our enquiries, but for the reſt I muſt refer myſelf to ſuch authors as have compiled treadles expreſſly upon this ſubject[1]. I ſhall only juſt mention the article of reſidence, upon the ſuppoſition of which the law doth ſtile every parochial miniſter an incumbent. By ſtatute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13. perſons wilfully abſenting themſelves from their benefices, for one month together, or two months in the year, incur a penalty of 5𝑙. to the king, and 5𝑙. to any perſon that will ſue for the ſame: except chaplains to the king, or others therein mentioned[2], during their attendance in the houſhold of ſuch as retain them: and alſo except[3] all heads of houſes, magiſtrates, and profeſſors in the univerſities, and all ſtudents under forty years of age reſiding there, bona fide, for ſtudy. Legal reſidence is not only in the pariſh, but alſo in the parſonage houſe: for it hath been reſolved[4], that the ſtatute intended reſidence, not only for ſerving the cure, and for hoſpitality; but alſo for maintaining the houſe, that the ſucceſſor alſo may keep hoſpitality there.
We have ſeen that there is but one way, whereby one may become a parſon or vicar: there are many ways, by which one may ceaſe to be ſo. 1. By death. 2. By ceſſion, in taking another benefice. For by ſtatute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13. if any one having a benefice of 8𝑙. per annum, or upwards, in the king's books, (according to the preſent valuation[5],) accepts any other, the firſt ſhall be adjudged void; unleſs he obtains a diſpenſation; which no one is entitled to have, but the chaplains of the king and others therein mentioned, the brethren and ſons of lords and knights, and doctors and bachelors of divinity and law, admitted by the univerſities of this realm. And a vacancy thus made, for want of a diſpenſation, is called ceſſion. 3. By conſecration; for, as was mentioned before, when a clerk is promoted to a biſhoprick, all his other preferments are void the inſtant that he is con-
