to the burthen of repairing the church and providing
for it's constant supply. And therefore they begged and bought, for
masses and obits, and sometimes even for money, all the advowsons
within their reach, and then appropriated the benefices to the use of
their own corporation. But, in order to complete such appropriation
effectually, the king's licence, and consent of the bishop, must first
be obtained; because both the king and the bishop may sometime or
other have an interest, by lapse, in the presentation to the benefice;
which can never happen if it be appropriated to the use of a
corporation, which never dies: and also because the law reposes a
confidence in them, that they will not consent to any thing that shall
be to the prejudice of the church. The consent of the patron also is
necessarily implied, because (as was before observed) the
appropriation can be originally made to none, but to such spiritual
corporation, as is also the patron of the church; the whole being
indeed nothing else, but an allowance for the patrons to retain the
tithes and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk,
they themselves undertaking to provide for the service of the
church[o]. When the appropriation is thus made, the appropriators and
their successors are perpetual parsons of the church; and must sue and
be sued, in all matters concerning the rights of the church, by the
name of parsons[p].

[Footnote n: Co. Litt. 300.]

[Footnote o: Plowd. 496-500.]

[Footnote p: Hob. 307.]

THIS appropriation may be severed, and the church become
disappropriate, two ways: as, first, if the patron or appropriator
presents a clerk, who is instituted and inducted to the parsonage:
for the incumbent so instituted and inducted is to all intents and
purposes complete parson; and the appropriation, being once severed,
can never be re-united again, unless by a repetition of the same
solemnities[q]. And when the clerk so presented is distinct from the
vicar, the rectory thus vested in him becomes what is called a
_sine-cure_; because he hath no cure of souls, having a vicar under
him to whom that cure is committed[r]. Also, if the corporation which
has the appropriation is dissolved, the parsonage becomes
disappropriate at common law; because the perpetuity of person is
gone, which is necessary to support the appropriation.

[Footnote q: Co. Litt. 46.]

[Footnote r: Sine-cures might also be created by other means. 2 Burn.
eccl. l