BILL TO ABOLISH THE SECULAR JURISDICTION OF BISHOPS, ETC.
During this session an act was passed, by which the secular jurisdiction of the county palatine of Durham, with all forfeitures, mines, treasure trove, and other rights belonging to that authority, were transferred from the bishop of the diocess and vested in the crown. The county-court was abolished; and it was likewise declared that the bishop elect, or any bishop for the time being, should take and hold the see, subject to such provisions as parliament might make regarding it within three years from the passing of the act. By another measure, the secular jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York over the liberty of Ripon and other places in Yorkshire, and the stoke of Southwell, in Nottinghamshire; and the secular authority of the Bishop of Ely over the Isle of Ely, were separated from the sees, and transferred to the king. A third act was passed, imposing restrictions on the renewal of leases by ecclesiastical persons. This bill provided, that where a lease had been granted for more than two lives, no renewal of it should be given till one or more of those lives had expired; and that, even then, the renewal should be only for the surviving lives, or for such new lives as, with the survivors, would make up the number of lives, not exceeding three, for which the lease had been originally granted. Where the lease had been granted for forty, thirty, or twenty-one years, it was not to be renewable till fourteen, ten, and seven years respectively of the original term had expired; and where it had merely been for years, no new lease was to be given for a life or lives. It was further required, that all leases should contain a recital, setting forth, in the case of a lease for lives, the names of the persons mentioned in the original lease as those on whose lives it was granted, and specifying such of the lives as were still existing, or had been exchanged for some other life. If the lease had been for a term of years, the recital was to set forth that term, and how much remained unexpired; and every such recital, so far as related to the validity of the lease containing it, was to be deemed and taken as conclusive evidence of the matter so recited.