cided. Lord Mansfield afked, what remedy is there in Westminster-hall to remove him? He certainly hath his office only during his good behaviour. But tho' the minifter may have a power of removing him on a good and fufficient cause, he can never be the fole judge and remove him at pleasure, without being fubject to the controul of this court. By Mr. Juftice Afton: as long as the clerk behaves himfelf well, he has a good right and title to continue in his office. Therefore if the clergyman has any juft caufe for removing him, he fhould ftate it to the court. Accordingly, the court enlarged the rule to this term, that affidavits might be made on both fides, of the cause and manner of amotion. And now on this day, upon reading the affidavits, Lord Mansfield faid, it was fettled in the cafe of K. and Dr. Afhton, 28 G. 2. That a parish clerk is a temporal officer, and that the minister muft fhew ground for turning him out. Now in this cafe, there is no fufficient reafon affigned in the affidavits that have been read, upon which the court can exercise their judgment; nor is there any inftance produced of any mifbehaviour of confequence: therefore the rule for a mandamus to restore him must be made abfolute. Cowper 370.

[Serving the office of parifh clerk for a year, gains a fettlement, although he be chofen by the parfon, and not the parishioners, and have no licence from the ordinary, and although he be a certificate man. 1 Salk. 536. 2 Str. 942. 2 Seff. Caf. 182.]

Parochial Library. See Library.

Parlon.

PARSON, perfona, properly fignifies the rector of a parish church; becaufe during the time of his incumbency he reprefents the church, and in the eye of the law fuftains the perfon thereof, as well in fuing, as in being fued, in any action touching the fame. God. 185.

Parfon imparfonce (persona imperfonata) is he that as lawful incumbent is in actual poffeffion of a parish church, and with whom the church is full, whether it be presentative or impropriate. 11ft. 300.

The law concerning parfons, as diftinct from vicars, is treated of under the title Appropriation.

Patriarch.

A

Patriarch.

Patriarch is the chief bifhop over feveral countries or provinces, as an archbishop is of feveral dioceses; and bath feveral archbishops under him. God. 20.

73

Peculiar.

1.EXEMPT jurifdictions are fo called, not because Exempt jurifdic they are under no ordinary; but because they are tions in general, not under the ordinary of the diocese, but have one of their

own. These are therefore called peculiars, and are of feveral forts. 1 Still. 336.

2. As, firft, Royal peculiars: which are the king's Royal peculiars. free chapels, and are exempt from any jurifdiction but the king's, and therefore fuch may be refigned into the king's hands as their proper ordinary; either by ancient privilege, or inheren' right. 1 Still. 337. Lindw. 125.

3. Peculiars of the archbishops, exclufive of the bishops Archbishops peand archdeacons; which fprung from a privilege they had, culiars. to enj y jurifdiction in fuch places where their feats and poffeffions were: and this was a privilege no way unfit or unteaforable, where their palaces were, and they oftentimes repaired to them in perfon; as anciently the archbishops appear to have done, by the multitude of letters dated from their several feats. Gibf. 978.

In these peculiars (which, within the province of Canterbury, amount to more than a hundred, in the feveral diocefes of London, Winchefter, Rochefter, Lincoln, Norwich, Oxford, and Chichefter) jurifdiction is adminiftred by feveral commiffaries; the chief of whom is the dean of the arches, for the thirteen peculiars within the city of London. And of thefe Lindwood (p. 79) obferves, that their jurifdiction is archidiaconal. G.bf. 978.

4. Peculiars of bifhops, exclufive of the jurifdiction of Peculiars of bi the bishop of the diocefe in which they are fituated. Of fhops in another which fort, the bishop of London bath four parches with- diocele.

in the diocefe or Lincoln; and every bishop who hath a house in the diocese of another bishop, may therein exercise epifcopal jurifdiction. And therefore Lindwood (p. 318)

8

fays,

Peculiars of bihops in their

own diocefe, ex

diction.

fays, the fignification of bishoprick is larger than that of diocefe, because a bishoprick may extend into the diocese of another bishop, by reafon of a peculiar jurifdiction which the bishop of another diocefe may have therein. Gibf. 978.

5. Peculiars of bishops in their own diocefe, exclufive of archidiaconal jurifdiction. Of which, Lindwood clufive of archi- (P. 220) writes thus: There are fome churches, which diaconal jurif- altho' they be fituate within the precincts of an archdeaconry, yet are not subject to the archdeacon; fuch as churches regular of monks, canons, and other religious; fo alfo if the archbishop hath referved fpecially any churches to his own jurifdiction, fo as that within the fame the archdeacon fhall exercife no jurifdiction; as it is in many places, where the archbishops and bifhops do exercife an immediate and peculiar jurifdiction. Gibf. 978.

Of deans, pre

others.

As to the former of thefe, the jurifdiction over religious houses; the archdeacons were excluded from that by the ancient canon law, which determines, that archdeacons fhall have no jurifdiction in monafteries, but only by general or special custom; and if the archdeacon could not make out fuch cuftom, he was to be excluded from juris diction, because he could not claim any authority of common right. As to the other, namely, the exempting of particular parishes from archidiaconal jurifdiction; there are not only many inftances of fuch exemptions in the ecclefiaftical records, but the parishes themfelves continue fo exempt, and remain under the immediate jurifdiction of the archbishop, as in other places of the bifhop. Gibf. 978.

6. Peculiars of deans, deans and chapters, prebendabendaries, and ries, and the like; which are places wherein by ancient compofitions the bishops have parted with their jurifdiction as ordinaries, to those focieties; probably because the poffeffions of the refpective corporations, whether fole or aggregate, lay chiefly in thofe places: the right of which focieties was not original, but derived from the bifhop, and where the compofitions are loft, it depends upon prescription. Gibf. 978. 1 Still. 337.

M. 8 W. Robinfon and Godfalve. Upon motion for a prohibition to ftay a fuit in the bishop's court, upon fuggeftion that the party lived within a peculiar archdeaconry; it was refolved by the court, that where the archdeacon hath a peculiar jurifdiction, he is totally exempt from the power of the bishop, and the bishop cannot enter there

and

and hold court; and in fuch case, if the party who lives within the peculiar be fued in the bishop's court, a prohibition fhall be granted; but if the archdeacon hath not a peculiar, then the bishop and he have concurrent jurisdiction, and the party may commence his fuit, either in the archdeacon's court or the bishop's, and he hath election to chufe which he pleaseth: and if he commence in the bishop's court, no prohibition fhall be granted; for if it fhould, it would confine the bishop's court to determine nothing but appeals, and render it incapable of having any caufes originally commenced there. L. Raym. 123.

It feems to be true doctrine, that no exemptions granted to perfons or bodies under the degree of bifhops, extend to a power of employing any bishop they can procure, to perform for them fuch acts as are merely epifcopal, unles fpecial words be found in their grants of exemption, impowering and warranting them fo to do; but that all fuch acts are to be performed by the bifhop of the diocefe within which they are fituated, after the exemption as much as before: Ör, in other words, that the exemptions in which no fuch clause is found, are only exemptions from the exercife of fuch powers, as the perfons or bodies are capable of exercifing. Thus it is in granting letters dimiffory (as hath been fhewed before, in the title Ddination). And thus it feems to have been understood, in the act of confecrating churches and churchyards, and reconciling them when polluted; by a licence which we find the dean of Windfor bad from the guardian of the fpiritualties of Salisbury, to employ any catholick bishop to reconcile the cloyfter and yard of the faid free chapel, when they had been polluted by the shedding of blood.Gibf 978.

In the time of archbishop Winchelfey, upon an appeal to Rome,' in a controverfy concerning Pagham, a peculiar of the archbishop of Canterbury; it was faid, in the representation to the pope, to be of Canterbury diocefe; which was objected againft in the exceptions on the other fide, because in truth and notoriety it is in the diocese of Chichefter. Which was a juft exception in point of form: because the proper ftyle of those peculiars, as often as they are mentioned in any inftruments, is, of or in fuch a dioufe (namely, the diocefe in which they are fituated) and of the peculiar and immediate jurifdiction of the archbishop. Gibf. 979.

7. Peculiars belonging to monafteries; concerning Of monafteries. which, it is enacted by the 31 H. 8. c. 13, that fuch of

the

Appeal from places exempt.

Vifitation of places exempt.

the late monafteries, abbathies, priories, nunneries, colleges, hofpitals, houfes of friers, and other religious and ecclefiaftical houfes and places, and all churches and chapels to them belonging, which before the diffolution were exempted from the vifitation and other jurifdiction of the ordinary, fhall from henceforth be within the jurifdiction and vifitation of the ordinary, within whofe diocese they are fituate, or within the jurifdiction and vifitation of fuch perfons as by the king thall be limited and appointed. J. 23.

Such exemptions were commonly granted at Rome, to those who folicited for them; efpecially to the larger monafteries, and fuch who had wealth enough to folicit pow erfully but the right of vifitation being of common right in the bishop, the religious who had obtained fuch exemptions, were liable to be cited, and were bound upon pain of contumacy, either to fubmit to his vifitation, or to exhibit their bulls of exemption, to the end they might be viewed and examined, and the bifhop might fee of what authority and extent they were. And whereas this ftatute vefts a power in the king, to fubject any of thofe religious houfes which were heretofore made exempt, to fuch jurif diction as he should appoint, exclufive of the ordinary ; there can be no doubt, but that the perfons who claim exemption from the vifitation of the ordinary in virtue of fuch appointment, are obliged upon pain of ecclefiaftical cenfures (in like manner as the religious were) to fubmit the evidences of their exemption to the examination of the ordinary; without which, it is impoffible for him to know how far his authority extends. Gibf. 977.

8. By the 25 H. 8. c. 19. All appeals to be had from places exempt, which heretofore, by reafon of grants or liberties of fuch places exempt, were to the bishop or fee of Rome, fhall be to the king in chancery; which fhall be definitively determined by authority of the king's commiffion fo that no archbishop or bifhop fhall intermit or meddle with any fuch appeals, otherwife than they might have done before the making of this act. f. 6..

9. By the 25 H. 8. c. 21. Vifitations of places exempt, which heretofore were vifited by the pope, fhall not be by the archbishop of Canterbury; but in fuch cafes, redress v.fitation and confirmation fhall be by the king, by commiffion under the great feal.

And by the ftatute of the 1 G. ft. 2. c. 10. All dona tives which have received or fhall receive the augmentation of the governors of queen Anne's bounty, fhall there

by