Of the Mo ravians. equivocation, mental evasion, or secret reservation whatsoever. And I do make this recognition, acknowledgment, renunciation, and promise, heartily, willingly, and truly. Since the death of the late pretender, who assumed the title of king of England by the name of James the third, it is absurd to renounce the same person being dead; and therefore the aforesaid act of the 6 G. 3. c. 53. altered the form of the oath of abjuration, so as to abjure the descendants of the said James. But no provision is made for altering in like manner the quakers' form of renunciation. The quakers' profession of their belief, by the 1 W. c. 18. is this: I A.B. profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, one God blessed for evermore; and do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration. 22. The affirmation of the Moravians shall be in these words: I A. B. do declare, in the presence of almighty God, the witness of the truth of what I say. 22 G. 2. c. 30. § 1. Dbit. AN obit was an office performed at funerals, when the corpse [21] wards came to be anniversary, and then money or lands were given towards the maintenance of a priest who should perform this office every year. Nels. tit. Obit. Ayl. Par. 395. was in the church, and before it was buried; which after Dblations. See Dfferings. Offerings. OFFERINGS, oblations (e), and obventions, are one and the same thing: though obvention is the largest word. And under (e) [Com. Dig. tit. Prohibition. (G 11.)] The term Oblation, in the canon law, means whatever is in any manner offered to the church by the pious and faithful, whether it be moveable or immoveable property. X. 5. 40. 29. Spelm. in Concil. vol. i. p. 39. These offerings were given on various occasions, such as at burials and marriages, by penitents, at festivals, or by will. But they were not to be received from persons excommunicated, or who had disinherited their sons, or been guilty of injustice, or had oppressed the poor. Such offerings constituted at first the chief revenues of the church. these are comprehended, not only those small customary sums commonly paid by every person when he receives the sacrament of the Lord's supper at Easter, which in many places is by custom 2d. from every communicant, and in London 4d. an house; but also the customary payment for marriages, christenings, churchings, and burials. Wats. c. 52. Concerning which, it is enacted by the statute of the 2 & 3 [ 22 ] E. 6. c. 13. that all persons which by the laws or customs of this realm ought to make or pay their offerings, shall yearly well and truly content and pay the same to the parson, vicar, proprietor, or their deputies or farmers of the parishes where they shall dwell or abide; and that, at such four offering days, as at any time heretofore within the space of four years last past hath been used and accustomed for the payment of the same; and in default thereof, to pay for the said offerings at Easter then next following. [And see Ayl. Par. Jur. Can. Ang. 395.] The four offering days are Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and the feast of the dedication of the parish church. Gisb. 739. Concerning the offerings at Easter; it is directed by the rubrick Easter ofat the end of the communion office, that yearly at Easter, every ferings. parishioner shall reckon with the parson, vicar, or curate, or his or their deputy or deputies, and pay to them or him all ecclesiastical duties, accustomably due, then and at that time to be paid. And it hath been decreed, that Easter offerings are due of common right, and not by custom only. Bunb. 173. [Where it is said by B. Gilbert, that offerings were a compensation for personal tithes. Ib. 198. (2)] So in the case of Carthew and Edwards, T. 1749; it was decreed by the court of Exchequer, that Easter offerings were due to the plantiff of common right, after the rate of 2d. a head for every person in the defendant's family of 16 years of age and upwards, to be paid by the defendant. When established by custom, they may now be recovered as small tithes before two justices of the peace, by the 7 & 8 W. 3. c. 6. and subsequent acts. See Tithes, VII. 9. Offerings are made at the holy altar by the king and queen twelve times in the year on festivals called offering days, and distributed by the dean of the chapel to the poor. James the first commonly offered a piece of gold, having the following mottoes: Quid retribuam domino pro omnibus quæ tribuit mihi? Cor contritum et humiliatum non despiciet Deus. Lex Constit. 184. The money in lieu of these accustomed offerings is now fixed at 50 guineas a year, and paid by the privy purse annually to the dean or his order; for the distribution of which offertory money, the dean directs proper lists of poor people to be made out. Ex. MSS. (2) Offerings are due by the common law at the rate of 2d. per head. Bunb. 173. pl. 425. And the same point was again determined in Carthew v. Edwards, Trin. 1749, in the Exchequer, but [ 23 ] Besides the oblations on the four principal festivals, there were occasional oblations upon particular services; of which there were some free and voluntary, which the parishioners or others were not bound to perform but ad libitum; there were others by custom certain and obligatory, as those for marriages, christenings, churching of women, and burials. Deg. p. 2. c. 23. Those offerings which were free and voluntary are now vanished, and are not comprehended within the aforesaid statute; but those that were customary and certain, as for communicants, marriages, christenings, churching of women and burials, are confirmed to the parish priests, vicars, and curates of the parishes where the parties live that ought to pay the same. Deg. p. 2. c. 23. (3) Particularly, at the burial of the dead, it was a custom for the surviving friends, to offer liberally at the altar, for the pious use of the priest, and the good estate of the soul of the deceased. Ken. Par. Ant. Gloss. And from hence the custom still continueth in many places, of bestowing alms to the poor on the like occasions. by custom it may be more. And by custom more may be payable. Egerton v. Still, Bunb. 198. Lawrence v. Jones, Id. 173. Vernon v. Sloane, Gwm. 889. Thus an offering of 4d. for each married householder, 1d. for every son, daughter, or other servant not having wages, and 2d. for every servant having wages, if they receive the sacrament, is good. Swaine v. Penn, 1 Wood's Dec. 341. In London, it is mentioned in several books of authority, that a groat a house is due. Hob. 11. Godolph. Repert. canon. edit. 1687, p. 427. Wats. 585. But I have not discovered on what this opinion of a groat a house for offerings in London is founded: Hobart refers to the statute, but does not mention any statute in particular. Now, by the stat. 37 H.8. c. 12. § 12. every householder in London, paying 10s. rent or above, shall be discharged of offerings; but his wife and children, or others, taking the rites of the church, at Easter should pay 2d. each for their offerings yearly. (As to the present force of this act, see "Tyrwhitt's Argument on the Non Enrolment in Chancery of the "Decree for Tithes in London, annexed to 37 H. 8. c. 12." Published by Butterworths, 1823.) London is excepted out of the 27 H. 8. c. 20. by § 2., and out of 2 & 3 E. 6. c. 13. by § 12., and out of 7 & 8 W. 3. c. 6. by § 5. To suits in ecclesiastical courts for tithes in London, a prohibition is grantable. Hob. 11. 2 Inst. 659. So, where there is a suit in the ecclesiastical court for a modus, if the modus be denied, and the court proceeds, a prohibition shall be granted. Palm. 440. Latch. 210. Noy. 81. For the ecclesiastical court cannot try a custom or a prescription: and the reason applies to offerings when claimed by custom or prescription. Serjt. Hill's MS. notes. (3) Burdeaux v. Lancaster, 1 Salk. 332. Exeter (Dean and Chapter's) case, 1 Salk. 334. Wats. Cl. l. 571. These oblations were antiently due to the parson of the parish, that officiated at the mother church or chapel that had parochial rates; but if they were paid to other chapels that had not any parochial rates, the chaplains thereof were accountable for the same to the parson of the mother church. Cod. 427. By the statute of circumspecte agatis, 13 Ed. 1. If a parson demands of his parishioners oblations due and accustomed, such demand shall be made in the spiritual court; in which case the spiritual judge shall have power to take knowledge, notwithstanding the king's prohibition. But Sir Simon Degge conceiveth, that an action also may be formed upon the statute at the common law. Deg. p. 2. c. 23. (4) However, it is certain, that by the small tithe Act of the 7 & 8 W. c. 6. offerings, oblations, and obventions may be recovered before the justices of the peace. [There are several other charities which were formerly converted into obligations and enforced by the canons of the church. Among them may be named the kirk or church-shot, which was a house tax payable at the feast of St. Martin for that hearth where a person resided the preceding Christmas. (5) The plough alms was 1d. for every plough land in the parish, and paid in 15 days after Easter. (6) The leot-shot or light-shot was payable thrice in a year, at Easter Eve, All Saints, and Candlemas, being a certain quantity of wax of about 1d. value for each hide of land. (7) The aggregate amount of all these perquisites, composed in each parish a fund which was devoted to nearly the saine purposes as the revenues of the cathedral churches. (8) Official. OFFICIAL principal is an officer, whose office is usually annexed to that of Chancellor; and is therefore treated of under that title. (4) Fruin v. Dean and Chapter of York, 2 Keb. 778. Andrews v. Symson, 3 Keb. 523, 527. (5) Leges Canuti in Wilkins's Ang. Sax. Leg. 130. Leges Inc Regis I. by Wheloc. (6) Liber Constitutionum Temp. Ethelredi. R. in Wilkins Leg. Ang. Sax. 114. Whitaker's Manchester, lib. ii. c. 11. 433. (7) Leg. Canuti R. by Whiloc. 8. 12. Wilkins Leg. Ang. Sax. 130. (8) Lingard's Antiquit. of the Ang. Sax. ch. 90. There is also an official to the archdeacon; unto whom he standeth in the like relation, as the chancellor doth to the bishop. Did Style. See kalendar. Drdinal. ORDINAL, ordinale, was that book which ordered the manner of performing divine service: and seemeth to be the same which was called the pie or portuis, and sometimes portiforium. Lind. 251. [ 24 ] Ordinary. ORDINARY, ordinarius (which is a word we have received from the civil law), is he who hath the proper and regular jurisdiction, as of course and of common right; in opposition to persons who are extraordinarily appointed. Swinb. 380. In some acts of parliament we find the bishop to be called ordinary, and so he is taken at the common law, as having ordinary jurisdiction in causes ecclesiastical; albeit, in a more general acceptation, the word ordinary signifieth any judge authorised to take cognizance of causes in his own proper right as he is a magistrate, and not by way of deputation or delegation. God. 23. Ordination. I. Of the order of priests and deacons in the church. II. Of the form of ordaining priests and deacons, annexed to the book of common prayer. III. Of the time and place for ordination. IV. Of the qualification and examination of persons to be ordained. V. Of oaths and subscriptions previous to the ordination. |