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of fuch. In which the constitution of France differs from ours; for there, by their jus albinatus, if a child be born of foreign parents, it is an alien .

A DENIZEN is an alien born, but who has obtained ex donatione regis letters patent to make him an English subject: a high and incommunicable branch of the royal prerogatived. A denizen is in a kind of middle state between an alien, and naturalborn subject, and partakes of both of them. He may take lands by purchase or devise, which an alien may not; but cannot take by inheritance: for his parent, through whom he must claim, being an alien had no inheritable blood, and therefore could convey none to the fon. And, upon a like defect of hereditary blood, the issue of a denizen, born before denization, cannot inherit to him; but his issue born after, may. A denizen is not excused & from paying the alien's duty, and fome other mercantile burthens. And no denizen can be of the privy council, or either house of parliament, or have any office of trust, civil or military, or be capable of any grant from the crownb.

NATURALIZATION cannot be performed but by act of parliament: for by this an alien is put in exactly the same state as if he had been born in the king's ligeance; except only that he is incapable, as well as a denizen, of being a member of the privy council, or parliament, &c. No bill for naturalization can be received in either house of parliament, without such difabling clause in it. Neither can any person be naturalized or restored in blood, unless he hath received the facrament of the Lord's fupper within one month before the bringing in of the bill; and unless he also takes the oaths of allegiance and fupremacy in the prefence of the parliament'.

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Co. Litt. 8. Vaugh. 285.

& Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 8.

1 Stat. 7 Jac. I. c. 2.

THESE m Stat. 13 Geo. II. c. 3.

THESE are the principal distinctions between aliens, denizens, and natives: distinctions, which endeavors have been frequently used since the commencement of this century to lay almost totally afide, by one general naturalization-act for all foreign protestants. An attempt which was once carried into execution by the statute 7 Ann. c. 5. but this, after three years experience of it, was repealed by the statute 10 Ann. c. 5. except one clause, which was just now mentioned, for naturalizing the children of English parents born abroad. However, every foreign feaman who in time of war serves two years on board an English ship is ipso facto naturalizedTM; and all foreign protestants, and Jews, upon their refiding seven years in any of the American colonies, without being absent above two months at a time, are upon taking the oaths naturalized to all intents and purposes, as if they had been born in this kingdom"; and therefore are admissible to all such privileges, and no other, as protestants or Jews born in this kingdom are entitled to. What those privileges are, was the subject of very high debates about the time of the famous Jew-bill; which enabled all Jews to prefer bills of naturalization in parliament, without receiving the facrament, as ordained by statute 7 Jac. I. It is not my intention to revive this controverfy again; for the act lived only a few months, and was then repealed: therefore peace be now to it's manes.

till their banishment in 8 Edw. I. may be ■ Stat. 13 Geo. II. c.7. 20 Geo. II. c.24. found in Molloy de jure maritimo, b.3. c.6. 2 Geo. III. c. 25.

• A pretty accurate account of the Jews,

P Stat. 26 Geo. II. c. 26.
Stas. 27 Geo. II. c. 1.

CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH.

OF THE CLERGY.

THE

HE people, whether aliens, denizens, or natural-born subjects, are divisible into two kinds; the clergy and laity : the clergy, comprehending all persons in holy orders, and in ecclefiaftical offices, will be the subject of the following chapter.

THIS venerable body of men, being feparate and fet apart from the rest of the people, in order to attend the more closely to the service of almighty God, have thereupon large privileges allowed them by our municipal laws: and had formerly much greater, which were abridged at the time of the reformation, on account of the ill use which the popish clergy had endeavoured to make of them. For, the laws having exempted them from almost every personal duty, they attempted a total exemption from every secular tie. But it is observed by fir Edward Coke, that, as the overflowing of waters doth many times make the river to lose it's proper chanel, so in times past ecclefiaftical perfons, seeking to extend their liberties beyond their true bounds, either loft or enjoyed not those which of right belonged to them. The perfonal exemptions do indeed for the most part continue. A clergyman cannot be compelled to serve on a jury, nor to appear at a court-leet or view of frank pledge; which almost every other person is obliged to do: but, if a layman is fummoned on a jury, and before the

a

2 Inft. 4.

F. N. B. 160, 2 Inft. 4.

trial

trial takes orders, he shall notwithstanding appear and be sworn. Neither can he be chosen to any temporal office; as bailiff, reeve, conftable, or the like: in regard of his own continual attendance on the facred function. During his attendance on divine service he is privileged from arrests in civil suits. In cafes also of felony, a clerk in orders shall have the benefit of his clergy, without being branded in the hand; and may likewise have it more than once : in both which particulars he is diftinguished from a layman. But as they have their privileges, so also they have their disabilities, on account of their spiritual avocations. Clergymen, we have feen, are incapable of fitting in the house of commons; and by statute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13. are not allowed to take any lands or tenements to farm, upon pain of 101. per month, and total avoidance of the lease; nor shall engage in any manner of trade, nor fell any merchandize, under forfeiture of the treble value. Which prohibition is confonant to the canon law.

In the frame and constitution of ecclesiastical polity there are divers ranks and degrees: which I shall confider in their refpective order, merely as they are taken notice of by the secular laws of England; without intermeddling with the canons and conftitutions, by which they have bound themselves. And under each division I shall confider, 1. The method of their appointment; 2. Their rights and duties; and 3. The manner wherein their character or office may cease.

1. An arch-bishop or bishop is elected by the chapter of his cathedral church, by virtue of a licence from the crown. Election was, in very early times, the usual mode of elevation to the epifcopal chair throughout all christendom; and this was promifcuoufly performed by the laity as well as the clergy: till at length, it becoming tumultuous, the emperors and other fovereigns

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of the respective kingdoms of Europe took the election in some degree into their own hands; by referving to themselves the right of confirming these elections, and of granting investiture of the temporalties, which now began almost universally to be annexed to this spiritual dignity; without which confirmation and investiture, the elected bishop could neither be confecrated, nor receive any fecular profits. This right was acknowleged in the emperor Charlemagne, A. D. 773, by pope Hadrian I, and the council of Lateran', and universally exercised by other chriftian princes: but the policy of the court of Rome at the fame time began by degrees to exclude the laity from any share in these elections, and to confine them wholly to the clergy, which at length was completely effected; the mere form of election appearing to the people to be a thing of little consequence, while the crown was in possession of an absolute negative, which was almost equivalent to a direct right of nomination. Hence the right of appointing to bishopricks is faid to have been in the crown of England (as well as other kingdoms in Europe) even in the Saxon times, because the rights of confirmation and investiture were in effect (though not in form) a right of complete donation'. But when, by length of time, the custom of making elections by the clergy only was fully established, the popes began to except to the usual method of granting these investitures, which was per annulum et baculum, by the prince's delivering to the prelate a ring, and a paftoral staff or crofier; pretending, that this was an encroachment on the church's authority, and an attempt by these symbols to confer a spiritual jurifdiction : and pope Gregory VII, towards the close of the eleventh century, published a bulle of excommunication against all princes who should dare to confer investitures, and all prelates who should venture to receive them. This was a bold step towards effecting the plan then adopted by the Roman see, of ren

Decret. 1. dift. 63. c. 22.

* Palm. 28.

1 "Nulla lectio praelatorum (funt verba "Ingulphi) erat mere libera et canonica; fed " omnes dignitates tam epifcoporum, quam ab

“ batum, per annulum et baculum regis curia pro "fua complacentia conferebat." Penes clericos et monachos fuit electio, fed electum a rege poftulabant. Selden. Jan. Angl. 1. 1. §. 39. Decret. 2. cauf. 16. qu. 7. c. 12 & 13.

dering

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