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XXXIX.-Cautions for Institutions of Ministers into Benefices.
Altered verbally.

XL.-An Oath against Simony at Institutions into Benefices.
Altered verbally.

XLI. Licences for Pluralities of Benefices limited, and Residence.

No licences or dispensations for the keeping of more benefices with cure, than one, shall be granted to any, but such only as shall be thought very well worthy for his learning, and very well able and sufficient to discharge his duty, that is, who shall have taken the degree of a Master of Arts, at the least, in one of the Universities of England or Ireland, or shall be able to produce most excellent testimonials from his cathedral college, and be a public and sufficient Preacher licensed. Provided always, that he be, by a good and sufficient caution or security, bound to make his personal residence in each of his said benefices for some reasonable time in every year; and that the said benefices be not more than eighty miles apart; and that he have a curate, who shall be a Preacher lawfully allowed, and able sufficiently to teach and instruct the people resident in each benefice; and that one of the two benefices is under the value of five hundred pounds per annum income; and that, when absent, he may be of well-known piety sufficient to continue "present in spirit," (1 Cor. v. 3,) by constantly corresponding with his Curate, and others, as the welfare of his parishioners may require; and, lastly, that there be not more than ten pluralists of benefices in any one Archdeaconry. We hope, moreover, that, in process of time, all benefices, now of a smaller income, will, by means of accumulating funds, be raised to 600l. a year at the least; and then, perhaps, pluralities of benefices may be abolished without much inconvenience,-that is, however, if a sufficient supply of Curates can be secured without them, for we hold it to be of a great advantage to the Church, that all her Ministers should, for three years at the least, be tried in subordinate situations before they become eligible for higher and more permanent stations. Concerning public hospitality, (which does not absolve any man from his duties of private charity,) endowing alms-houses, &c., all beneficed men, with livings of the value of 600l. a year, and upwards, shall act, with regard to the former, after the pattern, but, of course, upon a smaller scale, of the injunctions to Bishops, Deans, and Prebendaries, in several subsequent Canons.

XLII.-Residence of Deans in their Churches.

For the future the Bishop shall be Dean of his cathedral, and only occupy his episcopal chair or throne, upon principal feastdays, visitations, and other occasions, when he is there more imme

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diately in his capacity of Bishop. He shall appoint his Archdeacons, Chancellor of the church, Treasurer, and Præcentor, from among the Prebendaries: the principal (if there be more than one) Archdeacon shall ex officio be Sub-dean and first Prebendary, and occupy the Dean's stall on principal feast-days, and the others before alluded to the Chancellor, and others before-mentioned, shall rank above the other Prebendaries, and shall occupy the Dean's and Sub-dean's stalls, when both are unavoidably absent on principal feast-days, &c., or the latter's, if the Dean only is absent.

Every Dean, (whether Bishop or not,) Master or Warden, or chief governor of any cathedral or collegiate church, shall be resident in his said cathedral or collegiate church six-score days, (except he be a lord of parliament, when four-score and ten days shall be held sufficient,) conjunctim or divisim, in every year, at the least; and they shall continue there in preaching the word of God, and keeping good hospitality, (occasionally inviting those in even the most humble stations, as well as others,*) except he shall be otherwise let with weighty and urgent causes, (to be approved of by his ordinary or other lawful authority.) And when he is present, he, with the rest of the Canons or Prebendaries resident, shall take special care, that the statutes and laudable customs of their church, (not being contrary to the word of God, or prerogative royal,) the statutes of this realm concerning ecclesiastical order, and all other Constitutions now set forth and confirmed by his Majesty's authority, and such as shall be lawfully enjoined by the Bishop of the diocese, in his visitation, according to the statutes and customs of the same church, or the ecclesiastical laws of this realm, be diligently observed, and that the minor canons, vicars choral, and other adult members of their church, be previously examined, that they may all possess a considerable knowledge of the Holy Scrip

tures.

crown.

Deans (not Bishops) are to be appointed by the mandate of the We recommend that, by means of an accumulating fund, the minimum income of a non-episcopal Dean, may be eventually 1,5007. a year; an Archdeacon Sub-dean, 2,000l. a year; any other Sub-dean, 1,500l. a year; Canon or Prebendary, 1,0007 a year, except in London and Westminster, Dublin and Durham, in which places we would suggest 1,2007. a year to be the minimum income.

XLIII.-Deans and Prebendaries to preach during their Residence, and to keep hospitality.

The Dean, Master, Warden, or Chief Governor, Prebendaries, and Canons, in every cathedral and collegiate church, shall preach therein after this order :-on principal feast-days, and the eves before, the sermons shall be preached by three of these, (if so many be present, otherwise some of the other Prebendaries may preach,)

*Luke xiv. 12.

viz. the Dean, Sub-dean, other Archdeacons, Chancellor, Treasurer, and Præcentor; on the fifth Sunday of the month by the same; and on other Sundays and holy days, by the three Prebendaries then in residence. The preacher, on Saturday evening, or the eve before a principal feast-day, shall the next day entertain at dinner six poor men and six poor women, at the least, in his own person; the preacher on Sunday morning, or morning of principal feast-day, shall entertain all the rest of the dignitaries who may happen to be there, the minor canons, organist, and vicars choral; and the afternoon preacher shall entertain the chorister boys, together with a few children, and their master or mistress, from any schools in the vicinity. On feast-days, neither principal nor Sundays, sermon in the Communion Service shall be sufficient. The Dean and other dignitaries shall keep other good public hospitality during their residence, as a model for which, generally, we refer to what has never been discontinued at Durham. When any of the dignitaries are there at a time not their term of residence, they shall occasionally preach in those parish churches within a convenient distance, and especially in any that they may derive any emolument from, or of which they may be the patrons. In case of sickness, Prebendaries shall, in their residence, procure others of their body to preach for them, or minor canons, or licensed preachers, to be approved by the Dean. And if any otherwise neglect or omit to supply his course, as is aforesaid, the offender shall be lawfully punished according to the quality of the offence; and any Dean or Prebendary wilfully abstaining from enforcing the observance of residence, preaching, or hospitality, shall ipso facto be suspended from his pecuniary emoluments for the space of three months, which forfeited emoluments shall be at the disposal of his Majesty's Commissioners for ecclesiastical purposes.

XLIV. Prebendaries to be Resident upon their Benefices, and their Residence in Cathedrals.

No Prebendaries or Canons, having one or more benefices with cure, shall on account of their prebends, absent themselves from their benefices more than four months in the year, and shall be very careful to maintain efficient Curates in their said benefices. There shall be twelve Prebendaries in each cathedral, vacancies to be supplied by the appointment of the Crown, the Bishop, the beneficed Clergy of the diocese, and the Curates of the diocese, alternately. Three shall come into residence for three months at a time with those exceptions mentioned in the preceding Canon, each Prebendary shall be for one month Saturday evening Preacher, and preacher for those holydays upon which no afternoon Sermon is given; for one month Sunday morning Preacher; and for one month Sunday evening Preacher: Sub-deans and Præcentors, may remain half the year; the others shall not remain more than a month at the farthest beyond their term of residence,

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if they hold any benefice with cure, but shall repair thither or to some other charge where the law requireth their presence, there to discharge their duties. And the Bishop of the diocese shall see the same to be duly performed and put in execution. As soon as the Cathedral of St. Paul's, and the Abbey, or Cathedral Church of Westminster, can, in the judgment of the King's Minister for ecclesiastical affairs, afford it, the twelve parliamentary Prelates of the most expensive sees, and with the minimum episcopal incomes, shall be always extra Prebendaries, six of St. Paul's, and six of Westminster Abbey, with 500l. a-year and a house each, to reside concurrently with the other Prebendaries for three months, to share with them in the duties of preaching; but, as regards public hospitality, to entertain the poor on Sundays, in addition to the entertainments of the poor by other Prebendaries, and to entertain the choral, and other members of the Church, on four week-days during their residence. And when the new cathedral in Southwark, for the diocese of Southwark, (or Surrey,) detached from the see of Winchester, can afford it, we would recommend, that there be attached to it six extra Prebendaries, to be always the six Prelates of Convocation, not in Parliament, with the most expensive duties. And whereas the Master of Pembroke College, Oxford; of Catherine Hall, Cambridge; the Provost of Oriel College, Oxford; the Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford; the Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford; and the Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford, have been accustomed to hold stalls ex-officio, they shall for the future be extra Prebendaries (subject to the like duties with the extra Prebendaries of St. Paul's) of Christ Church Oxford, and of Ely; the Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, to be Prebendary of Ely, the others of Christ Church.

XLV. Beneficed Preachers being Resident upon their Livings, to preach frequently.

Every beneficed Preacher, residing on his benefice, having no lawful impediment, shall, in his own cure, frequently read and preach; and if he has a Curate, he shall occasionally preach in any churches and chapels in his neighbourhood, wherein he shall soberly and sincerely divide the Word of Truth to the glory of God, and to the best edification of the people. Here it is right to remind preachers most earnestly, that they are to "take care to preach no other doctrine than that contained in the Scriptures, and what the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have collected from those Scriptures."* Where preachers find it necessary to confirm the weak and wavering, or to reclaim the sceptic, by using those means referred to in the thirty-fourth Canon, they shall endeavour to show the perfect analogy that exists, through those parts of Revelation made stumbling-blocks of themselves, between revealed and

Canons of 1571.

natural religion; they shall show, that in every part of the animal, vegetable, and moral world, though there is so much to admire, there is a reverse side, in which, with our limited faculties, we shall in vain endeavour to satisfactorily reconcile nature, except in connexion with a state of probation, with our ideas of divine goodness and wisdom; that in vain may the Deist, whose reason he affects is disgusted with the notion of " the just suffering for the unjust," and several other peculiarities in the Christian doctrines, endeavour to find out why the Supreme Being he calls All-wise, and of infinite goodness, has allowed such a principle of the strong persecuting the weak, to pervade the animal world; why, instead of the revolting sight of beasts of prey being carnivorous, they are not ordained to live upon vegetable matter; why, to mention here a very well-known, though small instance, the Omnipotent Creator did not prefer the cat peaceably eating vegetables with the mouse, whose prolific nature he might again have curtailed, to supersede the only reason, apart from revealed religion, we can discover, for the present instinct of its natural enemy; that in vain may he ask why, in both the animal and vegetable world, all, however beautiful, however useful, is subject to unsightly and offensive corruption; that in vain may he attempt to unravel the mystery of so much vice prospering, and so much virtue going unrewarded, nay, seeming to incur misery sometimes. Thus shall they show the Deist, that in consistency, if he will not embrace Christianity, he is bound to go further, for that objections similar to his objections to the Gospel, might be urged with stronger force against natural religion. They shall then show him, that he is still as far as ever from a satisfactory conclusion by turning Atheist, or, as the modern phrase is, Philosophical Materialist; that only one side of nature is beautiful, and that only in religious communities can it be made to appear, that the temporal interest of any man will be more likely to be promoted by following virtue than by following vice; that it is true, that this may always be said of some few things, such as temperance promoting health, and frugality comfortable circumstances in old age; but that, in the Materialist economy, there is no binding inducement to men to abhor oppression, avarice, or selfishness, or many other things inconsistent with a benevolent character. They shall show them from the wonders of nature, the absurdity, the unreasonably credulous belief in mystery, of attempting to account for so many palpable designs without a designer, and try to convince them, that to believe in the existence of a Supreme Governor of the world, though such an existence without beginning is very wonderful, even if possible to conceive, is a small matter compared to attempting to account for all around us upon Materialist principles, such as the necessity, as their term is, for that law of matter which causes the infant's teeth to be formed in the gums, and stops their proceeding further, while their doing so, would be manifestly inconvenient, or that law of vision, which causes the sensation to be as

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