residence are revocable: but in case of revocation there is an appeal to the Archbishop (sec. 49). A curate is to be appointed to do the duty, and in certain cases the Bishop may appoint one or more (ss. 76, 77).

Houses of residence, or glebe-houses, are to be kept in repair by the clergy (sec. 41 of same stat.), and to be insured in three-fifths of the value. (Ecclesiastical Dilapidations Act, 1871, ss. 54-56.) On avoidance of a cure where there is no fit residencehouse, the Bishop may take steps to have one built, the cost being provided for by a mortgage (1 & 2 Vict. cap. 106, ss. 62, 63; 28 & 29 Vict cap. 69). The governors of Q. A. Bounty are authorized by other statutes to advance money for such purposes. All these enactments are fully set out in Phill. Eccl. Law.

Useless glebe-houses may be turned into farm buildings, etc., under stat. 1 & 2 Vict. cap. 23. Vide FEES: LICENCE.

Resignation.

Of office or benefice has been provided for by several recent statutes :

(1.) The Bishops Resignation Act, 1869, made perpetual by 38 & 39 Vict. cap. 19, enables a coadjutor Bishop (with right of succession) to be appointed in case of an Archbishop or Bishop being incapacitated from duty. (2.) The Deans and Canons Resignation Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. cap. 8), provides for the retirement of Deans and Canons incapacitated by age or illness, a retirement allowance of about one-third of the income is provided; and the office so vacated may be filled up at

once.

(3.) The Incumbents Resignation Act, 1871 (which will be found in the Appendix), enables an

incumbent who has held the living for seven years continuously to represent to the Bishop his desire to retire by reason of permanent mental or bodily infirmity. A commission of inquiry is then named by the Bishop; and if the report shows the resignation to be expedient, it will further specify the amount of retiring allowance, which is not to exceed one-third part of the annual value of the living. If the patron refuses his consent, a power of final decision is given to the Archbishop. After a declaration has been filed by the Bishop, the benefice becomes vacant, and may be re-filled. The retiring pension is a charge on the net revenues of the benefice; but the retiring incumbent has no claim on the glebe-house. His pension is liable to be diminished or terminated if the retired incumbent take duty with remuneration elsewhere.

(4.) Bonds or covenants were formerly common, whereby incumbents bound themselves to resign their livings in order that patrons might present other clergymen. Stat. 9 Geo. 4, cap. 94, brought such bonds under close regulation. They are only legal under very strict limitations; and they must be registered, and remain open to inspection, in the diocesan register.

(5.) The rule as to resignation of office has always been that it should be made to the superior: thus the incumbent sends in his resignation to the Bishop; the Bishop to his Metropolitan; and the latter to the Sovereign. (Gibs. Codex.)

Re-table,

Or super-altar. A raised ledge or shelf placed over the eastern edge or rear of the Holy Table, and on which are sometimes placed a cross and candlesticks. A cross so placed was allowed in Mr. Liddell's Case; but this point was lately reconsidered in Durst v. Masters (1 P. Div. 373) and in the present state of the authorities, the erection of any cross on a re-table could not be advised. Vases of flowers on the retable were allowed by the Dean of Arches in the case of Mr. Purchas; and on this point there was no appeal. (Phill. Judg. 158.) It is clearly illegal for the churchwarden to remove any of the furniture, even in the case of an ornament or object of doubtful legality, placed without due authority. In such case the matter should be submitted to the Bishop.

Reverend.

A complimentary term, by no means ecclesiastical in its origin, and one to which the clergy have no exclusive claim. In the Owston Ferry Case, objection was made by the rector to part of the inscription on a tombstone-" Daughter of the Reverend H. K., Wesleyan Minister." The Consistorial Court of Lincoln, and, on appeal, the Arches Court, upheld this objection but the case was brought by appeal before the Judicial Committee P. C., which decided that the inscription was allowable, and that a faculty ought to issue. (Keet v. Smith, 1 P. Div. 73.) The expense of this suit to the successful litigants-the Wesleyan "Committee of Privileges "-exceeded £1500.

Rite: Vide CEREMONY.

Rural Dean.

In ancient times the Rural Dean had the oversight of ten parishes The office, after a long period of comparative disuse, has been revived with good effect. A Rural Dean is appointed by the Bishop, on the recommendation of the Archdeacon, to whom he is an assistant. He may summon ruri-decanal chapters. (Ayliffe; Gibson; Phill. Eccl. Law.) Under modern statutes, the area of a rural deanery may be changed under certain limitations.

When the Rural Dean, whose chief duty it is to observe the condition of the structures of churches and glebe-houses, reports that there is dilapidation, the Bishop directs an inspection by the surveyor, and the incumbent will be required to repair. (34 & 35 Vict. cap. 43, sec. 12 et seq.)

Sacraments: vide COMMUNION, HOLY: BAP

TISM.

Scotland, Church of.

In the last century the Scottish Church, upheld by a small minority only of the people, and much in disfavour with the State, was vexed by laws which are now repealed. The Act of Union, passed in 1706, acknowledged only the Presbyterian body in Scotland, and for purposes of State made it the "established Kirk.”

The law affecting the clergy of the Scottish Church is now contained in stat. 27 & 28 Vict. cap. 94, which enables them, on certain conditions and with the consent of the Bishop of an English diocese, to hold any benefice therein. Nothing in the Colonial Clergy Act, 1874, touches the provisions of the abovementioned Act.*

* The legal designation of the Scottish Church appears to be "The Episcopal Church in Scotland." Its financial affairs are regulated by a Representative Church Council, established in October, 1876, the office of which is No. 30, St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh.

Seats.

Enclosed seats or pews in church, however objectionable, are of ancient date-much earlier than the Reformation. All the seats in church, in the absence of special faculty or usage to the contrary, may be used by parishioners, and should be allotted amongst them, according to their actual requirements, by the churchwardens as the executive officers of the vestry. Although anciently payments for seats in church were unknown, some of the modern Church-building Acts have authorized the allotting of seats or pews at a fixed charge.

If there be a dispute about seats, this should be referred to the Bishop. Where a pew has for a long period been used by the inhabitants of a certain house, a faculty or licence from the Bishop, if it cannot be traced, will be presumed. But pews are for use only, and if not used by those who claim them, the churchwardens may put other persons into them. The chancel of the church is governed by different rules. The rector (clerical or lay) may usually claim the chief or the only seat in the chancel.

The latest Acts affecting seats or pews are-32 & 33 Vict. cap. 94, and 35 & 36 Vict. cap. 49.

Service, Divine.

The Bishop may, in his discretion, direct that there shall be two full services, each with sermon, on every Sunday; but this applies only to benefices where the income amounts to £150 and the population to 400. (Stat. 1 & 2 Vict. cap. 106, sec. 80.) If there are two churches in one benefice, the Bishop may determine how the services are to be apportioned.

As to the performance of divine service on several of the week days, not being holy-days or their eves, there is some obscurity. The rubric in the Prayer Book seems to contemplate daily service; on the other hand, Can. 14 only directs that Common Prayer