the bishop may difpenfe with refidence; and it supposes others, referring them to the judgment and difcretion of the bishop.

1. It allows of a difpenfation for such as abide in fome approved univerfity for the ftudy of divinity or canon law. This difpenfation is limited in point of time, and not allowed to exceed five or fix years : and the reafon of granting it is, a presumption that it will be for the benefit of the church and people to have the minifter himself well inftructed; and that his abfence from his cure for a few years will be compenfated by the ability he will then acquire to execute his office to the better edification of the people.

This being the reafon on which this difpenfation is grantable, it follows, that no incumbent can, with a good confcience, make use of this exemption, unless he does bona fide purfue the end for which it is granted, by a close application to the study of his profeffion in the univerfity where he refides.

This reason, introduced at first by the canon-law, has been approved by the legislature of this kingdom; and Scholars converfant and abiding for ftudy, without fraud or covin, at any univerfity within this realm, or without, are excepted from the penalties of the 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.

This exception, fo generally expreffed, was foon abused; which occafioned the reftrictions laid on it by the 28th of Hen. VIII. cap. 13. By which act the privilege was confined to thofe that were under the age of forty years.

So that with respect to this point the ftatute has made no alteration at all, except reftraining the grant to perfons under forty years of age. For the

ftatute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13. enacts nothing new with respect to ftudents in the univerfity; and that of 28 Hen. VIII c. 13. having limited the general licences for ftudying in the university, has a claufe to except all heads of houses and public officers, &c. from the faid limitation. So that the perfons thus excepted stand clear of the ftatutes, which leave them just where they found them, and fubject to be called to refidence, unless they have the ordinary's difpenfation.

Upon both these ftatutes therefore it must be obferved, and ought to be remembered, that they grant no licence of non-refidence to any perfon on any occafion they were made to enforce refidence, and are introductive of a new penalty upon non-refidence ; from which new penalty certain perfons, in the circumstances therein defcribed, are exempted: but those persons, in the circumftances there defcribed, are liable still to ecclefiaftical cenfures, unless they are dispensed with in the manner the law, before and fince the ftatutes, requires. And this is a point in which many have been mistaken, or willingly igno

rant.

2. The canon-law allows the fervice of the bishop to be a fufficient license for non-refidence. The neceffary care and bufinefs of a diocese require that the bishop should have the affiftance of one or more difcreet clergymen and fince it is much easier to find a proper curate to ferve a parish, than a proper person to advise and affift the bishop in the general care of the diocefe, the law confiders the perfon, who abides with the bishop for thefe purposes, as more ufefully employed, than if he were confined to the

care of one parish only. In this cafe therefore the good of the church is made the foundation of the dispensation.

This reafon alfo is admitted in the ftatutes before mentioned; and chaplains of archbishops and bishops, daily attending in their households, are exempted from the penalty of the act.

The statute has extended this exemption to other cafes not exprefsly mentioned in the canon-law, as to the chaplains of the nobility, and great officers of the crown; though cafes of this kind had ufually been dispensed with before the act; which difpenfations were founded upon the general power reserved to the bishop by the canon-law, to dispense where there appeared to him to be jufta et rationabilis caufa: and fince the virtue and example of great and potent families will neceffarily have a great influence upon the manners and religion of any country, it was thought reasonable to dispense with the personal attendance of an incumbent in his parish, whilst he was employed in teaching and inftructing the younger parts of great families, and performing the offices of his function daily to all parts of it. So that these difpenfations had for their end the general intereft and good of religion in the kingdom.

That the exemption in the ftatute, granted to the chaplains of the nobility, proceeds upon the fame views, is evident from the restriction under which the exemption is granted: for it extends not to all chaplains of the nobility in general, but to fuch only as are daily attending, abiding, and remaining in their honourable households; and for fo long time only as

fuch chaplains fhall abide and dwell, without fraud or covin, in any of the faid honourable households.

The ftatute confiders the fervice of the chaplain in the household of his lord as the only ground of the exemption; and it cannot be doubted, but that fuch service only is meant as is proper and peculiar to the office of a chaplain. And therefore a mere retainer of a clergyman to be chaplain to a nobleman, unless he actually abides and dwells in the household, is no title to the exemption of the ftatute; and if one retained and titled chaplain abides in the household to do any other fervice, and not the service of a chaplain, it is not fuch an abiding as the statute intends, but is fraudulent and covinous.

I have spoken to this cafe more particularly, because it is a common cafe; and I hope all who plead this title to an exemption from refidence will confider, whether they pursue the reafon and meaning of the law. It will be but little comfort to skreen themselves under the letter of the law, if they are condemned by the reason of the law, and their own confcience.

3. The fervice of the church is another reason taken notice of by the canon-law; as attendance, for inftance, in convocation. The ftatute does not mention this; neither has it, I conceive, condemned it; for he is not wilfully abfent from his cure (as the ftatute speaks) who is abfent in obedience to the King's writ.

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4. The fervice of the crown is, by the common law, a difpenfation of refidence; but it is fo only during the time a clerk is actually in the King's fer

vice: and the statute before mentioned has exempted even the King's chaplains from the penalty of nonrefidence, fo long only as they fhall be attending in the household.

These are the principal cafes in which non-refidence is excufable by the canon-law, and the laws of this realm; and it is manifeft, from the reason of these cases, that a dispensation for refidence is by no law permitted to be granted as a favour to any perfon, and that it is only to be juftified when the service of the church or the commonwealth make it reafonable.

This general obfervation upon the cafes which the law has expressly provided for, will enable us to judge of the cafes not exprefsly provided for by the law, but referved to the difcretion of the bishop.

5. The canon law admits the bifhop to dispense with refidence where there is jufta et rationabilis causa. In all cafes provided for by the law itself, the jufta et rationabilis caufa is, the good either of church or state. And we may be fure the laws never intended the bishop should grant fuch difpenfations, but for reasons of the like nature, or in cafes of great neceffity. Difpenfations of this kind never were fit to be asked as favours of the bifhop, nor had he power to grant them as favours; but was bound to direct his judgment as the cause appeared to be jufta et rationabilis, or otherwise.

That the bishops had and exercised this power in the church of England, is manifest from many inftances remaining in the registers of the feveral diocefes, and the authority of Lyndwood, who makes the bishop's licenfe to be neceffary in all cases: his