the morning and evening prayer, administration of the sacraments, and all other the public and common prayer, in such order and form as is mentioned in the book annexed to this present act, and intituled, 'The Book of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches; and the Form or Manner of making, ordaining and consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.

And by sect. 16, all subscriptions to be made to the Thirtynine Articles shall be construed to extend (touching the said thirty-sixth article above recited) to the book containing the form and manner of making, ordaining and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons in this act mentioned, as the same did heretofore extend unto the book set forth in the time of King Edward VI.

Time.

SECT. 4.-The Time and Place for Ordination.

By Can. 31 of 1603, "Forasmuch as the ancient fathers of the church, led by example of the apostles, appointed prayers and fasts to be used at the solemn ordering of ministers; and to that purpose allotted certain times, in which only sacred orders might be given or conferred; we, following their holy and religious example, do constitute and decree, that no deacons or ministers be made and ordained, but only upon Sundays immediately following jejunia quatuor temporum, commonly called ember weeks, appointed in ancient time for prayer and fasting, (purposely for this cause at their first institution,) and so continued at this day in the Church of England. And that this be done in the cathedral, or parish church where the bishop resideth" (i).

And by the preface to the forms of consecration and ordination it is prescribed, that the bishop may at the times appointed in the canon, or else upon urgent occasion on some other Sunday or holyday in the face of the church, admit deacons and priests.

But this might not be done, at other times than is directed by the canon, at the sole discretion of the bishop, but he was to have the archbishop's dispensation or licence, as the practice was: and this was once considered a special prerogative of the see of Rome. But as the rubric made in the time of King Edward the Sixth, and continued in the last revisal of the Common Prayer, seems to leave it to the judgment of the bishop, without any direction to have recourse to the archbishop, it may be a question whether such dispensation be now necessary (k).

(i) This canon is continued on (k) Gibs. p. 139. p. 104, infra.

The Canon as above quoted shows that the bishop's jurisdiction Place. as to conferring of orders is not confined to one certain place, but he may ordain at the parish church where he shall reside; and the Irish bishops have sometimes ordained in England; but, regularly, leave ought to be obtained of the bishop within whose diocese the ordination is performed (7).

And this is agreeable to the rule of the ancient canon law; which directs, that a bishop shall not ordain within the diocese of another, without the licence of such other bishop (m).

SECT. 5.-Qualifications by the general Law.

general law

There are only two classes of persons absolutely incapable of Qualificaordination(); namely, unbaptized persons and women. Ordi- tions by the nation of such persons is wholly inoperative. The former, because baptism is the condition of belonging to the church at all (o). The latter, because by nature, Holy Scripture and catholic usage they are disqualified (p).

Though an absolute incapacity be confined to these two classes, yet the canon law, having regard to the great importance of the subject, has been careful to prescribe the qualifications, and to set forth the disqualifications of candidates for holy orders. The law enjoins that the candidate be of sufficient age and learning, and of good reputation. That he be not afflicted with any corporal infirmity which would impede the exercise of his spiritual functions, and tend to repel and alienate the laity. That he be born in lawful wedlock. That he be not engaged in secular occupations inconsistent with devotion to the spiritual calling. Disqualifications of this kind constitute what, since the twelfth century, have been canonically termed irregularitates, and may upon sufficient grounds be removed by the dispensation of the bishop. There are irregularitates ex defectu and ex delicto.

Looking to the provincial constitutions of this country, we find that by a constitution of Otho it is thus enjoined: "Seeing it is dangerous to ordain persons unworthy, void of understanding, illegitimate, irregular and illiterate, we do decree that,

(1) Johns. p. 34.

(m) Gibs. p. 139; VI. iii. 4, 37. (n) VI. i. 11, De filiis presbyterorum et aliis illegitimé natis. X. i. 18, De Servis non ordinandis. 19, De obligatis ad ratocinia non ordinandis. 20, De corpore vitiatis non ordinandis. 21, De bigamis non ordinandis. VI. i. 12, De bigamis. X. iii. 43, De presbytero non baptizato. X. i. 11; VI. i. 9, De temporibus ordi

nationum. X. i. 12, De scrutinio
in ordine faciendo. 13, De ordinatis
ab episcopo qui renuntiavit. 22, De
clericis peregrinis. X. v. 29, De
clerico per saltum promoto. 30, De
eo qui furtive ordinem suscepit.

(0) Baptismum, sacramentorum
fundamentum et januam reliquo-
rum. VI. iv. 3. De cogn. spir.

(p) 1 Cor. xiv. 34; 1 Tim. ii.

12-14.

before the conferring of orders by the bishop, strict search and inquiry be made of all these things" (q). And by a constitution of Archbishop Reynolds, "No simoniae, homicide, person excommunicate, usurer, sacrilegious person, incendiary, or falsifier, nor any other having canonical impediment, shall be admitted into holy orders" (»).

Canonical Impediment.]-As suppose, of bigamy; or any other which proceeds rather from defect than crime (s).

And by several constitutions of Edmund, archbishop, the following impediments and offences are declared to be causes of suspension from orders received, and consequently so far forth are objections likewise, if known beforehand, against being ordained at all; viz.,

They who are born of not lawful matrimony, and have been ordained without dispensation, shall be suspended from the execution of their office, till they obtain a dispensation :

They who have taken holy orders, in the conscience of any mortal sin, or for temporal gain only, shall not execute their office, till they shall have been expiated from the like sin by the sacrament of penance.

Again; all who appear to have contracted irregularity in the taking of orders, or before or after, unless dispensed withal by those who have power to dispense with the same, shall be suspended from the execution of their office, until they shall have lawful dispensations: By irregulars as to the premisses, we understand homicides, advocates in causes of blood, simonists, makers of simoniacal contracts; and who, being infected with the contagion, have knowingly taken orders from heretics, schismatics, or persons excommunicated by name:

Also bigamists, husbands of lewd women, violators of virgins. consecrated to God, persons excommunicate, and persons having taken orders surreptitiously, sorcerers, burners of churches, and if there be any other of the like kind (t).

And he who did examine the parties, was to inquire into all these particulars.

But this is not now required; but all the same so far as they concern a man's capacity, learning, piety and virtue are included in the following directions in the Preface to the form of ordaining deacons, which is in some degree an enlargement of the foregoing restrictions: viz.,

"The bishop knowing, either by himself, or by sufficient testimony, any person to be a man of virtuous conversation, and without crime; and after examination and trial, finding him learned in the Latin tongue, and sufficiently instructed in Holy Scripture, may admit him a deacon."

And by Can. 34 of 1603: "No bishop shall henceforth admit any person into sacred orders, which is not of his own diocese,

except he be either of one of the universities of this realm, or except he shall bring letters dimissory (so termed) from the bishop of whose diocese he is; and desiring to be a deacon is three and twenty years old; and to be a priest four and twenty years complete; and hath taken some degree of school in either of the two universities; or at the least, except he be able to yield an account of his faith in Latin according to the Articles of Religion approved in the synod of the bishops and clergy of this realm one thousand five hundred sixty and two, and to confirm the same by sufficient testimonies out of the Holy Scriptures; and except, moreover, he shall then exhibit letters testimonial of his good life and conversation, under the seal of some college of Cambridge or Oxford, where before he remained, or of three or four grave ministers, together with the subscription and testimony of other credible persons, who have known his life and behaviour by the space of three years next before."

SECT. 6.-Qualifications under the later English Law.

By Can. 34 of 1603, as already stated, no bishop shall admit Under later English law. any person into sacred orders except he, "desiring to be a deacon, is three and twenty years old, and to be a priest four and Age. twenty years complete."

And by the preface to the form of ordination: "None shall be admitted a deacon except he be twenty-three years of age, unless he have a faculty, and every man which is to be admitted a priest shall be full four and twenty years old."

Unless he have a Faculty.]-So that a faculty or dispensation is allowed for persons of extraordinary abilities to be admitted deacons sooner (u).

Which faculty (as it seems) must be obtained from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

And by 13 Eliz. c. 12, s. 4, "None shall be made minister, being under the age of four and twenty years."

And in this case there is no dispensation (r).

word minister.

Here it may be proper to observe, once for all, the equivocal Meaning of signification of the word minister, both in our statutes, canons, and rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer. Oftentimes it is made to express the person officiating in general, whether priest or deacon; at other times it denotes the priest alone, as contradistinguished from the deacon, as particularly here in this statute, and in Can. 31 aforegoing (y). And in such cases, the determination thereof can only be ascertained from the connection and circumstances.

In the case of Roberts v. Pain (≈), in the time of James the Roberts v.

(u) Gibs. p. 145. (x) Gibs. p. 146.

(y) Vide supra, p. 92.

(z) 3 Mod. p. 67.

Pain.

Effect of ordination

once con

ferred.

Act of 44 Geo. 3, c. 43.

Title to orders.

First, a person being presented to the parish church of Christ Church, in Bristol, was libelled against, because he was not twenty-three years of age when made deacon, nor twenty-four when made priest. A prohibition was prayed upon this suggestion that if the matter was true, a temporal loss, to wit deprivation, would follow; and that therefore it was triable in the temporal court: But it was denied, because so it is also in the case of drunkenness and other vices, which are usually punished in the ecclesiastical courts, though temporal loss may ensue.

In a case where it was supposed that ordination had been illegally conferred upon a candidate who had not attained the age of twenty-four, Sir W. Scott (Lord Stowell) was consulted as to whether evidence of this fact would be admitted in order to show that an act done by him as priest was null and void.

Opinion.

"It appears to me that the ordination would be conclusive as "to all legal qualifications of the party, and that evidence could "not be received to show that it had been illegally conferred "and was invalid.

"Nov. 1794.

WM. SCOTT."

But the effect of this opinion must now be qualified by 44 Geo. 3, c. 43, s. 1, which enacts that "no person shall be admitted a deacon before he shall have attained the age of three and twenty years complete, and that no person shall be admitted a priest before he shall have attained the age of four and twenty years complete: and in case any person shall, from and after the passing of this act, be admitted a deacon before he shall have attained the age of three and twenty years complete, or be admitted a priest before he shall have attained the age of four and twenty years complete, that then and in every such case the admission of every such person as deacon or priest respectively shall be merely void in law, as if such admission had not been made, and the person so admitted shall be wholly incapable of having, holding or enjoying, or being admitted to any parsonage, vicarage, benefice, or other ecclesiastical promotion or dignity whatsoever, in virtue of such his admission as deacon or priest respectively, or of any qualification derived or supposed to be derived therefrom: Provided always that no title to confer or present by lapse shall accrue by any avoidance or deprivation, ipso facto, by virtue of this statute, but after six months' notice of such avoidance or deprivation given by the ordinary to the patron."

But it is also provided that "nothing herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to take away any right of granting faculties heretofore lawfully exercised, and which now may be lawfully exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury."

Holy orders being indelible, the Church is careful not to allow idle persons or those wholly unprovided with the means of supporting themselves to be ordained. She requires what is technically called a title. The terms titulus beneficii, titulus patrimonii, titulus mensæ sive pensionis, occur in the canon law. For monastic