The act 57 Geo. III. c. 99 (repealed, as already observed, by 1 & 2 Vict.
c. 106), provided also for the appoint ment of licensed curates in benefices, the incumbents of which were absent with or without licence or exemption, and regu lated the salaries of such curates upon a scale proportioned to the value of each benefice, and the number of the popula tion within its precincts ; and in all cases of non-residence from sickness, age, or other unavoidable cause the bishop might fix smaller salaries at his discretion.
The subject of non-residence is now regulated by I & 2 Vict. c. 106. Under this act the penalties for non-residence of an incumbent without a licence are one third of the annual value of the benefice when the period of absence exceeds three and does not exceed six months ; one-half of the annual value when the absence ex ceeds six and does not exceed eight months ; and when the period of non-re sidence has been for the whole year, three-fourths of the annual income is for feited. Certain persons are exempt from the penalties of non-residence, as the heads of colleges at Oxford and Cam bridge, the warden of Durham University, and the head-masters of Eton, Winches ter, and Westminster schools. Privileges for temporary nonresidence are granted to a great number of persons, as persons holding offices in cathedrals and at the two universities of Oxford and Cam bridge ; chaplains of the royal family, of the bishops, or of the House of Commons ; those who serve the office of chancellor, vicar-general, or other similar office ; readers in the royal chapels ; preachers in the inns of court or at the Rolls ; the provost of Eton, warden of Winchester College, master of the Charter-House, and the principals of St. David's College and of King's College. During the time any of the above classes or persons are actually engaged in their duties, their ab sence is not accounted as non-residence. Performance of cathedral duties may be accounted as residence under certain re strictions. Every person desirous of a licence for non-residence must present a petition to the bishop setting forth a num ber of particulars, for instance, if he in tends to employ a curate, and what salary he proposes to give him, &c. In case 3f a licence being refined, an appeal lies to the archbishop. A copy of every licence must be filed in the registry of the dio cese, and an alphabetical list made out of all such licences, which list may be in spected on payment of a fee of three shil lings. A copy of the licence, and a
statement of the grounds on which it obtained, must be transmitted to the churchwardens of the parish of which the person mentioned in the licence is the incumbent, to be by them deposited in the parish chest, and produced at the arch deacon's visitation. Every year, in the month of January, the bishop of each diocese transmits, to his clergy a schedule containing eighteen questions, or, if the incumbent be non-resident, twenty-eight questions, replies to which are to be trans mitted to the bishop in three weeks. They are intended, amongst other things, to check non-residence, and to render the discipline and government of the clergy more strict. An abstract of the returns is to be made yearly to her Majesty in Council.
There are certain liabilities which par sons, vicars, and other spiritual persons legally incur in respect of their bene fices. Thus, by 43 Eliz. c. 2, they are rateable in respect of their benefices for the relief of the poor ; and, although the burden of the repairs of the body of the church falls upon the parishioners, the rector (and, where the parsonage is ap propriated, the impropriator) is liable for the repairs of the chancel. And the stat. 35 Edw. I. sees. 2, the object of which was to prohibit rectors from cutting down trees in churchyards, contains an express exception of the case where such trees are wanted for the repair of the chancel.
Besides the liability implied in the last mentioned prohibition, all ecclesiastical incumbents are liable for dilapidation. A dilapidation is said to be the pulling down or destroying in any manner any of the houses or buildings belonging to a spiritual living, or suffering them to run into ruin or decay, or wasting or destroy ing the woods of the church, or com mitting or suffering any wilful waste in or upon the inheritance of the church. Such proceedings may be prevented by the spiritual censures of the ordinary ; and the profits of the benefice may be seques tered until the damage be repaired ; and the Court of Chancery will, at the suit of the patron, grant an injunction to re strain this as well as every other species of waste. Or the next incumbent may recover damages for dilapidation either in the Spiritual Court. or in an action on the case at common law against his pre decessor, or, if he be dead, against his personal representatives.