kind. On the contrary, he should welcome all persons (unless they be notorious evil doers) who resort to him, on their own behalf or that of members of their households, for any of the services of the Church.

Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

These were established as a corporation, with large powers, by stats. 6 & 7 Wm. 4, cap. 77; 3 & 4 Vict. cap. 113; and 13 & 14 Vict. cap. 94; and several later Acts have enlarged their jurisdiction. (2 Steph. Comm. 748.) They have succeeded to all the powers of the Church Building Commissioners under 19 & 20 Vict. cap. 55. They have power, with consent of the Bishop, to alter the name of any archdeaconry or rural deanery, and to re-arrange the areas; but each parish must in its entirety be within a rural deanery ; and that must in its entirety be within one archdeaconry; and the latter must be wholly in one diocese. (Stat. 37 & 38 Vict. cap. 63.)

Ecclesiastical Courts and Offices.

The chief of these are noticed under the following titles - Judicial Committee, Arches Court, and Chancellor. It remains to note that every archdeacon may hold his Court, his Official (or legal deputy) presiding; and this is the tribunal before which parish clerks may (if necessary) be brought. Deans and Chapters also hold, or at least may hold, their separate Courts, the jurisdiction of which is very limited. In former times Ecclesiastical Courts and officers were still more numerous. As to the latter, Lord Mansfield observed that "few of them were useful or necessary in any respect."

Of existing officers, the following may here be enumerated :

The registrar of the diocese is a temporal officer, appointed by the Bishop, and probably irremov

E

able except for gross neglect of duty. He keeps the diocesan records, and makes the entries therein; and is entitled to certain fees, some by custom, and others by statute. In his office a table of these fees should be prominently placed. (Can 136.)

The Bishop's secretary is a modern and nondescript, though doubtless an useful officer, who, under some recent statutes, is entitled to certain fees, as on ordination, consecration of churches, etc.

The apparitor, formerly summoner or sumpnour, is the executive officer, who gives notices of visitations, etc. Advocates and proctors formerly had exclusive rights of practising in the Ecclesiastical Courts, but under recent statutes these Courts are thrown open to all barristers and solicitors. The College of Advocates has ceased to exist, and the number of the proctors is diminishing. Several of the canons relating to officers and practitioners in these Courts may now be regarded as obsolete.

Ecclesiastical Law.

This, as regards England, is to be deduced from (1) the general Canon Law; (2) constitutions or rules. made in former times to regulate this Church. The foregoing have been partially accepted; but our Ecclesiastical Law is in a much fuller sense to be found in-(3) the Canons, and especially those of 1603; (4) the Rubrics in the Book of C. P.; (5) Acts of Parliament; (6) the writings of a few eminent men learned in Church law-such as Lyndwood, Coke, Ayliffe, Gibson, and Burn. The Canon Law, as a whole, does not, and never did, form part of the law of England; and that part of it only is Ecclesiastical Law which has been adopted by Parliament or the Courts of this country. (Reg. v. Millis, 10 Cl. & F.

678). The most recent and most complete work on this subject is 'The Ecclesiastical Law,' by Sir R. Phillimore.

Errors.

As the consequences of error or variation in a name may be very serious a few general cautions may be given here:-The full Christian name of a person should be used in publication of banns, etc., as also his or her native or adopted surname. These together form the legal designation; and to omit or alter any portion in banns is dangerous. If the variance be material there will not be a "publication within the meaning of the Marriage Act. If the clergyman suspects that wrong names are given, he should demur, and require further evidence, when asked to publish banns, or to marry parties.

Where an error is discovered in a register book of baptisms or burials the clergyman should make a correction in the margin, in the presence of witnesses, as directed by stat. 52 Geo. 3, cap. 146, sec. 15.

Provision is also made by Stat. 6 & 7 Wm. 4 cap. 86, sec. 44, for the correction of an error in a registerbook of births, deaths, or marriages. Such correction is to be made within a month from the discovery of the error, and in the presence of witnesses; and the Act points out in minute detail the mode in which the correction is to be made. As sometimes a name is entered in anticipation on the register of births which is not the name actually given in baptism at a later period, a mode has been provided of correcting the former entry, on a certificate of the clergyman. (Sec. 8 of stat. 37 & 38 Vict. cap. 88.)

A common error is for the lady after her marriage to sign her maiden name in the register-book, the fact being that she has changed it by marriage. (Phill. Eccl. Law 821.)

Occasionally an error, or rather a non-compliance

with law, cannot be escaped. Thus the church in which a marriage ought to take place may happen to be levelled, preparatory to rebuilding: and it may be excusable to publish the banns in a neighbouring church, as the nearest approach to obedience to the law. (Stallwood v. Tredger, 2 Phill. Rep. 287.)

Establishment.

A condition of alliance and mutual aid and dependence between the Church and the State, considered to have begun under the Emperor Constantine, and to have prevailed in most civilized and Christian lands since that time.

The Church being recognised and privileged by the secular power, in return gives up her independence of action. Chiefly she loses (as now in England) her inherent right of making rules for her own governance, and of choosing her own chief pastors. As to where the balance of advantage lies, opinions will always differ.

"Establishment" is an unfortunate term, as it favours the notion (early imbibed by the children of Dissenters) that the Church has been created and endowed, organised and maintained, by the State for the purposes of statecraft. "It is more correct to say that the Church established the State, than that the State established the Church." The dis-established Church of Ireland, while now free and untrammelled, has in one way or another gained a large re-endowment, together with the possession of all the Church structures. Or, as expressed by no friendly critic, "to disendow the Irish Church has cost two-thirds of her entire property."

Exchange

Of advowsons is provided for, but only for facilitating unions of benefices in London, by 23 & 24 Vict. cap 142, sec. 12. Exchange of benefices is in all other cases effected, after licence from the Bishop, or where the livings are in different dioceses, from both Bishops, by written agreements. (Phill. Eccl. Law, 502.) Stat. 55, Geo. 3, cap. 147, provides that with the consent of all parties interested, parsonage houses, glebe lands, etc., may be exchanged for others of greater value or more conveniently situate.

Excommunication.

The state of excommunication is one of the three specified cases where a clergymen shall not use the service over a deceased person (rubric before Burial Service). Excommunication can hardly be said to be an existing punishment. Ecclesiastical censure, of which this was the strongest form, was of different degrees, and was the subject of much learned disquisition in former times. It survives chiefly, if not wholly, as a mode of giving effect to the decrees of Ecclesiastical Courts. By stat. 53 Geo. 3, cap. 127, it is discontinued, except to compel obedience to the Ecclesiastical Courts. But this Act preserves the right of the Ecclesiastical Court to excommunicate in the sense of pronouncing "spiritual censures."

By stat. 2 & 3 Wm. 4, cap. 93, orders of Ecclesiastical Courts may in certain cases be enforced by issue of a writ de contumace capiendo. This process was issued in the case of Rev. Mr. Tooth (Hatcham), who not obeying the order of the Dean of Arches in a suit under the P. W. R. Act, was arrested and lodged in gaol. But the proceedings being irregular ab initio were set aside by prohibition, Q. B. Nov. 1877.