dioceſe, the better to inſpect the conduct of the parochial clergy, and therefore armed with an inferior degree of judicial and coercive authority[1].
V. The next, and indeed the moſt numerous, order of men in the ſyſtem of eccleſiaſtical polity, are the parſons and vicars of churches: in treating of whom I ſhall firſt mark out the diſtinction between them; ſhall next obſerve the method by which one may become a parſon or vicar; ſhall then briefly touch upon their rights and duties; and ſhall, laſtly, ſhew how one may ceaſe to be either.
A parson, perſona eccleſiae, is one that hath full poſſeſſion of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parſon, perſona, becauſe by his perſon the church, which is an inviſible body, is repreſented; and he is in himſelf a body corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the church (which he perſonates) by a perpetual ſucceſſion[2]. He is ſometimes called the rector, or governor, of the church: but the appellation of parſon, (however it may be depreciated by familiar, clowniſh, and indiſcriminate uſe) is the moſt legal, moſt beneficial, and moſt honourable title that a pariſh prieſt can enjoy; becauſe ſuch a one, (ſir Edward Coke obſerves) and he only, is ſaid vicem ſeu perſonam eccleſiae gerere. A parſon has, during his life, the freehold in himſelf of the parſonage houſe, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues. But theſe are ſometimes appropriated; that is to ſay, the benefice is perpetually annexed to ſome ſpiritual corporation, either ſole or aggregate, being the patron of the living; whom the law eſteems equally capable of providing for the ſervice of the church, as any ſingle private clergyman. This contrivance ſeems to have ſprung from the policy of the monaſtic orders, who have never been deficient in ſubtile inventions for the increaſe of their own power and emoluments. At the firſt eſtabliſhment of parochial clergy, the tithes of the pariſh were diſtributed in a fourfold diviſion; one for the uſe of the biſhop, another for maintaining
