ILIT
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference →
C.O. 885
"ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Episcopal
Acts valid if
such as
might have been founded
Consent.
2
Colonial Bishops.
most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Par- liament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows :
1. All Episcopal Acts which might lawfully have been done within any District or Place by any Bishop lawfully chosen and conse- 5 crated by the free and voluntary Consent of any Clergy, Congre on voluntary gations, and Persons voluntarily accepting him as their Bishop, without any letters Patent, or Royal Mandate or Licence, shall be deemed to be and to have been valid and lawful if done by any such Bishop appointed under any such Letters Patent, or Royal 10 Mandate or Licence, by which legal Jurisdiction shall have not been conferred as aforesaid, unless it shall be otherwise declared by any Law in force within such District or Place for the Time being.
Letters
be surren-
derel
2. Any Bishop exercising Episcopal Functions in any of Her Patent may Majesty's Colonies or Foreign Possessions by or under Authority of 15
any Royal Letters Patent may by Writing under his Hand and Seal declare his Desire to surrender such Letters Patent if he shall think fit so to do, and on the Acceptance of such Surrender by Her Majesty, signified through One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, all Letters Patent appointing such Bishop 20 or creating or purporting to create the Diocese of such Bishop shall become and be from thenceforth null and void: but such Surrender shall not operate to prevent any such Bishop from continuing after the Acceptance thereof to exercise within the District constituting such Diocese all such Episcopal Functions and to do all such Acts 25 as he might lawfully have exercised and done respectively within such District for the Benefit of such Clergy, Congregations, and Persons as may voluntarily submit themselves thereto, if he had been lawfully chosen and consecrated Bishop by the voluntary Consent of such Clergy, Congregations, and Persons as aforesaid, unless 30 it shall be otherwise declared by any Law in force within such District for the Time being.
Status, &c. of Bishop to lu judged by oplinary Courts of Law.
.
3. All Questions of Law respecting the Status, Rights, Powers, and Duties of any Bishop exercising Episcopal Functions in any of Her Majesty's Colonies or Foreign Possessions in which there shall 35 be no Ecclesiastical Court established by Law with Jurisdiction to determine such Questions in relation to any other Bishop, or to any such Clergy, Congregations, or Persons as aforesaid, and of all such Clergy, Congregations, and Persons in relation to any such Bishop as aforesaid, shall be tried and determined by the
same Courts 40 (whether in Her Majesty's Colonies or Foreign Dominions or in Great Britain) and in the same Manner in all respects as any Questions of the like Nature arising with respect to the Status, Rights, Powers, or Duties of any Ministers, Clergy, Congregations, or Persons pro-
fessing
Colonial Bishops.
3
fessing any other Form of Religion not established by Law within the same Part of Her Majesty's Colonies or Foreign Dominions are or ought to be tried and determined, and not in any other Manner or by any other Courts or Court or Authority whatsoever.
"
5 4. Notwithstanding anything-contained in the Act passed in the Royal Li- Session of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Years of King Charles cence may the Second, intituled "An Act for the Uniformity of Publick in lieu of be given Prayers, and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Mandate for Ceremonies; and for establishing the Form of making, ordaining, of Bishops
Consecration and consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in the Church of to exercise England," or in any other Law or Statute of the United King- tions out
their Func dom, it shall be lawful for any Bishops or Bishop within the United of United- Kingdom, if they or he shall be authorized so to do by Licence Kingdom. under Her Majesty's Royal Sign Manual, to consecrate from Time
10
"
15 to Time any Bishop for the Purpose of exercising Episcopal Func- tions in any of Her Majesty's Colonies or Foreign Possessions, or
· elsewhere beyond the Limits of the United Kingdom, for the Benefit of such Clergy, Congregations, and Persons as may volun- tarily submit themselves thereto, although no Royal Mandate in 20 the Form heretofore accustomed and required by Law may have been granted for or may be produced or read at such Consecration, and no such Mandate or Licence shall be necessary for any such Consecration elsewhere than within the United Kingdom.
5. The several Acts of Parliament enumerated in the Schedule Acts re-
25 to this Act are hereby repealed, but not so as to revive any other pealed.
Acts repealed thereby, nor so as to render invalid or illegal any Act, Matter, or Thing lawfully done in conformity with the said Acts, or any of them, at any Time before the passing of this Act.
6. No Person admitted into the Holy Orders of Priest or Persons
Foreign or
to hold Pre-
30 Deacon by any Bishop not being a Bishop of a Diocese in Eng- ordained by. land or Ireland shall be entitled to be admitted or instituted to Colonial any Benefice or other Ecclesiastical Preferment in England or Bishops not Ireland without the Consent and Approbation of the Bishop of ferment in the Diocese in which such Benefice or other Ecclesiastical Pre- England or 35 ferment may be situated; and any such Bishop shall be enti- without Ireland tled to refuse such Consent and Approbation without assigning Consent of Reason for such Refusal, any Law or Practice to the contrary Diocesan notwithstanding; and every such Person seeking to be admitted or institute to such Benefice or other Ecclesiastical Preferment, 40 or to be licensed to any Curacy, shall, before being admitted, instituted, or licensed, make and subscribe before such Bishop every such Declaration and Subscription as he would by Law have been required to make and subscribe at his Ordination if
(0.26.)
1 2
he
i
20