city of creditor or any other, may maintain his claim against the bishop, the suspended incumbent in effect is the receiver of the profits; either his debt is paid thereby, or his grantee is receiving the fruits of his grant, but both in virtue of his right; so that his right must be held to exist at the very time when, by the sentence, it has been taken away.

"We cannot therefore agree in placing the parties, the plaintiffs on the one hand and the bishop on the other, as the counsel for the plaintiffs felt compelled to do, in the relation of contending incumbrancers, whose rights, inter se, were to be determined by priority of date; it appears to us that if the plaintiffs can maintain their right now, they could equally do so if they were posterior in the date of their charge, because the only foundation on which they can stand is on the existence of such an interest in the incumbent after suspension as would be available to answer the writ of execution; and whether it came earlier or later, the writ would attach on this, as if it were in existence.

"No direct authority was furnished us in the argument, nor have we been able to find any. We have been compelled, therefore, to decide this case upon principle; and it seems to us that, on principle, it is clear that the suspension, for the time of its endurance, operates in respect of the perception of the profits, as amotion or death; that the plaintiffs' right, therefore, is suspended from the 13th September, 1846, the date of publication of the second sequestration. Nor is there any hardship in this. Every creditor of a beneficed clergyman knows that his recourse to the ecclesiastical goods of his debtor is of a limited nature, determinable by his death, resignation, or amotion; and such as it is, it is in addition to the same absolute recourse to his lay goods and lands as the creditor has against a layman.”

Act, 1871.

The "Sequestration Act, 1871," (h) contains the following Sequestration provisions:

(h) 34 & 35 Vict. c. 45.

On sequestra.

tion bishop to

and assign stipend, as defined in 34 & 35 Vict. c. 44.

"1. Where, after the thirty-first day of August one thousand

appoint curate eight hundred and seventy-one, under a judgment recovered against the incumbent of a benefice as defined in the Incumbents Resignation Act, 1871, or under the bankruptcy of such incumbent, a sequestration issues and the same remains in force for a period of six months, the bishop of the diocese shall from and after the expiration of such period of six months, and as long as the sequestration remains in force, take order for the due performance of the services of the church of the benefice, and shall have power to appoint and license for this purpose such curate or curates, or additional curate or curates, as the case may require, with such stipend in each case as the bishop thinks fit, the amount thereof to be specified in the licence, and the bishop may at any time revoke any such appointment and licence Provided always, that such stipend or stipends shall not exceed in the whole the following sums; that is to say, if the population shall not exceed five hundred, the sum of two hundred pounds yearly; if the population shall exceed five hundred but not one thousand, the sum of three hundred pounds yearly; if the population shall exceed one thousand but not three thousand, the sum of five hundred pounds yearly; if the population shall exceed three thousand, the sum of six hundred pounds yearly: Provided also, that such stipend or stipends shall not exceed in the whole two-thirds of the annual value of the benefice as defined in the last-mentioned Act.

Application of

enactments in Schedule, Part I.

Payment of stipend.

"2. Such of the provisions of the Act specified in the schedule to this Act as are described in Part I. of that schedule and all provisions of that Act relative thereto shall have effect for purposes of this Act as if they were here re-enacted.

"3. Every stipend assigned under this Act shall be paid by the sequestrator out of moneys coming to his hands under the sequestration, as long as the sequestration is in force, in priority to all sums payable by virtue of the judgment or the bankruptcy under which the sequestration issues, but not in priority of liabilities in respect of charges on the benefice.

enactments in Schedule, Part II.

"4. Such of the provisions of the Act specified in the schedule Application of to this Act as are described in Part II. of that schedule, and all provisions of that Act relative thereto, shall apply in every case where a curate is appointed under this Act.

"5. In case any such sequestration remains in force for more than six months, the bishop, if it appears to him that scandal or inconvenience is likely to arise from the incumbent continuing to perform the services of the church while the sequestration remains in force, may, from and after the expiration of such period, inhibit the incumbent from performing any services of the church within the diocese as long as the sequestration shall remain in force, and the bishop may at any time withdraw such inhibition.

Power for

bishop to inhibit in certain

cases.

Presentation to

benefices sus. pended during

"6. During such time as any sequestration remains in force, the incumbent shall be absolutely disabled from presenting or nominating to any benefice then vacant, of which he may be sequestration. patron in right of the benefice under sequestration, and the right of presentation or nomination to such vacant benefice shall be exercised by the bishop of the diocese in which such vacant benefice is locally situate.

Incumbent of benefice not to sequestrated

accept other

berete but

"7. During the continuance of any sequestration it shall not be lawful for the incumbent of the benefice under sequestration to accept or be instituted or licensed to any other benefice or preferment, the acceptance of or institution or licensing to which with leave. would avoid or vacate the benefice so under sequestration, unless with the consent in writing of the bishop of the diocese and the sequestrator."

7. Deprivation.

Between suspension from preferment and deprivation or deposition, the line of distinction is very fine. Probably it consists in this only, that the latter is the term to be used when the suspension is absolute and in perpetuum. Lyndewode thus indicates the difference: "Depositus dicitur qui privatus est beneficio

U

Definition of
Deprivation.

Deprivation : when inflicted.

1. For disabilities.

13 Eliz. C. I2,

8. 2.

et officio, licet non solenniter. . . . Degradatus dicitur qui utroque est privatus solenniter, insigniis sibi ablatis. . . . Suspensus autem dicitur qui est privatus utroque ad tempus non in perpetuum. Secundum quosdem differentia est inter depositionem et suspensionem, sicut inter deportationem, quæ est perpetua, et relegationem, quæ est temporalis." (i)

It is manifestly a very severe sentence, whether viewed in its spiritual or secular aspects. Consequently it is inflicted only when the gravity of the circumstances demands some stronger punishment and means of repression than those hitherto mentioned. The following are the chief groups of cases where it has been or is now awarded.

First. Disqualification for clerical functions. These areWant of Age, (k) Want of Education, (/) or Want of Orders. (m) Under this same head may be put Simony, which is a crime by the common law, and which causes the avoidance of all preferments so obtained. (n) So also Infidelity, Blasphemy, and the like, which have always been, (0) and still are, (p) punished with deprivation. (q) And not merely absolute Atheism, but the maintenance of any doctrine contrary to the Thirty-nine Articles is sufficient. "If any person ecclesiastical, or which shall have ecclesiastical living, shall advisedly maintain or affirm any doctrine directly contrary or repugnant to any of the said articles, and being convented before the bishop of the diocese or the ordinary, or before the queen's highness' commissioners in causes ecclesiastical, shall persist therein, or not revoke his error, or after such revocation eftsoon affirm such untrue doc

(1) Constitutio Othonis Lyndw. p. 45, De concubinis clericis removendis. (k) 13 Eliz. c. 12, avoids admissions, &c., contrary to the statute; see Gibson, 1068.

(1) See Hobart, 149.
(n) 31 Eliz. c. 6.

(m) See 13 & 14

Car. II. c. 4, S. 10.

(0) Gibson, 1068; Specot's case, 5 Rep. 24.

(p) Noble v. Voysey, L. R. 3 P. C. 357.

(9) The jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts in these matters is preserved by 29 Car. II. c. 9, which took away the writ de heretico comburendo.

trine, such maintaining or affirming and persisting, or such eftsoon affirming, shall be just cause to deprive such person of his ecclesiastical promotions, and it shall be lawful to the bishop of the diocese, or the ordinary, or the said commissioners to deprive such person so persisting, or lawfully convicted of such eftsoons affirming, and upon such sentence of deprivation pronounced, he shall indeed be deprived.” (r)

of crime.

Secondly. Conviction in the temporal courts of certain crimes. 2. Conviction Of such convictions, those for treason or felony always were (s) a sufficient ground for deprivation, and now by section 2 of the "Act to Abolish Forfeitures," (t) it is provided "that if any person hereafter convicted of treason or felony, for which he shall be sentenced to death or penal servitude, or any term of imprisonment with hard labour, or exceeding twelve months, shall at the time of such conviction hold any military or naval office, or any civil office, under the Crown or other public employment, or any ecclesiastical benefice, or any place, office, or emolument, in any university, college, or other corporation, or be entitled to any pension or superannuation allowance, payable by the public, or out of any public fund, such office, benefice, employment, or place shall forthwith become vacant, and such pension or superannuation, allowance or emolument, shall forthwith determine and cease to be payable, unless such person shall receive a free pardon from Her Majesty within two months after such conviction, or before the filling up of such office, benefice, employment, or place, if given at a later period."

offences.

Thirdly. The graver moral offences. The punishment of 3. Moral deprivation is not inflicted under ordinary circumstances, but only when the immoral conduct is of a gross nature, or is accompanied by facts which aggravate it. It has been imposed for incontinence (u) and for drunkenness. (v)

(u) Bonwell v. Bishop of London, 14 Moo. P. C. C. 395, 412-4. (7) Mortimer v. Freeman, 1 Brownlow & Gold, 70.