The power and authority of a biſhop, beſides the adminiſtration of certain holy ordinances peculiar to that ſacred order, conſiſt principally in inſpecting the manners of the people and clergy, and puniſhing them, in order to reformation, by eccleſiaſtical cenſures. To this purpoſe he has ſeveral courts under him, and may viſit at pleaſure every part of his dioceſe. His chancellor is appointed to hold his courts for him, and to aſſiſt him in matters of eccleſiaſtical law; who, as well as all other eccleſiaſtical officers, if lay or married, muſt be a doctor of the civil law, ſo created in ſome univerſity[1]. It is alſo the buſineſs of a biſhop to inſtitute, and to direct induction, to all eccleſiaſtical livings in his dioceſe.
Archbishopricks and biſhopricks may become void by death, deprivation for any very groſs and notorious crime, and alſo by reſignation. All reſignations muſt be made to ſome ſuperior[2]. Therefore a biſhop muſt reſign to his metropolitan; but the arch-biſhop can reſign to none but the king himſelf.
II. A dean and chapter are the council of the biſhop, to aſſiſt him with their advice in affairs of religion, and alſo in the temporal concerns of his fee[3]. When the reſt of the clergy were ſettled in the ſeveral pariſhes of each dioceſe (as hath formerly[4] been mentioned) theſe were reſerved for the celebration of divine ſervice in the biſhop's own cathedral; and the chief of them, who preſided over the reſt, obtained the name of decanus or dean, being probably at firſt appointed to ſuperintend ten canons or prebendaries.
All antient deans are elected by the chapter, by conge d'eſlire from the king, and letters miſſive of recommendation; in the ſame manner as biſhops: but in thoſe chapters, that were founded by Henry VIII out of the ſpoils of the diſſolved monaſteries, the deanery is donative, and the inſtallation merely by the king's
