presentation to a benefice, coincides with the canon law. The statute seems to have been made with the best intention; it aimed at restraining the most notorious and then prevailing instance of simony, by adding temporal forfeitures and penalties to ecclesiastical censures, and extending the punishment to the principal agent and offender, the patron. It meant to strengthen and support the ecclesiastical law, not to supersede it; it is not privative of the jurisdiction of the church, but accumulative; for the ecclesiastical censures still remain in force, and are expressly saved and confirmed by a particular proviso in the statute itself; and the case of simony which the act more particularly specifies, and which we may suppose to have been the most prevalent, is very fully and comprehensively expressed; and it seems to have been the real endeavours of those who penned the statute, to have precluded in that case all possibility of evasion. But though no real infringement of the force of the ecclesiastical law seemed to be designed by the statute, yet in practice and effect a great and very important change was made. The temporal courts, by means of this statute, engrossed the whole jurisdiction of simoniacal causes, and have admitted distinctions before unknown, which have defeated the ecclesiastical laws relating to this matter, and have nearly rendered ineffectual the statute itself, under colour of which they were introduced. Bonds of resignation, under various pretences and conditions, were devised; as if certain conditions in order to obtain a benefice were lawful; whereas the ecclesiastical law does not admit any to be so, still exacting an oath of every person presented, that he hath not entered into any such contract at all; that he hath not given or promised any thing to the presentor on account of the presentation. To trace this matter as well as we can to its origin, and through the progress of it some years seem to have passed after the making of this statute, before any novel opinion in regard to simony was introduced into Law of Simony, p. 21. the temporal courts. The first step that seems to have been taken, was to get bonds to resign upon pretended lawful reasons, admitted as justifiable, such reasons being assigned and expressed in the bond. The courts afterward extended their favour even to general bonds of resignation; to engagements to resign on demand, without any cause assigned, or any condition expressed, except notice to be given to the incumbent. The first instance which we meet with upon a question received upon the subject, is in 8 Jac. A bond was given by the presentee to resign his benefice within three months after notice given of the request. It was moved, in arrest of judgment, "that it appears by the condition of the bond to be a simoniacal contract." It was not allowed: "for there doth not appear any simony upon the condition; and such a condition is good enough and lawful." Therefore judgment was given for the bond. A writ of error was brought in the Exchequer chamber. The judges held “that the obligation and condition were good enough. For a man may oblige himself to resign upon good and valuable reasons, without any colour of simony.' Upon which Bishop Stillingfleet very pertinently observes, " To this I answer, the reason of the judges is insufficient; for it comes to this, the bond is good, because there may be good reason for it. May it not be said on the other hand, that the bond is nought, because there may be a very bad reason for it? Lord Chief Justice Holt* argues in the very same manner: "A resignation bond comes as near simony as can be; for it is easy to secure a round sum by such a bond. I do not approve giving or taking such a bond. A worthy man will not give such a bond." Justice Powell:+" I am of opinion, that when first the Judges held these bonds to be good, if they had foreseen the mischief of them, they would have been of another opinion." Lord Chief Justice Ryder: "It has been objected that these bonds are void. It does indeed look so; but the law (that is, the decision of the courts) is otherwise." The next year, + Ib. p. 19, and p. 24. 9 Jac. the same cause was tried, and it was declared, "that it was not simony, but good policy, to tie him to resign; and if it were, it is not material." Ever since this time the judgments of the courts, and the opinions of lawyers, upon the like cases have pronounced these bonds legal, and seem to consider the legality of the bond as giving a legality to the whole transaction, and as entirely justifying the contract between the patron and the incumbent. The point of the legality of these bonds has been said to have been held so twelve times," till at last the courts† would not suffer it to be any longer argued. Thus this matter seems to have been finally settled, to the great scandal and prejudice of the Church, without any hope of redress. And in regard to the clergy, though it was a question rather of conscience than of law, yet they were often more inclined to attend to the advice of their counsel, than to the opinion of Stillingfleet, Wake,§ and Gibson,|| the greatest authorities which our Church has to produce, and the properest whom they could have consulted; who agree in considering the practice as wholly inconsistent with the oath of simony. But not many years after these two judgments of the courts, which laid the foundation for that long series of determinations, all establishing the same point, viz. the legality of presentations under general bonds of resignation on demand, there was a case in which the court appears to have judged otherwise. It was in the 15th year of James I.; which case, though reported by a very eminent author, yet, as it has been thought to want sufficient proof, has been very much disregarded; but in the late cause it was brought forward by the learned Baron Eyre,¶ who explained the nature of it from the record, and proved it to be authentic. I shall now give the report from Noy, with the state of the case from the records, which prove it to be authentic. Nov 22. Sir John Pascal against Clark. "It was said by the court upon evidence, that if the patron present one to the advowson, having taken an obligation of the presentee, that he shall resign when the obligee will, after three months' warning, that that is simony within 31 Eliz. cap. 16. Trin. 15 Jac. (C. B. rot. 2051.)” The record is found in the roll to which reference is here made (C. B. rot. 2051), and is in substance as follows: Sir John Pascal being patron in full right of the advowson of the vicarage of Great Baddow (Essex), on the 14th of April, 1596, granted the next presentation to Alexander and Andrew Pascal. The vicarage becoming void by the death of Christopher Ampsforth, they (Alexander and Andrew) on the 14th of June, 38 Eliz. 1596, presented Henry Vessey, clerk, who was instituted and inducted, and after quiet possession for twenty years, died. Upon Vessey's death, John Clark, on a suggestion that Vessey had obtained the vicarage by simony, was presented by the Crown as patron for that turn, by reason of simony, under the stat. 31 Eliz. and was accordingly instituted and inducted.** Soon after Clark was in possession, John Pascal brought his action, and set forth in his declaration, that he was the true patron, as the vicarage became vacant by the death of Vessey; but Clark pleads, that the vicarage was vacant by simony, i. e. by Vessey's having paid a sum of money for the presentation; and, as such, the Crown had a right to present for that turn. The point in issue was, "whether the vicarage became vacant by simony, or by the death of Vessey?" It does not appear that the judgment in this cause was entered upon the roll; but it is evident that the court determined the vicarage became vacant by reason of a simoniacal contract, agreeably to Noy's report, as Clark continued in Pp. 17, 20, 112. + Strange, 227, 691, 6 Geo. I.-Sayer 11.-28 Geo. II. 1 Stillingfleet, Eccl. Cases, vol. i. $ Wake, afterwards Archbishop; Visitation Charge, 1709. Gibson, Codex, 802. Law of Simony, pp. 95, 96. "Vacantem per pravitatem simoniæ ad præsentationem regis pro hac vice patroni 2do. die mensis Octobris, 1616." See Law of Sim. Appendix, No. II. the possession of the vicarage till his death, when Pascal's right reviving, he presented Christopher Wragge to the vicarage vacant by the death of Clark. Thus the report of Noy is sufficiently authenticated. As to the difference which there seems to be in the plea of Clark, according to the report and the record, see Baron Eyre's explanation of the plea, Law of Simony, pp. 95, 96, and Lord Thurlow's, p. 166. The truth then of Noy's report being fully established, the point of law, namely, the legality of those general bonds, founded solely on the determinations of the courts in the 8th and 9th of James I. has been falsely assumed; for in reality those determinations were invalidated by the subsequent determination of the court of the 15th of James I. And, moreover, it is to be observed, that in the year 1682, Lord Keeper North doubted of this matter: it was not acknowledged to be a clear point of law at that time; fort" the precedents that were in the case," he said, "were not directly to the point, whether such bonds were simoniacal or not." And in the late cause it was frequently affirmed, by great authorities, that the former cases did not apply; that the case was new, and had never yet been decided. It is now fully decided by the highest authority, that of the Supreme Court of Judicature; and presentations under general bonds of resignation, on demand, are adjudged to be simoniacal within the statute 31 Eliz. This, I trust, will be a security for the future to the Church of England, that its benefices under private lay patronage will no longer be liable to injurious oppressions and defalcations, and that this part of the clergy will always be, as the law designed they should be, freeholders in their own benefices, and not tenants at will; nor ever liable so much as to the suspicion of having by undue compliances lessened their revenues, and betrayed their liberties. I am, with great respect, Your most faithful LONDON HOUSE, April 12, 1784. POLITICAL RETROSPECT. DOMESTIC.-Several important bills have, during the month, been passed in parliament, or far advanced towards becoming law; among which is the Benefices and Pluralities Bill, and the Irish Tithe Bill. By the latter, a rentcharge is in future substituted for tithes, and there is a further extinction of all arrears, which are in part to be made up by the remainder of the million voted by parliament for the relief of the clergy, still in the hands of government; and, further, the clergy are not to be called on to repay the advances hitherto made to them. An amendment, moved by Sir R. Peel, which would have left the clergy and tithe-owners the option of still enforcing the payment of these arrears, or receiving from the state money for the purchase of their right, was negatived by the small majority of twenty-one; the deficiency, therefore, will now fall on the tithe-property, which has been already so unjustly plundered by the passive "Decimo quarto die mensis Septemb. Ann. Dom. 1642, coram rev. in Christo patre dom. episc. Lond. ac Johanne Stansley, clerico surr'to. apud Fulham, com. Midd'x. Christophorus Wragge cle'us in artibus magist. admissus et institutus fuit ad vicariam de Baddow Magna, in com. Essex, per mortem Johannis Clark clerici ultimi vicarii ibid. vacantem, et ad præsentationem Johannis Paskall armigeri, veri et indubitati dictæ vicariæ patroni, spectantem. Mark Holman, Dep. Reg." 1 Vern. 131. Grahme v. Grahme. resistance of the peasantry. The debates were rendered remarkable by the indiscretion of Lord Howick, in hinting that the time must come when the Irish Church itself must be revised with a view to its extinction as an establishment, and which called forth from Lord J. Russell a disavowal of such sentiments. BELGIUM. The approaching meeting of a Conference in London to settle the long dispute between Belgium and Holland, is an event of great importance; as, should they not compel the former to accept the treaty hitherto agreed on, a war in Europe might be the result. Those portions of territory which belong to the Germanic Confederation, and which have been hitherto in possession of Bel gium since the Revolution, along with the amount of the portion of the common debt of the two countries to be borne by the new kingdom, are the points on which the difficulties chiefly hinge; and the King of Prussia and the German princes, by the moving of their armies towards the frontier, and especially the disputed territory, give plain indications that they will not, even at the hazard of a war, any longer allow Belgium to resist the settlement. There is an expectation that England and France, by joining the other powers in coercing Belgium, will eventually hinder war; should, however, either of those powers countenance her pretensions, war would seem inevitable. UNIVERSITY, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND PAROCHIAL TRIBUTES OF RESPECT. THE REV. J. BUCKLEY.-The parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle, Exeter, have presented their late Curate, the Rev. Joseph Buckley, with an elegant silver salver, in token of their esteem for his character, and of the sense in which they viewed the manner in which he had discharged his ministerial duties. The following is the inscription:-" To the Rev. Joseph Buckley, from the parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle, in grateful remembrance of his ministry among them; when his unaffected piety, his mild and conciliatory disposition, but above all, his zealous and faithful discharge of the duties of his sacred calling, endeared him to all classes of an extensive and populous parish. Presented 5th June, 1838." REV. B. DENT.-The parishioners of St. John's, Worcester, lately held a meeting in their Vestry, and presented the Rev. B. Dent, M.A. of Worcester College, with a massive piece of plate, a salver weighing 178 ounces, bearing the following inscription:"Presented by the parishioners of St. John in Bedwardine, in the county of Worcester, to the Rev. Benjamin Dent, M.A., as a testimony of their respect, and as a mark of their approbation of his conduct in faithfully discharging the duties of Curate of the parish for the period of twenty-seven years." REV. DR. WILLIAMS.-The portrait by Pickersgill of the Rev. Dr. Williams, is included in the present exhibition of the Royal Academy. A meeting of his former pupils was held in the Clarendon Building on the occasion of his retirement from the Head Mastership of Winchester College, when resolutions expressive of the universal attachment and esteem with which Dr. Williams had always been regarded were unanimously agreed to, and a subscription opened for this gratifying testimonial. We understand that the fund so raised has enabled the subscribers to have an engraving taken from the picture, which will be completed shortly after the exhibition closes, but is not intended for general publication. REV. J. R. ROPER.—A splendid silver candelabrum has lately been presented to the Rev. J. R. Roper, by his congregation, in testimony of affection and esteem; upon which is inscribed the following :-" Presented by the congregation of St. Margaret's Chapel, Brighton, to the Rev. John Riddall Roper, M.A., in grateful and affectionate remembrance of his fidelity and talents, as a Christian Minister, and of his many virtues in all the relations of private life; and also to record their deep regret at his retirement from those duties, in the discharge of which, during a period of six years, he so greatly endeared himself to them both as a pastor and as a friend." BROOMSTICK WEDDINGS.-The number of places in England and Wales registered under the act of parliament called the "Broomstick Act"-for the benefit of the dissenters and tender consciences, is only 1136. By the same return, the number of marriages celebrated in these licensed places, in England and Wales, between the 30th of June and the 31st of December last, being a period of six months, is only 1745. This gives, on an average, about ONE MARRIAGE AND A HALF to each of the licensed places. ORDINATIONS.-1838. The Bishop of Worcester will hold an Ordination on Friday, the 24th of August, being St. Bartholomew's Day. The Bishop of Salisbury will hold an Ordination on the 27th of September. By the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. |