deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: but, if the founder has appointed and aſſigned any other perſon to be viſitor, then his aſſignee ſo appointed is inverted with all the founder's power, in excluſion of his heir. Eleemoſynary corporations are chiefly hoſpitals, or colleges in the univerſity. Theſe were all of them conſidered by the popiſh clergy, as of mere eccleſiaſtical juriſdiction: however, the law of the land judged otherwiſe; and, with regard to hoſpitals, it has long been held[1], that if the hoſpital be ſpiritual, the biſhop ſhall viſit; but if lay, the patron. This right of lay patrons was indeed abridged by ſtatute 2 Hen. V c. 1. which ordained, that the ordinary mould viſit all hoſpitals founded by ſubjects; though the king's right was reſerved, to viſit by his commiſſioners ſuch as were of royal foundation. But the ſubject's right was in part reſtored by ſtatute 14 Eliz. c. 5. which directs the biſhop to viſit ſuch hoſpitals only, where no viſitor is appointed by the founders thereof: and all the hoſpitals founded by virtue of the ſtatute 39 Eliz. c. 5. are to be viſited by ſuch perſons as ſhall be nominated by the reſpective founders. But ſtill, if the founder appoints nobody, the biſhop of the dioceſe muſt viſit[2].
Colleges in the univerſities (whatever the common law may now, or might formerly, judge) were certainly conſidered by the popiſh clergy, under whoſe direction they were, as eccleſiaſtical, or at leaſt as clerical, corporations; and therefore the right of viſitation was claimed by the ordinary of the dioceſe. This is evident, becauſe in many of our moſt antient colleges, where the founder had a mind to ſubject them to a viſitor of his own nomination, he obtained for that purpoſe a papal bulle to exempt them from the juriſdiction of the ordinary; ſeveral of which are ſtill preſerved in the archives of the reſpective ſocieties. And I have reaſon to believe, that in one of our colleges, (wherein the biſhop of that dioceſe, in which Oxford was formerly comprized, has immemorially exerciſed visitatorial authority) there is no ſpecial viſitor appointed by the college ſtatutes: ſo that the biſhop's interpoſition can be aſcribed to nothing elſe, but his ſup-
