canonici_ and the English provincial canons. But the
portions so adopted derived their authority from the Scottish Church.
The general canon law, unless where it has been acknowledged by act of
parliament, or a decision of the courts, or sanctioned by the canons of
a provincial council, is only received in Scotland according to equity
and expediency.

The "Protestant Episcopal Church _in the United States_" is the
organization of the Anglican Communion in the American colonies before
the separation. This communion was subject to "all the laws of the
Church of England applicable to its situation" (Murray Hoffman, _A
Treatise on the Law of the Protestant Episcopal Church_, New York, 1850,
p. 17). This body of law the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United
States took over (_op. cit._ p. 41 et seq.; F. Vinton, _A Manual
Commentary on the General Canon Law and the Constitution of the
Protestant Episcopal Church_, New York, 1870, p. 16 et seq.). Much,
however, of the English post-Reformation canonical legislation was not
applicable to the United States, because of different circumstances, as
e.g. a very large portion of the canons of 1603 (Vinton, p. 32). In
1789, a General Convention, consisting of clerical and lay deputies as
well as of bishops, assumed for itself and provided for its successors
supreme legislative power. The concurrence of both "orders," clerical
and lay, was required for the validity of any vote. Since 1853 a lay
deputy to the Convention has been required to be a communicant (_ib._ p.
102). Upon the American bishops numbering more than three, they became a
separate "House" from the "Convention." The House of Bishops was given a
right to propose measures to the "House of Deputies," and to negative
acts of the House of Deputies, provided they complied with certain
forms. Similar "constitutions" providing for representation of the laity
have been adopted by the different dioceses (Hoffman, _op. cit._ p. 184
et seq.). Deacons are also admitted to a deciding voice in every diocese
but New Jersey, where they may speak but not vote. A great body of
legislation has been put forth by these bodies during the past century.

Since 1870, at least, the "Church of the Province of _South Africa_" has
secured autonomy while yet remaining a part of the Anglican Communion.
By its constitution of that year the English Church in South Africa
adopts the laws and usages of the Church of England, as far as they are
applicab