The College of Minor Canons: Statute confirmed by the Queen in Council, 1855

XIII. STATUTE, WITH SCHEDULE OF BENEFICES ANNEXED, CONFIRMED BY HER MAJESTY IN COUNCIL. (fn. 1)

At the Court at Windsor the 8th day of February, 1855,

Present,—

The QUEEN'S Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

Whereas the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England have, in pursuance of an Act passed in the Session of Parliament held in the third and fourth years of Her Majesty's reign, intituled "An Act to carry into effect, with certain modifications, the Fourth Report of the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues," duly prepared and laid before Her Majesty in Council a scheme, bearing date the fourteenth day of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the words and figures following, that is to say:—

"We, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, in pursuance of an Act passed in the Session of Parliament held in the third and fourth years of your Majesty's reign, intituled 'An Act to carry into effect, with certain modifications, the fourth Report of the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues,' have prepared, and now humbly lay before your Majesty in Council the following scheme for confirming certain alterations in the Statutes of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in London.

"Whereas it is by the said recited Act enacted, that the Chapters of the several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches shall from to time of their own accord, or upon being required by the Visitors of the said Churches respectively, propose to such Visitors such alterations in the existing Statutes and Rules as shall provide for the disposal of the benefices in their patronage so as to meet the just claims of the Minor Canons of such Churches, and that all such alterations may be confirmed by the authority of the Visitor, and that all such Statutes and Rules when so altered, shall be submitted to us and may be confirmed by the authority in the same Act provided; that is to say: by a scheme prepared by us, and a duly gazetted Order of your Majesty in Council ratifying the same:

"And whereas, the Dean and Chapter of the said Cathedral Church of Saint Paul have, in pursuance of the directions, in that behalf, of the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Charles James, Bishop of London, as their Visitor, prepared a plan for effecting certain alterations in the Statutes of their said Church, which plan is set forth in the schedule hereunto annexed:

"And whereas the alterations proposed by such plan have been confirmed by such Visitor, and it appears to us to be expedient that the same should also be confirmed by your Majesty as contemplated by the said recited provision of the said Act:

"Now, therefore, we humbly recommend and propose that the alterations in the Statutes and Rules of the said Cathedral Church which are set forth in the plan contained in the schedule hereunto annexed as aforesaid shall be confirmed accordingly.

"And we further recommend and propose, that nothing herein contained shall prevent us from recommending and proposing any other measures relating to the matters aforesaid, or any of them, in accordance with the provisions of the said Act, or of any other Act of Parliament."

Schedule.

"To the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Charles James Lord Bishop of London, and Visitor of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in London.

"The Representation and Proposal of the Very Revered Henry Hart Milman, D.D., Dean of the said Cathedral Church, and the Chapter of the same Church.

"That by an instrument in writing bearing date the seventeenth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, signed by your Lordship, being a Sentence, or Adjudication, upon an appeal to your Lordship as such Visitor as aforesaid, by the Reverend Robert Collier Packman, Clerk, and the Reverend James Lupton, Clerk, two of the Minor Canons of the said Cathedral Church, your Lordship was pleased to require of us the said Dean and Chapter, to prepare a plan for the disposal of benefices in our gift or patronage, according to the forty-seventh section of the Act of Queen Victoria, entitled 'An Act to carry into effect, with certain modifications, the Fourth Report of the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues.'

"That by the forty-fourth section of the said Act it is enacted as follows:

"'And be it enacted, that upon the vacancy of any benefice in the patronage of the Chapter of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church, the Chapter shall present or nominate thereto either a member of such Chapter or one of the Archdeacons of the diocese, or a non-residentiary Prebendary, or honorary Canon, as the case may be, or any spiritual person who shall have served for five years at the least in the office of Minor Canon or Lecturer of the same Church, or of Master of the grammar or other School, if any, attached to or connected with such Church, or as incumbent or curate in the same diocese, or as public tutor in either of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or who, so far as relates to the Cathedral Church of Durham, shall have served for the like term in the office of professor, reader, lecturer, or tutor in the said University of Durham, or shall have been educated thereat, and shall be a licentiate or graduate in theology therein, or who shall have served as Incumbent or Curate within the same diocese for the period aforesaid; and that every such office of Minor Canon, lecturer, schoolmaster, professor, reader, lecturer, or tutor, shall immediately upon the expiration of one year from the time of his institution to such benefice, if not previously resigned, become and be vacant; and that if neither a member of the Chapter, nor an Archdeacon of the diocese, nor a Minor Canon, nor lecturer, nor such schoolmaster, incumbent, or curate, professor, reader, lecturer, tutor, licentiate, or graduate, as the case may be, shall be presented or nominated to such benefice within six calendar months, from the time of the vacancy thereof, the Bishop of the diocese in which the same is situate may, within the next six calendar months, collate or license thereto a spiritual person who shall have actually served within such diocese, as incumbent or curate, for five years at the least; and if no such collation or license shall be granted within such time, the right of presentation or nomination to such benefice for that turn shall lapse to the Archbishop of the province.'

"That by the forty-sixth section of the said Act it is enacted as follows:

"'And be it enacted, that no Minor Canon hereafter to be appointed in any Cathedral or Collegiate Church shall be allowed to take and hold, together with his Minor Canonry, any benefice beyond the limit of six miles from such Church.'

"That by the forty-seventh section of the said Act it is enacted as follows:

"'And be it enacted, that the Chapters of the several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches shall from time to time, of their own accord, or upon being required by the Visitors of the said Churches respectively, propose to such Visitors such alterations in the existing Statutes and Rules as shall provide for the disposal of the benefices in their patronage, so as to meet the just claims of the Minor Canons of such Churches, and as shall make them consistent with the constitution and duties of the Chapters respectively, as altered under the authority of this Act; and all such alterations, if approved, may be confirmed by the authority of such Visitor, and that in any case in which such alterations shall not be approved, or in which such requisition shall not be complied with within twelve calendar months after the making thereof, the Visitor shall be at liberty of himself to make the necessary alterations; and all such Statutes and Rules when so altered shall be submitted to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, and may be confirmed by the authority hereinafter provided; and that as to any alteration made by a Visitor alone, the said Commissioners shall communicate a draft thereof to the Chapter to be affected thereby, and shall, together with any scheme to be prepared by them under the authority hereinafter contained, lay before Her Majesty in Council such remarks as may within three months have been made thereon by such Chapter; and that out of the proceeds of the suspended Canonries in any Chapter provision may from time to time be made by the authority hereinafter provided, for relieving the present Canons of such Chapter from the performance of any additional duty by reason of such suspension, by the employment of substitutes to be approved by the respective Bishops: provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect any existing right of Chapters with their Visitors to make Statutes.'

"That by a certain other Act of Parliament, 4 and 5 Victoria, chapter 39, section 15, it is enacted as follows:

"'And be it declared and enacted that, notwithstanding anything in the secondly recited Act contained [3 and 4 Vic. c. 113,], any Minor Canon in any Cathedral or Collegiate Church may take and hold, together with his Minor Canonry, any benefice which is within the distance prescribed by the said Act.'

"Now we, the said Dean and Chapter, in obedience to the said requisition made to us by your Lordship, and according to the directions of the first-mentioned Act of Parliament, do hereby respectfully propose to your Lordship the following plan of alterations in our existing Statutes and Rules, being such as in our judgment, formed upon a full consideration of the subject, will provide for the disposal of the benefices in our patronage, so as to meet the just claims of the Minor Canons of the Cathedral, and as will make them consistent with the constitution and duties of the Chapter as altered under the authority of the said Act; and we solicit your Lordship's approval and confirmation of the same by your visitatorial authority.

"Proposed Plan.

"1. That the Dean and Chapter shall, in the first place, if they think fit, from time to time, when and as often as any one of the benefices in their patronage shall become vacant, present or nominate thereto either the Dean or one of the Canons, if qualified to hold the same.

"2. That, subject to the foregoing regulation, the Dean and Chapter from time to time, when and as often as any one of the seventeen benefices (fn. 2) named in the schedule hereunder written (being all the benefices in the City of London in their patronage, except the Vicarage of Saint Giles, Cripplegate,) shall become vacant, shall by writing under the hand of the Dean or of the Registrar or Deputy Registrar for the time being of the said Dean and Chapter, make the offer of presentation or nomination thereto, to any one of the Minor Canons of the said Cathedral Church whom they may think proper to select, he being duly qualified according to the provisions of the said Act; and in case of his refusal, then they shall in the same manner make the like offer to any other of the Minor Canons who shall be so qualified, and so on, in case of refusal, until such offer shall be accepted by one, or shall have been refused by all of them, and on acceptance by a Minor Canon of such offer, the Dean and Chapter shall forthwith present or nominate him to the said benefice; but in the event of refusal of such offer by all the said Minor Canons to whom the same shall have been so made, the Dean and Chapter shall be at liberty to present or nominate to the said benefice any one of the other persons described in the fortyfourth section of the before-mentioned Act of Parliament: provided, nevertheless, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the Dean and Chapter from nominating or presenting a Minor Canon to any benefice in their patronage which he may be qualified to hold, although the same may not be one of the benefices named in the said Schedule: provided, also, that it shall not be obligatory on the Dean and Chapter to present or nominate to any benefice named in the Schedule a Minor Canon who, at the time of the vacancy thereof, shall be already in possession of a benefice with the cure of souls, whether the same be in the patronage of the said Dean and Chapter or not, but in every such case they shall use their own discretion with respect thereto.

"3. That every Minor Canon to whom the Dean and Chapter shall make an offer of presentation or nomination to a benefice, shall signify by writing under his hand, his refusal or acceptance thereof to the Dean or to the Canon in residence, within ten days after such offer shall be made to him, and in default of so doing he shall be considered to have refused such offer.

"4. That the presentation or nomination of Minor Canons by the Dean and Chapter to the benefices named in the Schedule, as hereby proposed, shall be subject to such alternations as may from time to time be made by the proper authorities in that behalf by reason of any future Act of the Legislature, or under special circumstances requiring such alterations.

"5. That in all cases not provided for by and subject to the preceding regulations the Dean and Chapter shall, upon the vacancy of any benefice in their patronage, present or nominate thereto one of the Archdeacons of the diocese, or a non-residentiary Prebendary of the said Cathedral Church, or one of the other spiritual persons described in the forty-fourth section of the before-mentioned Act of Parliament.

Schedule above referred to.

"Sealed with the Chapter Seal this thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.

"We Charles James, by Divine permission Lord Bishop of London, Visitor of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, in London, do hereby signify our approval of the alterations which in the foregoing Representation and Proposal by the Very Reverend Henry Hart Milman, D.D., Dean of the said Cathedral Church, and the Chapter of the same Church, are set forth and proposed to be made in the existing Statutes and Rules of the said Cathedral Church; and we do hereby, by our visitatorial authority, confirm all the said alterations, and do enjoin that the proposed alterations in the existing Statutes and Rules of the said Cathedral Church contained in the five several items in the said Representation or Proposal, respectively numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, upon the same being duly confirmed by the authority in that behalf provided by the Act of Parliament, 3 and 4 Victoria, chapter 113, shall form part of the Statutes and Rules of the said Cathedral Church. In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hand, and caused our episcopal seal to be affixed, this twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and in the twenty-seventh year of our translation.

And whereas the said scheme has been approved by Her Majesty in Council : now, therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice of Her said Council, is pleased hereby to ratify the said scheme, and to order and direct that the same and every part thereof shall be effectual in law immediately from and after the time when this Order shall have been duly publilshed in the London Gazette, pursuant to the said Act; and Her Majesty, by and with the like advice, is pleased hereby to direct that this Order be forthwith registered by the Registrar of the diocese of London.

WM. L. BATHURST.