GENERALLY. The title of dean, is a title of dignity. never understood that deaneries might be held, as temporal promotions, by DEANS deaneries. The institution of deaneries, as also of the other ecclesiastical offices of Original indignity and power, seems to bear a resemblance and relation to the methods stitution of and forms of civil government, which obtained in those early ages of the church throughout the western empire. Accordingly, as in this kingdom for the better preservation of the peace, and more easy administration of justice, every hundred consisted of ten districts called tithings, every tithing of ten friborgs or free pledges, and every free (or frank) pledge of ten families (3); and in every such tithing there was a constable or civil dean appointed, for the subordinate administration of justice, so in conformity to this secular method, the spiritual governors, the bishops, divided each diocese into deaneries, (decennaries, or tithings,) each of which was the district of ten parishes or churches; and over every such district they appointed a dean, which in cities or large towns was called the dean of the city or town, and in the county had the appellation of rural dean. (4) The like office of dean began very early in the greater monasteries, especially in those of the Benedictine order, where the whole convent was divided into decuries, in which the dean, or tenth person, did preside over the other nine; took an account of all their manual operations; suffered none to leave their stations, or to omit their particular duty without express leave; visited their cells or dormitories every night; attended them at table to keep order and decorum at their meals; guided their conscience; directed their studies; and observed their conversation; and for this purpose held frequent chapters, wherein they took public cognisance of all irregular practices, and imposed some lesser penances, but submitted all their proceedings to the abbot or prelate, to whom they were accountable for their power, and for the abuse of it. And, in the larger houses, where the numbers amounted to several decuries, the senior dean had a special pre-eminence, and had sometimes the care of all the other devolved upon him alone. (5) (1) Cro. Eliz. 663. (2) Prov. Const. Ang. 118. (3) Vide Merewether and Stephens' History of Boroughs, 40, 42, 62, 63, 66. (4) Ken. Par. Ant. 633, 634. DEANS GENERALLY. Authority and jurisdiction of rural deans. Clerks who had the office and authority of deans, but not the name. And the office of dean in several colleges in the universities seems to have arisen from the same foundation. The institution of cathedral deans seems evidently to be owing to this practice. When, in episcopal sees, the bishops dispersed the body of their clergy by affixing them to parochial cures, they reserved a college of priests or secular canons for their counsel and assistance, and for the constant celebration of divine offices in the mother or cathedral church, where the tenth person had an inspecting and presiding power, till the senior or principal dean swallowed up the office of all the inferior, aud, in subordination to the bishop, was head or governor of the whole society. His office was to have authority over all the canons, presbyters, and vicars; and to give possession to them when instituted by the bishop; to inspect their discharge of the cure of souls; to convene chapters and preside in them, there to hear and determine proper causes; and to visit all churches once in three years, within the limits of their jurisdiction. The men of this dignity were called archipresbyters, because they had a superintendence or primacy over all their college of canonical priests; and were likewise called decani christianitatis, because their chapters were courts of christianity, or ecclesiastical judicatures, wherein they censured their offending brethren, and maintained the discipline of the church within their own precincts. (1) The proper authority and jurisdiction of rural deans, perhaps, may be best understood from the oath of office which in some dioceses was anciently administered to them, which was this: "I, A. B., do swear diligently and faithfully to execute the office of dean rural within the deanery of D. First, I will diligently and faithfully execute, or cause to be executed, all such processes as shall be directed unto me from my Lord Bishop of B., or his officers or ministers by his authority. Item, I will give diligent attendance, by myself or my deputy, at every consistory court, to be holden by the said reverend father in God, or his chancellor, as well to return such processes as shall be by me or my deputy executed, as also to receive others then unto me to be directed. Item, I will from time to time, during my said office, diligently inquire, and true information give unto the said reverend father in God, or his chancellor, of all the names of all such persons within the said deanery of D. as shall be openly and publicly noted and defamed, or vehemently suspected of any such crime or offence as is to be punished or reformed by the authority of the said court. Item, I will diligently inquire, and true information give, of all such persons and their names, as do administer any dead men's goods, before they have proved the will of the testator, or taken letters of administration of the deceased intestates. Item, I will be obedient to the right reverend father in God I., bishop of B., and his chancellor, in all honest and lawful commands; neither will I attempt, do, or procure to be done or attempted, any thing that shall be prejudicial to his jurisdiction, but will preserve and maintain the same to the uttermost of my power." (2) There may be deans in either cathedral or collegiate churches, but although having the office and authority they have not always had the name of dean, as in the cases of the precentor of the cathedral church of St. David, and the warden of the collegiate church of Manchester; but DEANS for the future these officers are to be called deans. By stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113. s. 21. no new appointment is to be made to the deaneries of Wolverhampton, Middleham, Heytesbury, and Brecon; but they are to be suppressed, as they respectively fall vacant; and by s. 40. the deanery and archdeaconry of Llandaff are to be henceforth united. But by stat. 6 & 7 Vict. c.77. s. 9. the archdeaconry of Llandaff was separated from the deanery. By stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113. s.27. no person can receive the appointment of dean, archdeacon, or canon, until he shall have been six years complete in priest's orders, except in the case of a canonry annexed to any professorship, headship, or other office in any university. By stat. 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39. s. 5. the holding of a canonry residentiary, prebend, or office, is not necessary to the holding of the deanery of any cathedral church in England, or to the entitling of any dean to his full share of the divisible corporate revenues of such church, although such share may not heretofore have been received by any preceding dean otherwise than as a canon residentiary; nor is the holding of a prebend necessary to the holding of either of the residentiary canonries in the cathedral church of St. Paul in London, which are in the direct patronage of the Crown. Deans of the old foundation come in by election of the chapter upon the King's congé d'eslire, with the royal assent, and the confirmation of the bishop, much in the same way as the bishops themselves do: but, generally, the deans of the new foundation, which were always purely donative, come in by the king's letters patent; upon which they are instituted by their respective bishops; and then installed upon a mandate, pursuant to such institution, and directed to the chapters. (1) This distinction between the old and new foundations arose after the dissolution of monasteries, when King Henry VIII., having ejected the monks out of the cathedrals, replaced them by secular canons; and those whom he thus regulated are called the deans and chapters of the new foundation; such are Canterbury, Winchester, Worcester, Ely, Carlisle, Durham, Rochester, and Norwich. Besides these, he erected five cathedrals de novo, and endowed them out of the estates of dissolved monasteries, viz. Chester, Peterborough, Oxford, Gloucester, and Bristol (2), which, as also Westminster, he made episcopal sees; but the bishopric of the last place was altered again, and the monastery turned into a collegiate church by Queen Elizabeth. (3) GENERALLY. Stat. 3 & 4. ss. 1. 21. 40. & non-residentiary deaneries. Qualifications of deans and canons. Deans must years complete Vict. c. 39. s. 5. not hold Appointment the old and new foundations. of deans under Patronage in whom vested, under stat. & 4 Vict. c. 113. By stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113. s. 24. the deanery of every cathedral and collegiate church upon the old foundation "excepting Wales" (4) and the three existing canonries in the cathedral church of St. Paul, London, are placed in the direct patronage of the Queen, who upon the vacancy of any such s. 24. deanery or canonry can appoint, by letters patent, a spiritual person to be dean or canon, as the case may be, who will thereupon be entitled to installation as dean or canon of the church to which he may be so appointed. By stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113. s. 66. the ecclesiastical commissioners are to make provision for the average annual income of deans, according to the (1) Gibson's Codex, 173. (4) These words, "excepting Wales," seem to be either a misprint, or a clerical error, for "except in Wales." Stat. 3 & 4 s. 66. DEANS GENERALLY. Canons of Manchester to be appointed by the respective bishops. Annual income of deans. Profits of a following scale: - Durham, 30007.; St. Paul's, Westminster, and Manchester, 20007. each; and every other cathedral and collegiate church in England, not less than 10007. The deans of St. David and Llandaff are to have respectively 700l. per annum. By stat. 28 Hen. 8. c. 11. s. 3. the profits of a deanery, during the vacation, are to go to the successor. By canon 42. every dean shall be resident (1) in his cathedral or collegiate church" fourscore and ten days, conjunctim or divisim, in every year at the least, and then shall continue there in preaching the word of God, and deanery during keeping good hospitality, except he shall be otherwise let with weighty and urgent causes to be approved by the bishop of the diocese, or in any other lawful sort dispensed with." the vacation. Stat. 28 Hen. 8. c. 11. s. 3. Canon 42. Residence of the dean. Canon 43. Deans to their residence. Deans in cathedral and collegiate churches "shall not only preach there in their own persons, so often as they are bound by law, statute, ordinance, or custom, but shall likewise preach in other churches of the same diocese where they are resident, and especially in those places whence they or their preach during church receive any yearly rents or profits. And in case they themselves be sick, or lawfully absent, they shall substitute such licensed preachers to supply their turns, as by the bishop shall be thought meet to preach in cathedral churches. And if any otherwise neglect or omit to supply his course as is aforesaid, the offender shall be punished by the bishop, or by him or them to whom the jurisdiction of that church appertaineth, according to the quality of the offence." Deans to visit The dean ought to visit his chapter (2); and of ancient time the canons their chapters. made their confessions to the dean; and Lyndwood says, that the canons are under the dean as to the cure of souls. (3) CHAPTERS. Defined. Chapter in a collegiate church. 2. CHAPTERS. A chapter of a cathedral church formerly consisted of persons ecclesiastical, canons, and prebendaries, whereof the dean was chief, all subordinate to the bishop, to whom they were as assistants, in matters relating to the church, for the better ordering and disposing the things thereof, and for confirmation of such leases of the temporalities and offices relating to the bishopric, as the bishop from time to time might happen to make. (4) They were termed by the canonists, capitulum, being, anciently, a kind of head, instituted not only to assist the bishop, but also to rule and govern the diocese in the time of vacation. (5) Of these chapters, some are ancient, some new; the new are those which are founded or translated by King Henry VIII. in the places of abbots and convents, or priors and convents, which were chapters whilst they stood. and these are new chapters to old bishoprics; or they are those which are annexed unto the new bishoprics founded by King Henry VIII., and are therefore new chapters to new bishoprics. (6) The chapter in a collegiate church is more properly called a college, as at Westminster and Windsor, where there is no episcopal see. Chapter with out a dean. There may be a chapter without any dean, as the chapter of the collegiate CHAPTERS. church of Southwell; and grants by or to them are as effectual as other grants by dean and chapter. (1) So likewise, until recently, in the cathedral churches of St. David's and Llandaff there was no dean, but the bishop in either was head of the chapter; and at the former, the chantor, at the latter, the archdeacon presided, in the absence of the bishop or vacancy of the see. A prebend is an endowment in land, or pension in money, given to a Prebend cathedral or conventual church in præbendam, that is, for a maintenance of defined. a secular priest or regular canon, who was a prebendary, as supported b the prebend. Lord Coke says, a prebendary was so called a præbendo, from the assistance he afforded to the bishop; whereas he had his name, on the contrary, from the assistance which the church afforded him in meat, drink, and other necessaries. (2) A comparison exists between the two words prebend and prebendary, whereas the former signifies the office, or the stipend annexed to that office; and the latter signifies the officer, or person who executes the office and enjoys such stipend. A canonry also is a name of office, and a canon is the officer in like manner as a prebendary; and a prebend is the maintenance or stipend both of the one and of the other. (3) of the several members of the chapter in their sole capacity. Difference between prebend and prebend ary. Vict. c. 113. s. 1. all the By stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113. s. 1. all the members of chapters except the By stat. 3 & 4 dean, in every cathedral and collegiate church in England, and in the cathedral churches of St. David and Llandaff, are to be styled canons, and subject to certain provisions contained in that act, the number of these canons in the several following cathedral or collegiate churches throughout England and Wales is for the future to be as follows: members except the cathedral or collegiate church, to be styled canons. |