A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

IX. If a difference happen to arise between any clergyman and layman concerning any tenement; and that the clerk pretends it held by frank-almoine, and the layman pleads it a lay-fee, in this case the tenure shall be tried by the inquiry and verdict of twelve sufficient men of the neighbourhood, summoned according to the custom of the realm; and if the tenement, or thing in controversy, shall be found frank-almoine, the dispute concerning it shall be tried in the ecclesiastical court; but if it is brought in a lay-fee, the suit shall be followed in the king’s courts, unless both the plaintiff and defendant hold the tenement in question of the same bishop; in which case the cause shall be tried in the court of such bishop or baron, with this further proviso, that he who is seized of the thing in controversy shall not be disseized pending the suit, upon the score of the verdict above-mentioned.

X. He who holds of the king in any city, castle, or borough, or resides upon any of the demesne lands of the Crown, in case he is cited by the archdeacon or bishop to answer to any misbehaviour belonging to their cognizance; if he refuses to obey their summons, and stand to the sentence of the court, it shall be lawful for the ordinary to put him under an interdict, but not to excommunicate him till the king’s principal officer of the town shall be pre-acquainted with the case, in order to enjoin him to make satisfaction to the Church. And if such officer or magistrate shall fail in his duty, he shall be fined by the king’s judges. And then the bishop may exert his discipline on the refractory person as he thinks fit.

XI. All archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical persons, who hold of the king in chief, and the tenure of a barony, are, for that reason, obliged to appear before the king’s justices and ministers, to answer the duties of their tenure, and to observe all the usages and customs of the realm; and, like other barons, are bound to be present at trials in the king’s court, till sentence is to be pronounced for the losing of life or limbs.

XII. When any archbishopric, bishopric, abbey, or priory of royal foundation, becomes vacant, the king is to make seizure; from which time all the profits and issues are to be paid into the exchequer, as if they were the demesne lands of the Crown. And when it is determined the vacancy shall be filled up, the king is to summon the most considerable persons of the chapter to the court, and the election is to be made in the chapel royal, with the consent of our sovereign lord the king, and by the advice of such persons of the government as his Highness shall think fit to make use of. At which time the person elected, before his consecration, shall be obliged to do homage and fealty to the king, as his liege lord; which homage shall be performed in the usual form, with a clause for the saving the privilege of his order.

XIII. If any of the temporal barons, or great men, shall encroach upon the rights of property of any archbishop, bishop, or archdeacon, and refuse to make satisfaction for the wrong done by themselves or their tenants, the king shall do justice to the party aggrieved. And if any person shall disseise the king of any part of his lands, or trespass upon his prerogative, the archbishops, bishops, and archdeacons shall call him to an account, and oblige him to make the Crown restitution.

XIV. The goods and chattels of those who lie under forfeitures of felony or treason, are not to be detained in any church or churchyard, to secure them against seizure and justice; because such goods are the king’s property, whether they are lodged within the precincts of a church, or without it.

XV. All actions and pleas of debt, though never so solemn in the circumstances of the contract, shall be tried in the king’s court.

XVI. The sons of copyholders are not to be ordained without the consent of the lord of the manor where they were born.

CLERESTORY. That part of a church with aisles which rises on the nave arches over the aisle roofs. Constructively, the clerestory is often to be referred to the roof. The original roof of small, and sometimes even of large, churches usually covered nave and aisles at one span. When the original roof needed repair, the old timbers were made available by cutting off the ends which had suffered most. But this process rendered them unfit for a compass roof of high pitch. An addition, therefore, was made to the walls of the nave, by which the roof might rise as high as before in the centre, though of lower pitch.

CLERGY. (See Bishop, Presbyter, Priest, Deacon, Apostolical Succession, Orders.) The general name given to the body of ecclesiastics of the Christian Church, in contradistinction to the laity. It is derived from κλῆρος, a lot or portion.