exercise the cure of souls should be before the
consistory court with five assessors. Under the Public Worship
Regulation Act of 1874, which gave to churchwardens and aggrieved
parishioners the right to institute proceedings against the clergy for
breaches of the law in the conduct of divine service, a discretionary
right was reserved to the bishop to stay proceedings.

The bishops also exercise a certain jurisdiction over marriages,
inasmuch as they have by the canons of the Church of England a power of
dispensing with the proclamation of banns before marriage. These
dispensations are termed marriage licences, and their legal validity is
recognised by the Marriage Act of 1823. The bishops had formerly
jurisdiction over all questions touching the validity of marriages and
the status of married persons, but this jurisdiction has been
transferred from the consistorial courts of the bishops to a court of
the crown by the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. They have in a similar
manner been relieved of their jurisdiction in testamentary matters, and
in matters of defamation and of brawling in churches; and the only
jurisdiction which they continue to exercise over the general laity is
with regard to their use of the churches and churchyards. The
churchwardens, who are representative officers of the parishes, are also
executive officers of the bishops in all matters touching the decency
and order of the churches and of the churchyards, and they are
responsible to the bishops for the due discharge of their duties; but
the abolition of church rates has relieved the churchwardens of the most
onerous part of their duties, which was connected with the stewardship
of the church funds of their parishes.

The bishops are still authorized by law to dedicate and set apart
buildings for the solemnization of divine service, and grounds for the
performance of burials, according to the rites and ceremonies of the
Church of England; and such buildings and grounds, after they have been
duly consecrated according to law, cannot be diverted to any secular
purpose except under the authority of an act of parliament.

The bishops of England have also jurisdiction to examine clerks who may
be presented to benefices within their respective dioceses, and they are
bound in each case by the 95th canon of 1604 to inquire and inform
themselves of the sufficiency of each clerk within twenty-eight days,
after which time, if they have not rejected him as