option.]

[Footnote w: Sherlock of options. 1.]

[Footnote x: Goldast. _constit. imper._ _tom._ 3. _pag._ 406.]

[Footnote y: Dufresne. V. 806. Mod. Un. Hist. xxix. 5.]

[Footnote z: _Rex, &c, salutem. Scribatis episcopo Karl. quod--Roberto
de Icard pensionem suam, quam ad preces regis praedicto Roberto
concessit, de caetero solvat; et de proxima ecclesia vacatura de
collatione praedicti episcopi, quam ipse Robertus acceptaverit,
respiciat._ _Brev._ 11 Edw. I. 3 Pryn. 1264.]

[Footnote a: ch. 8. pag. 273.]

[Footnote b: See the bishop of Chester's case. Oxon. 1721.]

THE power and authority of a bishop, besides the administration of
certain holy ordinances peculiar to that sacred order, consists
principally in inspecting the manners of the people and clergy, and
punishing them, in order to reformation, by ecclesiastical censures.
To this purpose he has several courts under him, and may visit at
pleasure every part of his diocese. His chancellor is appointed to
hold his courts for him, and to assist him in matters of
ecclesiastical law; who, as well as all other ecclesiastical officers,
if lay or married, must be a doctor of the civil law, so created in
some university[c]. It is also the business of a bishop to institute
and to direct induction to all ecclesiastical livings in his diocese.

[Footnote c: Stat. 37 Hen. VIII. c. 17.]

ARCHBISHOPRICKS and bishopricks may become void by death, deprivation
for any very gross and notorious crime, and also by resignation. All
resignations must be made to some superior[d]. Therefore a bishop must
resign to his metropolitan; but the arch-bishop can resign to none but
the king himself.

[Footnote d: Gibs. cod. 822.]

II. A DEAN and chapter are the council of the bishop, to assist him
with their advice in affairs of religion, and also in the temporal
concerns of his see[e]. When the rest of the clergy were settled in
the several parishes of each diocese (as hath formerly[f] been
mentioned) these were reserved for the celebration of divine service
in the bishop's own cathedral; and the chief of them, who presided
over the rest, obtained the name of _decanus_ or dean, being probably
at first appointed to superintend _ten_ canons or prebendaries.

[Footnote e: 3 Rep. 75. Co. Litt. 103, 300.]

[Footnote f: pag. 108, 109.]

ALL antient deans are elected by the chapter, by _conge d'eslire_ from
the king, and letters missive of recommendation; in the same manner as
bisho