for the incumbent ſo inſtituted and inducted is to all intents and purpoſes complete parſon; and the appropriation, being once ſevered, can never be re-united again, unleſs by repetition of the ſame ſolemnities[1]. And when the clerk ſo preſented is diſtinct from the vicar, the rectory thus veſted in him becomes what is called a ſine-cure; becauſe he hath no cure of ſouls, having a vicar under him to whom that cure is committed[2]. Alſo, if the corporation which has the appropriation is diſſolved, the parſonage becomes diſappropriate at common law; becauſe the perpetuity of perſon is gone, which is neceſſary to ſupport the appropriation.
In this manner, and ſubject to theſe conditions, may appropriations be made at this day: and thus were moſt, if not all, of the appropriations at preſent exiſting originally made; being annexed to biſhopricks, prebends, religious houſes, nay, even to nunneries, and certain military orders, all of which were ſpiritual corporations. At the diſſolution of monaſteries by ſtatutes 27 Hen. VIII. c. 28. and 31 Hen. VIII. c. 13. the appropriations of the ſeveral parſonages, which belonged to thoſe reſpective religious houſes, (amounting to more than one third of all the pariſhes in England[3]) would have been by the rules of the common law diſappropriated; had not a clauſe in thoſe ſtatutes intervened, to give them to the king in as ample a manner as the abbots, &c, formerly held the ſame, at the time of their diſſolution. This, though perhaps ſcarcely defenſible, was not without example; for the ſame was done in former reigns, when the alien priories, (that is, ſuch as were filled by foreigners only) were diſſolved and given to the crown[4]. And from theſe two roots have ſprung all the lay appropriations or ſecular parſonages, which we now ſee in the kingdom; they having been afterwards granted out from time to time by the crown[5].
