On the other hand, the spiritual trust which is attached to this species of pro perty is guarded and enforced by very jealous provisions. The appointment of a duly qualified incumbent is secured, as far as the law can secure it, by requiring the sanction of the bishop to his admis don ; and although this sanction is, in lid, very rarely withheld, yet it cannot 'e doubted that the existence of such a 'heck is essential to the well-being of the •hurch. In order more effectually to ;ward against the danger of a corrupt mesentation, the immediate right to pre sent is absolutely inalienable, as soon as a vacancy has actually occurred; and on a similar principle, a purchase of it during the mortal sickness of the incumbent is equally prohibited.
When the proprietor of an advowson exercises his patronage, three persons are immediately concerned : the proprietor, the clergyman who is presented, and the bishop in whose diocese the living is situate ; or (in the language of lawyers) the patron, the clerk, and the ordinary. The presentation is usually a writing addressed to the bishop, alleging that the party presenting is the patron of a church which has become vacant, and requesting the bishop to admit, institute, and induct a certain individual into that church, with all its rights and appurtenances. A period of time, limited to twenty-eight days, is then allowed to the bishop for examining the qualification and compe tency of the candidate, and at the expira tion of that time he is admitted and instituted to the benefice by formal words of institution read to him by the bishop, from an instrument to which the episcopal seal is appended. A mandate is then issued to the archdeacon or other officer to induct, i.e. to put the new incumbent into the actual possession of the church and its appurtenant rights; and then, and not before, his title as legal parson becomes complete.
It sometimes happens that two of the three characters of patron, clerk, and bishop (or ordinary), are united iu one person. Thus the bishop may himself be the patron ; in which case presentation is superfluous, and institution alone is neces sary. The bishop is then technically said to collate the clergyman to the bene fice, and the advowson under these dr. cumstances is said to be collative.
So the clerk may be the patron, in which case, though he cannot regularly present himself, yet he may pray to be admitted by the bishop; or he may trans. fer to another the right of presentation before the particular vacancy occurs, and then procure himself to be presented.
Another instance in which the patron. age and the parsonage are often found united is in appropriations, where, by the concurrence of all parties interested the advowson, together with the church, its revenues and appurtenances, have in former times been conveyed to some ec clesiastical body, who thus became both the patrons and perpetual incumbents of the living, and by whom the immediate duties of cure are devolved on a vicar or a stipendiary curate.
There are instances of advowsons the patrons of which have power to appoint an incumbent without any previous resort to the bishop for his aid or approbation. These are called donative advowsons, be cause the patron exercises a direct and unqualified privilege of geeing his church to a clerk selected by himself. The only check upon the conduct of the incumbent in such cases is the power of the patron to visit, and even to deprive him, when the occasion demands it; and the right still residing in the bishop to proceed against him in the spiritual court for any ecclesiastical misdemeanour. It is the opinion of the most eminent lawyers that donatives had their origin in the king, who has authority to found any church or chapel exempt from the episcopal jurisdiction, and may also, by special licence, enable a subject to do the same. Sometimes the nomination is distinct from the right to present : thus, the owner of an advowson may grant to another the right to nominate a clergy man, whom the grantor and his heirs snail be thereupon bound to present. Here it is obvious that the person to whom the right of nomination is given is substantially the patron, and the person who presents is merely the instrument of his will. So, where an advowson is under mortgage, the mortgage-creditor is bound to present any person who shall be nominated by the mortgagor.
If, upon the vacancy of a living, no specessor, or an insufficient one, shall be presented, it is put ander sequestration by the bishop, whose care it then becomes to provide for the spiritual wants of the parish by a temporary appointment, and to secure the profits of the benefice, after deducting expenses, until another incum bent shall be duly inducted. After a vacancy of six months, occasioned by the default of the patron, the right to present lapses to the bishop himself. On a similar default by him, it devolves to the arch bishop, and from him again to the king as paramount patron ; the period of six calendar months is allowed to pass in each case before the right is forfeited to the superior.. A donative advowson, however, is excepted from the general rule ; for there the right never lapses by reason of a continued vacancy, but the patron is compellable to fill it up by the censures of the Ecclesiastical Court.