. 124, comprehended under the term "Cathedral Preferment;" as to the regulations made by that statute relative to archdeacons, vide, " Plurality;" with regard to new archdeaconries, vide "Ecclesiastical Commission.'

Arches.

Curia de arcubus is the court held at Bow church, (which church was so called from the steeple having been raised with stone pillars archwise); and the dean of the court of peculiars, (from this called the dean of the arches), used to hold his courts in this church. It was also the place where the official principal of the archbishop of Canterbury held his court and because these two courts were held in the same place, and the dean of the arches was usually substituted in the absence of the official, while the offices remained in two persons: and the offices themselves having been united, in many instances, in the same person, as they now remain, a

Official principal.

Dean of the
Arches.

Letters of request.

wrong notion hath obtained that it is the dean of the arches who hath jurisdiction throughout the province of Canterbury; whereas the jurisdiction of the dean of the arches, as such, is strictly limited to the peculiars of the archbishop. Burn's E. L. tit. "Arches;" 1 Hag. 48. So completely do these two offices seem to have been identified, that in R. v. Lee and others, 1 Show. 251; speaking of the power of the dean of the arches, Holt, C. J., says, "what the dean of the arches "does, the archbishop does; as what the chancellor does the "bishop does," and Dolben, J., says, "the dean of the arches "is the very archbishop, and it is one and the same jurisdiction.” The court of the official principal, is called the arches court of Canterbury, and it is of very ancient origin, having subsisted long before the time of Hen. 2.

The official principal of the archbishop has extraordinary jurisdiction in all ecclesiastical causes, except that which belongs to the prerogative court, also all manner of appeals from bishops, or their chancellors or commissioners, deans and chapters, archdeacons, &c., are directed hither; he has ordinary jurisdiction throughout the whole province of Canterbury in case of appeals, so that upon any appeal made he, without any further examination, sends out his citation to the appellee, and his inhibition to the judge from whom the appeal was made. 4 Inst. 337. But he cannot cite any person out of the diocese of another, except upon appeal. 2 Lee, 287; 23 Hen. 8, c. 9. But by force of that statute entertains suits on letters of request from inferior jurisdiction within the province. 2 Lee, 312; 1 Hag. 4; 2 Add. 136, 404.

Dean of the arches as judge of the peculiars, includes within his district thirteen parishes in London, and the deaneries of Croydon, in Surrey, and Shoreham, in Kent. 1 Phill. 201; 1 Hag. 48; as to the power of the dean of the arches to deprive, vide "Deprivation."

It seems that he alone of all the ecclesiastical judges has power to deprive; 1 Phill. 277; without the bishop being present. 1 Hag. 48, App.; 1 Add. 291.

The jurisdiction of the official principal of the archbishop sitting in the court of arches, was entirely settled by statute 23 Hen. 8, c. 9. He is empowered to take original cognizance, by virtue of letters of request, of such causes as the civil and canon law allowed the inferior judge to devolve to the superior, which are those which are called arduous causes, of which matrimonial causes were always termed the chief. The statute vested the power of devolving in the judge of the inferior jurisdiction. 2 Lee, 316. He has appellate jurisdiction from each of the diocesan and most of the peculiar courts within the province. He further has original jurisdiction on subtraction of legacy given by wills

proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury, 1 Hag. 535, 537; 3 Hag. 161, note; I Hag. 4. note. This court, as also the court of peculiars, the admiralty court and the prerogative court is usually held in the hall belonging to the college of civilians at Doctors' Commons. Burn's E. L. tit." Arches."

To be subscribed by

Deacons

Priests.

Articles.

All admitted to benefices.

Heads of colleges.

Lecturers.

Chancellors, commissaries, &c.

When to be read.

Impugned, cause of deprivation.

THE thirty-nine articles (a) were almost entirely founded When pubupon a body of articles compiled and published in the reign of lished. king Edward 6; they were established by authority, in 1562, and eventually confirmed in 1571. The last paragraph of the confirmation, is as follows:

"That if any public reader in either of our universities, or any "head or master of a college, or any other person respectively "in either of them, shall affix any sense to any article, or shall "publicly read, determine, or hold any public disputation, or "suffer any such to be held either way, in either the universities "or colleges respectively or if any divine in the universities "shall preach or print any thing, either way, other than is "already established in convocation with our royal assent, he "or they the offenders, shall be liable to our displeasure and "the churches' censure, in our commission ecclesiastical, as "well as any other; and we will see there shall be due ex"ecution upon them."

By 13 Eliz. c. 12, s. 5, none shall be admitted to the order of deacon unless he shall first subscribe to the said articles. By sec. 6. "None shall be made minister, or permitted to

(a) These articles are not the works of a dark age, but the production of men eminent for their erudition and attachment to the purity of true religion. Per Lord Stowell, 1 Hag. Con. 426.

To be subscribed by all deacons. Priests.