2 & 3 Vict. c. 18.

A Proportion

of the halfyearly Interest, and of the annual Instalment of

the Principal,

to be paid on

Avoidance of

the See.

Tithes not in Lease.

cessor and the incumbent avoiding by death or otherwise the benefice so charged; see sect. 68, under title Leases.

[The 2 & 3 Vict. c. 18, s. 11, contains the following regulation with respect to residence-houses of bishops built by mortgage raised on their sees:

["That upon every vacancy which shall happen of any see the lands and hereditaments whereof shall have been mortgaged under the authority of this act, before such mortgage or mortgages shall be discharged, the archbishop or bishop for the time being avoiding the same, his heirs, executors, or administrators, shall pay so much of the half-yearly payment of interest upon the principal money secured by any such mortgage or mortgages accruing and not actually accrued due at the time of his ceasing to be archbishop or bishop of the said see as shall be in proportion to the time which at such avoidance shall have elapsed of the current half-year, and shall also (in case such avoidance shall happen after the expiration of the second year from the date of such mortgage or mortgages respectively), pay so much of the annual instalment which shall fall due next after such avoidance of the said see of every principal sum so to be secured as aforesaid as shall be in proportion to the time which at such avoidance shall have elapsed of the current year."

[The 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, provides by sect. 49 that the profits of all suspended canonries shall "immediately upon and from the vacancy thereof" be vested in the ecclesiastical commissioners (f)-ED.]

With respect to those tithes which are not in lease there can be no doubt but that the executor shall be entitled to those that became due before the incumbent's death, and that the successor shall be entitled to those that became due after the incumbent's death.

And here a case frequently happeneth with respect to moduses in lieu of tithes; which tithes, if taken in kind, would have been due before the death of the incumbent, and the modus for the same is not due till after the death of the incumbent. Which case not coming in any sense within the purview of the said statute, it seemeth that the executors are not entitled to the said modus or to any part thereof, but that the whole shall go to the successor.

There is another case wherein it may be disputed at what time the modus itself shall be said to be due. As, for instance, it is usual in many places to ascertain the modus at Martinmas, by then taking an account of the stock for the year preceding, and not to receive the modus till Easter following. In which case, if it shall appear from the evidence, as from payment thereof, sometimes made at the time when ascertained, or in the intermediate space betwixt that time and the more usual and ordinary days of payment, or from receipts given and ac

(f) [See title Deans and Chapters, vol. ii. p. 125 m.]

cepted for the same as due at the time when ascertained, or the like, and that the payment thereof was only deferred for convenience, when the incumbent should receive his other dues, or for other like cause, in such case it will be due to the executor. But if it shall appear that the same hath been understood as not due until such future day, and only advanced sometimes before such day to answer the incumbent's necessities or other convenience, then it seemeth that it will go to the successor. So that this is a matter not of law, but of fact, and depends upon the evidence.

As to disputes concerning things fixed to the freehold, as hangings, tapestry, grates, glasses, furnaces, and such like, these, falling in with the general doctrine about what shall belong to heirs or successors on the one hand, and executors or administrators on the other, are treated of under the title Wills. A mandamus lies to deliver up the keys of the church (g).-ED.]

Vacation of Bishoprics—See Bishops.

Vestry-See Churchwardens (and Vestry.]

Vicar (and Vicarage(h).]

A VICAR, vicarius, is one that hath a spiritual promotion or living under the parson, and is so denominated as officiating vice ejus, in his place or stead: and such a promotion or living is called a vicarage, which is a part or portion of the parsonage allotted to the vicar for his maintenance and support.

This part or portion is in some places an annual sum of money certain; but in most places it is a part of the tithes in kind, which most commonly is the small tithes; and in some places he hath a part of the great tithes and also of the glebe; and such a one is called a vicar endowed.

Thus he that hath the right to the possession of the lesser part is called a vicar; and he that hath the other and greater part of tithes, is called the parson, who in some parishes is a clergyman, and sometimes the minister or incumbent of the

(g) [Anon., 2 Chitt. 255.] [Gibson's Cod. 753; Ayliffe's Parerg. 511; Kennet's Case of Im

propriation, 43; Year Book, 40 Ed. 3, pl. 27.]

Vicar or Per

may reside in Rectory House.

same church; but in other places he is a mere layman, and cannot supply the church but by a spiritual vicar; and this so possessed by a layman, is called an impropriation, and himself the impropriator.

An appropriation is properly when such a parsonage (or vicarage or other church preferment) is in the hands or possession of some ecclesiastical person and his successors, and can be made only to a body politic or corporation spiritual that hath succession, whereby such body becomes perpetual incumbent of the benefice appropriated, and shall for ever enjoy the tithes and other profits, and the cure of souls belonging thereto.

But the words impropriation and appropriation are generally confounded in the books; and the law concerning the whole is treated of under the title Appropriation, ante, vol. i. [The 1 & 3 Vict. c. 106, enacts by section 25,

"That in all cases of rectories having vicarages endowed or perpetual Curate petual curacies the residence of the vicar or perpetual curate in the rectory house of such benefice shall be deemed a legal residence to all intents and purposes whatever provided that the house belonging to the vicarage or perpetual curacy be kept in proper repair to the satisfaction of the bishop of the diocese."

Vicar's Oath, &c. abolish.

ed.

[And by section 61,

"That no oath shall be required of or taken by any vicar in relation to residence on his vicarage; any law, custom, constitution or usage to the contrary notwithstanding."

[For the 29 Car. 1, c. 8, 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 45, and the 26th section of 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39, relating to augmentations made by ecclesiastical persons to small vicarages, &c, see ante, vol. i. title Benefice.-ED.]

Vicar General.

VICAR GENERAL is an officer whose office is usually annexed to that of chancellor, and is therefore treated of under that title.

Vigil-See Holidays.

Vi Laica Removenda.

VI LAICA REMOVENDA is a writ which (upon the bishop's certificate in chancery of a force and resistance touching a church) lieth where a debate or controversy is between two parsons for a church, the one whereof doth enter into the church with strong hand and great power of the laity, holding the other out, and keeping possession thereof with force and arms. Whereupon he that is so held out of possession may have the said writ directed to the sheriff of the county, to remove the force within that church, and (if need be) to raise the power of the county to his assistance, and to arrest and imprison the persons that make resistance, so as to have their bodies before the king at a certain day to answer the contempt. Which writ is sometimes grantable without the bishop's certificate as aforesaid: for it may, as it seemeth, be had upon a surmise made thereof by the incumbent himself without such certificate; there being a distinct and several form thereof in each of the said cases. So that this writ properly lieth for the removal of any forcible possession of a church kept by laymen (i).

By this writ the sheriff' ought not to remove the incumbent who is in possession of the church, whether the possession be of right or wrong, but only to remove the force (k).

The writ is made returnable into the King's Bench, in which court the offenders shall be fined and punished for the force; and restitution also shall be awarded out of the same court (as it seemeth (1).

I. General Visitation by Archbishop and Bishop. NOTE, free chapels and donatives (unless such donative hath received the augmentation of Queen Anne's bounty) are ex

(i) God. 645; F. N. B. 124.
(k) F. N. B. 125.
(Wats. c. 30.

(m) [Cf. Bishop Stillingfleet's Duties and Rights of Parochial Clergy, vol. iii. p. 520-638; Bishop Gibson on Visitations; Barbosa de Officio et Potestate Episcopi; De Visitatione

cujuscumque Prælati Ecclesiastici, a Gaudentio de Janua; De Episcopis eorum Auctoritate, Officio et Potestate, Joannis Bertachini a Firmo; The King's Visitatorial Power asserted, by Nathaniel Johnston, London, 1648; Attorney-General v. Smithies, 1 Keen, 289.-ED.]

Origin.

Who shall visit.

How often

order.

empt from the visitation of the ordinary; the first being visitable only by commission from the king, and the second by commission from the donor. And there are also other churches and chapels exempted, which did belong to the monasteries, having heretofore obtained exemptions from ordinary visitation, and being visitable only by the pope, which by the statute of 25 Hen. 8, c. 21, were made visitable by the king or by commission under the great seal. These, and other exempted churches or chapels, so far forth as they are exempted are not treated of under this title, the purport whereof extendeth only to places visitable by the bishop or his subordinate officers.

For the government of the church and the correction of offences, visitations of parishes and dioceses were instituted in the ancient church, that so all possible care might be taken to have good order kept in all places (n).

For the first six hundred years after Christ, the bishops in their own persons visited all the parishes within their respective dioceses every year, and they had several deacons in every diocese to assist them. After that they had authority in case of sickness or other public concerns, to delegate priests or deacons to assist them; and hereupon, as should seem, they cantoned their great dioceses into archdeaconries, and gave the archdeacons commissions to visit and inquire, and to give them an account of all at the end of their visitations; and the bishops reserved the third year to themselves, to inform themselves (amongst other things) how the archdeacons, their substitutes, performed their duties (o).

By a constitution of Otho, archbishops and bishops shall go and in what about their dioceses at fit seasons, correcting and reforming the churches, and consecrating and sowing the word of life in the Lord's field (p).

And, regularly, the order to be observed therein is this: In a diocesan visitation, the bishop is first to visit his cathedral church; afterwards the diocese. In a metropolitical visitation, the archbishop is first to visit his own church and diocese; then in every diocese to begin with the cathedral church and proceed thence as he pleaseth to the other parts of the diocese. Which appears from abundance of instances in the ecclesiastical records, as well of papal dispensations for the archbishop to visit without observing the said order, as of episcopal licences for the visitor to begin in other parts of the diocese than in the cathedral church (q).

And this sprang from the precept of the canon law, which requires that the archbishop willing to visit his province shall first visit the chapter of his own church and city, and his own diocese; and after he hath once visited all the dioceses of his province, it shall be lawful for him (having first required the (n) God. Append. 7. (p) Ath. 56. (2) Gibs. 957.

(0) Deg. p. 2, c. 15; Johns. 151.