It is enacted, that if any person or perfons, bodies politick and corporate, shall or do, for any sum of money reward gift profit or benefit directly or indirectly, or for or by reafon of any promife agreement grant bond covenant or other affurance of or for any fum of money reward gift profit or benefit whatsoever directly or indirectly, prefent or collate any perfon to any benefice with cure of fouls, dignity, prebend, or living ecclefiaftical, or give or below the fame for or in respect of any fuch corrupt cause or confideration; every fuch prefentation collation gift and bestowing, and every admiffion inflitution inveftiture and induction thereupon, shall be utterly void, fruftrate, and of none effect in law: And it shall be lawful for the queen, her heirs and fucceffors, to prefent, collate unto, or give er beflow, every fuch benefice dignity prebend and living ecclefiaftical, for that one time or turn only: And all and every perfon or perfons, bodies politick and corporate, that fball give or take any fuch jum of money reward gift or benefit directly or indirectly, or that shall take or make any fuch promife grant bond covenant or other affurance, shall forfeit and lose the double value of one year's profit of every fuch benefice dignity prebend and living ecclefiaftical: And the perfon fo corruptly taking pracuring feeking or accepting any fuch benefice dignity prebend or living, fhall thereupon and from thenceforth be adjudged a difabled perfon in law to have or enjoy the fame benefice dignity prebend or living ecclefiaftical. f. 5.

And if any perfon shall for any sum of money reward git profit or commodity whatsoever directly or indirectly (other than for ufual and lawful fees) or for or by reason of any promise agreement grant covenant bond or other affurance of or for any Jum of money reward gift profit or benefit whatsoever directly or indirectly, admit inftitute inflal induct invest or place any per-. fon in or to any benefice with cure of fouls, dignity, prebend, or other ecclefiaftical living; every fuch perfon fo offending fhall forfeit and lofe the double value of one year's profit of every fuch benefice dignity prebend and living ecclefiaftical; and thereupon immediately from and after the investing installation or induction thereof had, the fame benefice dignity prebend and living ecclefiaftical fhall be eftfoons merely void; and the patron or person to whom the advowson gift prefentation or collation shall by law appertain, fhall and may by virtue of this act present or collate unto give and difpofe of the fame benefice dignity prebend er living ecclefiaftical, in fuch fort to all intents and purpofes, as if the party fo admitted inflituted inftalled invefted inducted or placed had been or were naturally dead. f. 6.

Provided, that no title to confer or present by lapfe, fball accrue upon any avoidance mentioned in this a&t, but after fix

m.nths

months next after notice given of fuch voidance, by the ordinary to the patron. £. 7.

And if any incumbent of any benefice with cure of fouls shall corruptly refign (r) or exchange the fame, or corruptly take for or in respect of the refigning or exchanging the fame, directly or indirectly, any penfion, fum of money, or benefice whatsoever; as well the giver as the taker of any fuch pension, sum of money, or other benefice corruptly, shall lose double the value of the fum fo given taken or had: the one moiety as well thereof, as of the forfeiture of the double value of one year's profit before mentioned, to be to the queen, and the other to him that will fue for the fame in any of her majefty's courts of record. f. 8.

Provided always, that this act or any thing therein contained, fhall not in any wife extend to take away or refrain any punishment pain or penalty limited prescribed or inflicted by the laws eclefiaftical, for any the offences before in this act mentioned; but that the fame fhall remain in force, and may be put in due execution, as it might be before the making of this act; this act or any thing therein contained, to the contrary theresf in any wife notwithstanding. f. 9.

And moreover, if any perfon fball receive or take any money fee or reward or any other profit directly or indirectly, or shall take any promife agreement covenant bond or other affurance to receive or have any money fee reward or any other profit directly or indirectly, either to himself or to any other of his friends (all ordinary and lawful fees only excepted), for or to procure the ordaining or making of any minifter, or giving of any orders, or licence to preach; he shall for every fuch offence forfeit the fum of 401: and the party fo corruptly ordained or made minifter, or taking orders, shall forfeit the fum of 101: And if at any time within feven years next after fuch corrupt entring inte the ministry or receiving of orders, he shall accept or take any benefice, living, or promotion ecclefiaftical; then immediately from and after the induction investing or inftallation thereof or thereunto bad, the fame fhall be eftjoons merely void; and the patron fhall prefent, collate unto, give and difpofe of the fame, as if the party fo inducted invefted or inftalled had been naturally dead: the one moiety of all which forfeitures shall be to the queen, and the other to him that will fue in any of her majefty's courts of record. f. 10.

S. 4. For avoiding of fimony] Almoft all the authors who have treated of this fubject, and even the learned judges in delivering their refolutions in cafes of fimony,

(r) Young v. Jones, E. T. 1782. 4 Bl. Com. 62. Ed. Chr. n. 8.

have afferted that there is no word of fimony in this act; and from thence a conclufion had been drawn in favour of the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction, that the temporal courts have nothing to do with fimony as fuch, or to define what fhall be deemed fimony and what not, but only to take cognizance of the particular corrupt contracts therein fpecified. Which confequence, altho' deducible perhaps from other premifes, yet doth not follow from the aforefaid obfervation; for it is plain here is the word fimony: and the mistake feemeth to have happened from this fhort preamble being inadvertently printed at the end of the foregoing fection, treating intirely of a different fubject; fo as to have been overlooked by the firft person who made the obfervation, whom others have followed without examination.

Donations] For the like reafon only (as it feemeth), a doubt was made in the cafe of Bawderock and Mackallar, M. 2 Car, whether this ftatute extendeth to donatives. Cro. Car. 330.

S. 5. If any person or perfons] If one who hath no right, prefent by ufurpation, and doth it by reafon of any corrupt contract or agreement; that prefentation and the induction thereupon are hereby void; for this ftatute extends to all patrons, as well by wrong as by right. In like manner, if when a church is void, the void turn is purchased; altho' the grant of a void turn, as being a thing in action, is of itfelf void, and the purchaser's prefentee comes in quafi per ufurpationem: yet because it is by means of a fimoniacal contract, it is as much fimony, as if the grant had not been void. 1 Inft. 120. 3 Inft. 153. Cro. Eliz. 789.

And it is to be obferved, that this claufe is general, "If any perfon or perfons," and doth make no allowance in the cafe of father and fon, more than in the case of other perfons; and that therefore the notion that a purchase of the next avoidance when the incumbent is fick and ready to die, and the fon's privity to that purchafe, is lefs fimony in the case of a son, than it would be in the cafe of any other perfon, hath no foundation in the act. Neither is the reason that a father is bound by nature to provide for his fon, good to the aforesaid purpofe; for a man is bound by nature also to provide for himself, and fo might as well purchase for himfelf. Watf c. 5. Gibf. 798. (s)

(s) See 2 Bla. Com, 280,

Sa

So if a father, in confideration of a clerk's marrying his daughter, doth covenant with the clerk's father, that he will procure the clerk to be prefented, admitted, inftituted, and inducted into such a church upon the next avoidance thereof; this is a fimoniacal contract. Watf 6. 5. (t)

Directly or indirectly] Simony may be committed, and yet neither the patron nor incumbent privy to it, or knowing of it. Thus in a writ of error to reverfe a judgment, whereby the king had recovered in a quare impedit upon a title of fimony, which was, that a friend of the patron agreed to give fo much money to one (who was not the patron), to procure the faid parfon to be prefented, who was prefented according to that agreement; it was affigned for error, that it did not appear, that either patron or parfon were knowing of this agreement. But by the court; the parfon is fimoniacally promoted: and a cafe was mentioned, where the parfon of St. Clement's was oufted, by reafon that a friend had given money to a page belonging to the earl of Exeter, to endeavour to procure the presentation, and neither the earl nor the parfon knew any thing of it. Wat. c. 5. (u)

Bond covenant or other affurance, of or for any fum of money, reward, gift, profit, or benefit whatfoever] The bond and affurance here mentioned, being for money, reward, gift, profit or benefit, a way was found very early to defeat the intention of this act, by general bonds of refignation, whereby the prefentee obliged him/elf to refign and void the benefice, within a certain time after warning to be given to him, or else indefinitely, whenever the patron should require it. Gibf. 799, 8c0.

And these bonds have been allowed both in law and equity: Thus in the cafe of Peele and the earl of Carlisle, M. 6 G. In the king's bench: In an action of debt upon a bond, conditioned to refign a benefice; the court refus. ed to let the defendant's counfel argue the validity of fuch bonds, they having been so often established even in a court of equity; and that alfo, where the condition is general, and not barely to refign to a particular perfon. Str. 227.

(t) Litt. Rep. 177. Otherwife if the covenant is independent of the confideration. Byrte v. Manning, Cro. Car. 425. 2 Keb. 204.

(u) Rex v. Truffel.

VOL. III.

Siderf. 329.

So, M. 9 G. In the chancery. Peele and Capel. Capel on prefenting Peele to a living, took a bond from him to refign when the patron's nephew came of age, for whom the living was defigned. When the nephew was of age, inftead of requiring a refignation, it was agreed between them all, that Peele fhould continue to hold the living, paying 301. a year to the nephew. Peele makes the payment for feven years, but refufing to pay any more, the patron puts the bond in fuit. And then Peele comes into this court for an injunction, and to have back his 30 l. a year. On hearing, the lord chancellor granted the injunction, not (as he faid) upon account of any defect in the bond itfelf, which he held good, but on account of the ill ufe that had been made of it: and as to the money, it being paid upon a fimoniacal contract, he left the plaintiff to go to law for it. Str. 534.

So, in the cafe of Durston and Sandys, M. 1686. The defendant upon his prefenting the plaintiff to a parfonage, took a bond of him to refign; which (as the reporter fays) tho' in itfelf lawful, yet the patron making an ill ufe of it, viz. to prevent the incumbent from demanding tithes in kind, the court awarded a perpetual injunction against the bond. [ Vern. 411.

And in the cafe of Hefket and Grey, in the king's bench, H. 28 G. 2. (which was a cafe out of chancery :)-Debt upon a bond. Upon oyer of the condition, it appeared that the obligor had been prefented to the living of Staining by the obligee, and had agreed to deliver it up into the hands of the ordinary, within three months after the expiration of five years, at the request of the plaintiff his heirs or affigns, or upon proper notice in writing, fo that a new prefentation might be made. And after this recital of the agreement, the condition was, that if the defendant did deliver up into the hands of the ordinary the faid living, fo as that the fame might become void, then the obliga tion to be void. The defendant pleaded, that he did offer to refign abfolutely the living, and that he delivered the refignation to the ordinary that he might accept the same and the plaintiff make a new prefentation, but that the ordinary refused to accept it. He pleaded further, that the agreement was corrupt; and that the bond was taken to keep the defendant in awe, and therefore alfo corrupt and void. Ryder chief justice delivered the refolution of the court: The averring in the plea, that the agreement was corrupt will not make it fo: but it fhould be fet forth what fort of corruption, that the court may judge whether