the rural dean, whose peculiar care the holding of them had been, but also, as it was natural for the archdeacon and his official to draw the business that had been usually transacted there, to their own visitation, or, as it is styled in a constitution of Archbishop Langton, to their own chapter (i). And this office of inspecting and reporting the manners of the Their attendclergy and people rendered the rural deans necessary atten- ance at the bishop's dants on the episcopal synod or general visitation, which was visitation. held for the same end of inspecting, in order to reformation. In which synods (or general visitation of the whole diocese by the bishop) the rural deans were the standing representatives of the rest of the clergy, and were there to deliver information of abuses committed within their knowledge, and to propose and consult the best methods of reformation. For the ancient episcopal synods (which were commonly held once a year) were composed of the bishop as president, and the deans cathedral or archipresbyters in the name of their collegiate body of presbyters or priests, and the archdeacons or deputies of the inferior order of deacons, and the urban and rural deans in the name of the parish ministers within their division, who were to have their expenses allowed to them according to the time of their attendance, by those whom they represented, as the practice obtained for the representatives of the people in the civil synods or parliament. But this part of their duty which related to the information of scandals and offences, in progress of time devolved upon the churchwardens, and their other office of being convened to sit members of provincial and episcopal synods, was transferred to two proctors or representatives of the parochial clergy in every diocese to assemble in convocation, where the cathedral deans and archdeacons still kept their ancient right, whilst the rural deans have given place to an election of two only for every diocese, instead of one by standing place for every deanery (k). And albeit their office at first might be merely inspection, yet Their judicial by degrees they became possessed of a power to judge and deter- and other mine in smaller matters; and the rest they were to report to ordinary and authority, their ecclesiastical superiors (1). extraordi And by special delegation they had occasionally committed to nary. them the probate of wills, and granting administration of the goods of persons intestate; the custody of vacant benefices, and granting institutions and inductions; and sometimes the decisions of testamentary causes, and of matrimonial causes, and matters of divorce. Of which there appear some footsteps in one of the legatine constitutions of Otho: by which it is enjoined, that the dean rural shall not thereafter intermeddle with the cognizance of matrimonial causes: and by another constitution of the same legate, he is commanded to have an Their continuance in their office. Their disuse. authentic seal all which shows, that anciently there was somewhat of jurisdiction intrusted with them (m). It is said that, before their declining state, they were sometimes made a sort of chorepiscopi, or rural bishops: being commissioned by the diocesan to exercise episcopal jurisdiction, for the profits whereof they paid an annual rent: but as the primitive chorepiscopi had their authority restrained by some councils, and their very office by degrees abolished; so this delegation of the like privileges to rural deans, as a burden and scandal to the church, was inhibited by Pope Alexander III. and the Council of Tours (n). This office has been always of a temporary nature; and is expressly declared so to be both by Lindwood and John de Athon. And this was the reason why the seals which they had for the due return of citations, and for the dispatch of such business as they should be employed about, had only the name of the office (and not, as other seals of jurisdiction, the name of the person also) engraven in it (0). But in the diocese of Norwich, the admission of rural deans seems to have been more solemn than elsewhere, and their continuance perpetual: for whilst that see was vacant, in the time of Archbishop Whitlesey, several rural deans there were collated, whereas in other places they are only said to be admitted; and in an ancient metropolitical visitation of the same diocese, the first in every deanery is such a one perpetual dean (p). And perhaps several of the deans of peculiars may have sprung originally from rural deans. Finally, By the prescription and power of the archdeacons and their officials, it happened, that in the next age before the reformation of our church, the jurisdiction of rural dean in this island declined almost to nothing. And at the Reformation, in the public acts of our reformers, no order was taken for the restoration of this part of the government of the church. In the Reformatio Legum this was provided for, but fell to the ground for want of confirmation by the legislative power. So that these rural officers in some deaneries had at one time become extinct, in others had only a name and shadow left. Nor do we find any express care further taken for the support of this office, but only in the provincial synod of convocation held at London, April 3, 1571, by which it was ordained, that "the archdeacon, when he hath finished his visitation, shall signify to the bishop what clergymen he hath found in every deanery so well endowed with learning and judgment, as to be worthy to instruct the people in sermons, and to rule and preside over others: out of these the bishop may chuse such as he will have to be rural deans" (q). (m) Ken. Paroch. Ant. pp. 641- (n) Ken. Paroch. Ant. p. 639. Special Report, and 8 Jur. N. S. p. 1186. (P) Ibid. (9) Ken. Paroch. Ant. pp. 652, 653; God. App. p. 7. rural deans. This office-pronounced by the high authority of Sir L. Modern Jenkins (r) to be of great usefulness to the church-has lately position of been resuscitated. As the duties of the rural dean are now clearly those of inspection and report only, they are ancillary to and not conflicting with those of the archdeacon. every It was recommended by 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 77 (s), that parish be within a rural deanery, and every deanery within an archdeaconry. And by 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, s. 32, it is provided that, on the representation of the bishop, any rural deanery may be divided, and each portion constituted a separate rural deanery. By 37 & 38 Vict. c. 63, power is given to alter the area of rural deaneries, to increase or diminish their number, and to name the new ones. Every parish is in its entirety to be within one rural deanery. Every rural deanery similarly in one archdeaconry (t). Areas of rural deaneries. sioners under By 3 & 4 Vict. c. 86, s. 3, it is provided that a rural dean Commiswithin the diocese may be one of the five commissioners Church appointed by the bishop to institute a preliminary inquiry into Discipline charges against a clerk in holy orders. Act. powers. For the powers of rural deans under the Ecclesiastical Modern Dilapidations Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 43), ss. 8, 12, see statutory above (u). Under the Incumbents' Resignation Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 44), any rural dean in the diocese may be one of the commissioners (s. 5). Under the act 48 & 49 Vict. c. 54, s. 3, the rural dean or the archdeacon is to be one of the commissioners (x). (r) Life of Sir Leoline Jenkins, vol. i. Preface, p. lii. (s) Sect. 1, and Recomm. 53. (t) Vide supra, p. 204. Vide supra, p. 207. CHAPTER VII. DEANS OF PECULIARS. Deans without THE word dean is also applied to divers that are the chief of jurisdiction. certain peculiar churches or chapels: as the dean of her majesty's Without a chapter, Dean of the chapel royal, and the dean of the chapel of St. George at Windsor; not necessarily being the heads of any collegiate body, nor endowed with any jurisdiction, but only dignified and honoured with the name and title (a). And as there are some deans without jurisdiction, so there were also some deans with jurisdiction, but without any chapter: as the dean of Croydon in Surrey, the dean of Battle in Sussex, the dean of Bocking in Essex, the dean of Stamford, and many others (b). The dean of the Arches was the judge of the Court of Arches, so called of Bow Church in London, by reason of the steeple thereof raised at the top with stone pillars in fashion like a bow bent archwise; in which church this court was ever wont to be held, being the chief and most ancient court and consistory of the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury (c), which parish of Bow, together with twelve others in London, whereof Bow is the chief, were within the peculiar jurisdiction of the said archbishop in spiritual causes, and exempted out of the Bishop of London's jurisdiction (d). And it is supposed that he was originally styled dean of this court by reason of his substitution to the archbishop's official, when he was employed abroad in foreign embassies; whereby both these names or styles became at last in common understanding, as it were, but not in reality, synonymous (e); the official principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury being the judge throughout the province, and having by his patent the right of hearing appeals from the dean (f). In fact no dean is now appointed. (a) God. pp. 52, 54. (b) God. p. 52. See specially as (c) But see 10 Geo. 4, c. 53, s. 11. were in 1845 made part of the diocese of London. See Orders in Council (referred to on p. 27), vol. iii. p. 269. God. p. 102. f) Vide infra, Part IV., Chap. IV. The Court of Peculiars of the Archbishop of Canterbury had special provisions made as to its practice by 10 Geo. 4, c. 53. There is or was also a deanery of St. Martin le Grand in Dean of London, concerning which Lindwood puts the question, whether St. Martin's. it be such an ecclesiastical benefice as that the incumbent thereof may incur such penalties as other persons beneficed may incur. And after deep inquiries into the laws, precedents and antiquities, foreign and domestic, with delectable variety of great learning on both sides argumentatively and impartially, at last concludes it in the affirmative (g). It is said, that after the death of the dean of a free chapel Profits during belonging to the king, the king shall have the profits of the vacation. deanery; for it is at his pleasure whether he will collate a new dean to it (h). abolished. Now, however, by various acts, deans of peculiars have been Peculiars, deprived of almost all their jurisdiction. By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, how far s. 108, archbishops and bishops have jurisdiction for the purposes of that act over all peculiars within their province or diocese. By 3 & 4 Vict. c. 86, all proceedings under that act against clerks in holy orders take place before the bishop of the diocese. By 10 & 11 Vict. c. 98, an annual act, but continued yearly, the bishop of every diocese shall by himself or his officers exercise jurisdiction throughout his diocese. Sect. 5, however, continues to the authority of a peculiar the power to grant marriage licences concurrently with the bishop of the diocese (i). By 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, s. 29, the peculiar parishes of St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster, are made part of the diocese of London (k). 13 & 14 Vict. c. 76, makes special provision for abolishing the royal peculiar of St. Burian's in Cornwall. And the ecclesiastical commissioners are empowered by various statutes to frame schemes for the abolition of other peculiars (7). (g) God. p. 53; Lind. p. 125. (h) God. P. 52. () Vide infra, Part III., Chap. VII., sect. 7. (k) See Combe v. De la Bere, 22 Ch. D. p. 316, where the subject of the exemption of royal palaces is also (1) See 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 77, s. 10; |