GLEBE (Lat. glebe, clod). The land pos sessed as part of an ecclesiastical benefice, or from which the revenues of the benefice arise. The assignment of glebe lands was formerly held to be of such absolute necessity that without them no church could be regularly consecrated. The fee simple of the glebe is held by the law of England to be in abeyance; that is to say, it is only "in the remembrance, expectation, and in tendment of the law"; but after induction, the freehold of the glebe is in the parson, and he possesses most of the powers of a proprietor, with the exception of the power of alienation. Previous to the Reformation the clergy possessed certain powers of alienation at common law; and if a bishop, with the assent of his chapter, or an abbot, with the assent of his convent, or the like, alienated glebe lands, the deed would not have been void, because the fee simple was in the holder of the benefice for the time being; but by 1 Eliz., c. 19, and 13 Eliz., c. 10, it was provided that all gifts, grants, feoffments, conveyances, or other estates made of glebe lands should be utter ly void and of none effect. Neither could the incumbent exchange the lands or any portion of them without the authority of an act of Parlia ment. This restriction was clone away by 55 Geo.
III., c. 147, for enabling spiritual persons to ex change parsonage or glebe houses or glebe lands for others of greater value or more conveniently situated for their residence and occupation. By 5 and 6 Viet., c. 54, it is now provided that the commissioners appointed to carry into effect the commutation of tithes shall have power to ascer tain and define the boundaries of the glebe lands of any benefice, and also power, with consent of the ordinary and patron, to exchange the glebe lands for other lands within the same or any adjoining parish, or otherwise conveniently situ ated. • In Scotland, as in England, a glebe forms, as a general rule, a portion of every ecclesiastical benefice of the Established Church, and is thus an addition to the stipend, and sometimes a very important one. As in England, the alienation of glebe lands by the incumbent of the parish has from a very early period been forbidden. (St. 1572, c. 48.) Consult Phillimore, Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of England (2d ed., London, 1895). '