. 16.]

[Footnote f: 2 Inst. 637. Stat. 4 Hen. VII. c. 13. & 1 Edw. VI. c.
12.]

[Footnote g: page 169.]

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

I. 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 episcopal chair
throughout all christendom; and this was promiscuously performed by
the laity as well as the clergy[h]: till at length, it becoming
tumultuous, the emperors and other sovereigns of the respective
kingdoms of Europe took the election in some degree into their own
hands; by reserving 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 consecrated, nor receive any secular profits. This right
was acknowleged in the emperor Charlemagne, _A.D._ 773, by pope
Hadrian I, and the council of Lateran[i], and universally exercised by
other christian princes: but the policy of the court of Rome at the
same 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 said to have been in the crown of England[k] (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[l]. 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