Chapter LXXVIII: Section 17: , provides that neither this act, nor any clause, article, or (4)

VIA MEDIA. The position occupied in the Christian world by the Anglican Church. There are three parties at present dividing the kingdom—the Church, the Romanist, the ultra-Protestant; of these the Church occupies the middle, Romanism and ultra-Protestantism the extreme positions. Were the Church withdrawn or forced from this central position, the two extremes would soon collide in civil and religious contention and rancour. The Church is the peace-preserving power in the home empire; her advantages and resources in this respect are singularly her own. As far as the Roman is a Church, she agrees with Rome: educated Romanists, however much they regret the disunion of the sees of Rome and Canterbury, respect her ecclesiastical and apostolic character. As far as the renunciation of errors dangerous to salvation constitutes Protestantism, she is thoroughly Protestant; learned and sober Nonconformists, therefore, have always considered her as the bulwark of the reformed religion. She possesses what Rome does not, to conciliate the Nonconformist; she possesses what ultra-Protestantism does not, to attract the esteem of the Roman Catholic. She has wherewith to conciliate to herself these two extremes, totally irreconcileable with each other. Were all religious parties in the realm to meet at this moment to draw up a national form of Christianity consistent with both Scripture and Catholic antiquity, the vast majority, we doubt not, would conscientiously prefer the liturgy and articles of the Church to any form or articles propounded by any one sect out of the Church. Without the Church, again, ultra-Protestantism would prove but a rope of sand to oppose the subtle machinations and united movement of the papal hierarchy. With her, at peace with both, though not in communion with either, these hostile schemes have as yet been prevented from committing the nation to the horrors of intestine commotion. The statesman who would undermine or debilitate this passive supremacy—for to all aggressive or domineering purposes it is entirely passive—on the chance that conflicting sects would extend to each other the mild toleration which now under the Church all impartially enjoy, must have studied religious passions and religious history to little profit.

The great mass of Protestant communities sends each individual to the Bible alone; thence to collect, as it may happen, truth or falsehood, by his own interpretation, or misinterpretation, and thence to measure the most weighty and mysterious truths by the least peculiar and appropriate passages of sacred Scripture. The Church of Rome sends her children neither to the Bible alone, nor to tradition alone; nor yet to the Bible and tradition conjointly, but to an infallible living expositor: which expositor sometimes limits, and sometimes extends, and sometimes contradicts, both the written word and the language of Christian antiquity. The Church of England steers a middle course. She reveres the Scripture: she respects tradition. She encourages investigation: but she checks presumption. She bows to the authority of ages: but she owns no living master upon earth. She rejects alike the wild extravagance of unauthorized opinion, and the tame subjection of compulsory belief. Where the Scripture clearly and freely speaks, she receives the dictates as the voice of God. When Scripture is neither clear nor explicit, or when it may demand expansion and illustration, she refers her sons to an authoritative standard of interpretation, but a standard which it is their privilege to apply for themselves. And when Scripture is altogether silent, she provides a supplementary guidance: but a guidance neither fluctuating nor arbitrary; the same in all times, and under all circumstances; which no private interest can warp, and no temporary prejudice can lead astray. Thus, her appeal is made to past ages, against every possible error of the present. Thus, though the great mass of Christendom, and even though the vast majority of our own national Church, were to depart from the purity of Christian faith and practice, yet no well-taught member of that Church needs hesitate or tremble. His path is plain. It is not merely his own judgment, it is not by any means the dictatorial mandate of an ecclesiastical director, which is to silence his scruples, and dissolve his doubts. His resort is, that concurrent, universal, and undeviating sense of pious antiquity, which he has been instructed, and should be encouraged, to embrace, to follow, and to revere.—_Bishop Jebb._

VIATICUM. The provision made for a journey. Hence, in the ancient Church, both baptism and the eucharist were called _Viatica_, because they were equally esteemed men’s necessary provision and proper armour, both to sustain and conduct them safe on their way in their passage through this world to eternal life. The administration of baptism is thus spoken of by St. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, as the giving to men their viaticum or provision for their journey to another world; and under this impression it was frequently delayed till the hour of death, being esteemed as a final security and safeguard to future happiness. More strictly, however, the term _viaticum_ denoted the eucharist given to persons in immediate danger of death, and in this sense it is still occasionally used. The 13th Canon of the Nicene Council ordains that none “be deprived of his perfect and most necessary viaticum, when he departs out of this life.” Several other canons of various councils are to the same effect, providing also for the giving of the viaticum under peculiar circumstances, as to persons in extreme weakness, delirium, or subject to canonical discipline.

VICAR. In order to the due understanding of this office, as distinguished from those of rector and perpetual curate, it will be necessary to describe in this article the three several offices in their order.

The appellation of _rector_ is synonymous with that of _parson_, which latter term, although frequently used indiscriminately, as applicable also to vicars and even curates, is, according to Blackstone, the most legal, beneficial, and honourable title that a parish priest can enjoy. Parson, in the legal signification, is taken for the rector of a church parochial: he is said to be seised _in jure ecclesiæ_. Such an one, and he only, is said _vicem seu personam ecclesiæ gerere_. He is called parson (_persona_) because by his _person_ the Church, which is an invisible body, is represented; and he is in himself a body corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the Church (which he personates) by a perpetual succession. And, as Lord Coke says, the law had an excellent end therein, viz. that in his person the Church might sue for and defend her right. A parson, therefore, is a corporation sole, and has during his life the freehold in himself of the parsonage house, the glebe, the tithe, and other dues.

But these are sometimes appropriated; that is to say, the benefice is perpetually annexed to some spiritual corporation, either sole or aggregate, being the patron of the living, which the law esteems equally capable of providing for the service of the Church as any single private clergyman. This contrivance seems to have sprung from the policy of the monastic orders. At the first establishment of parochial clergy, the tithes of the parish were distributed in a fourfold division: one for the use of the bishop, another for maintaining the fabric of the church, a third for the poor, and the fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were prohibited from demanding their usual share of these tithes, and the division was into three parts only; and hence it was inferred by the monasteries, that a small part was sufficient for the officiating priest, and that the remainder might well be applied to the use of their own fraternities, (the endowment of which was construed to be a work of the most exalted piety,) subject to the burden of repairing the church, and providing for its constant supply. And therefore they begged and bought for masses and obits, and sometimes even for money, all the advowsons within their reach, and then appropriated the benefices to the use of their own corporation. But in order to complete such appropriation effectually, the king’s licence and consent of the bishop must first have been obtained; because both the king and the bishop may, some time or other, have an interest, by lapse, in the presentation to the benefice, which can never happen if it be appropriated to the use of a corporation which never dies, and also because the law reposes a confidence in them that they will not consent to anything that shall be to the prejudice of the Church. The consent of the patron also is necessarily implied, because (as was before observed) the appropriation can be originally made to none but to such spiritual corporation as is also the patron of the Church; the whole being, indeed, nothing else but an allowance for the patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk, they themselves undertaking to provide for the service of the church.

The terms _appropriation_ and _impropriation_ are now so commonly used indiscriminately, that it has become almost unnecessary to mention the distinction between them; but _appropriation_, in contradistinction to impropriation, means the annexing a benefice to the proper and perpetual use of some spiritual corporation either sole or aggregate, being the patron of a living, which is bound to provide for the service of the church, and thereby becomes perpetual incumbent, the whole appropriation being only an allowance for the spiritual patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk, they themselves undertaking to provide for the service of the church; while _impropriation_ is supposed to be properly used when the profits of the benefice are held in lay hands, as being _improperly_ so. But, in truth, the correctness of the distinction, even originally, seems doubtful: they are used as synonymous in statutes in the times of Elizabeth, of Mary, and of Charles II.; and even prior to the Reformation, in a petition to parliament in the time of Henry VIII., the term used is “impropried.” Both terms were borrowed from the form of the grant, “_in proprios usus_,” and they are peculiar or principally confined to this country. Blackstone says, that appropriations can be made to this day; upon which Mr. Christian observes, “It cannot be supposed that at this day the inhabitants of a parish, who had been accustomed to pay their tithes to their officiating minister, could be compelled to transfer them to an ecclesiastical corporation, to which they might be perfect strangers,” and that “there probably have been no new appropriations since the dissolution of monasteries.” Upon this same proposition, Mr. Justice Coleridge observes, alluding to the opinion of Mr. Christian, “The truth of this position has been questioned, and the doubt is not likely to be solved by any judicial decision. But I am not aware of any principle which should prevent an impropriation from being now legally made, supposing the spiritual corporation already seised of the advowson of the church, or enabled to take it by grant. The power of the king and the bishop remain undiminished.”

This appropriation may be severed, and the church become disappropriate, in two ways; as, first, if the patron or appropriator presents a clerk, who is instituted and inducted to the parsonage; for the incumbent so instituted and inducted is, to all intents and purposes, completed parson: and the appropriation, being once severed, can never be re-united again, unless by a repetition of the same solemnities. And when the clerk so presented is distinct from the vicar, the rectory thus vested in him becomes what is called a _sinecure_, because he had no cure of souls, having a vicar under him, to whom that cure is committed. Also, if the corporation which has the appropriation is dissolved, the parsonage becomes disappropriate at common law; because the perpetuity of person is gone, which is necessary to support the appropriation.

These sinecure rectories here spoken of had their origin in the following manner: The rector, with proper consent, had a power to entitle a vicar in his church to officiate under him, and this was often done; and by this means two persons were instituted to the same church, and both to the cure of souls, and both did actually officiate. So that however the rectors of sinecures, by having been long excused from residence, are in common opinion discharged from the cure of souls, (which is the reason of the name,) and however the cure is said in the law books to be in them _habitualiter_ only, yet, in strictness, and with regard to their original institution, the cure is in them _actualiter_, as much as it is in the vicar, that is to say, where they come in by institution; but if the rectory is a donative, the case is otherwise; for coming in by donation, they have not the cure of souls committed to them. And these are most properly sinecures, according to the genuine signification of the word.

But no church, where there is but one incumbent, is properly a sinecure. If indeed the church be down, or the parish become destitute of parishioners, without which Divine offices cannot be performed, the incumbent is of necessity acquitted from all public duty; but still he is under an obligation of doing this duty whenever there shall be a competent number of inhabitants, and the church shall be rebuilt. And these benefices are more properly depopulations than sinecures.

But sinecure rectors and rectories are now in the course of gradual suppression, and will soon have entirely passed away; for it is declared by the stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, that all ecclesiastical rectories, without cure of souls, in the sole patronage of her Majesty, or of any ecclesiastical corporation, aggregate or sole, where there shall be a vicar endowed or a perpetual curate, shall, as to all such rectories as may be vacant at the passing of that act, immediately upon its so passing, and as to all others immediately upon the vacancies thereof respectively, be _suppressed_; and that as to any such ecclesiastical rectory without cure of souls, the advowson whereof, or any right of patronage wherein, shall belong to any person or persons, or body corporate, other than as aforesaid, the ecclesiastical commissioners for England shall be authorized and empowered to purchase and accept conveyance of such advowson or right of patronage, as the case may be, at and for such price or sum as may be agreed upon between them and the owner or owners of such advowson or right of patronage, and may pay the purchase money, and the expenses of and attendant upon such purchase, out of the common fund in their hands; and that after the completion of such purchase of any such rectory, and upon the first avoidance thereof, the same shall be suppressed; and that upon the suppression of any such rectory as aforesaid, all ecclesiastical patronage, belonging to the rector thereof as such rector, shall be absolutely transferred to, and be vested in, the original patron or patrons of such rectory.

The office of _vicar_, as distinct from that of rector, would sufficiently appear from what has been already said of the latter. The vicar was originally little more than a stipendiary curate of the present day, being a minister deputed or substituted by the spiritual corporation, who held the revenues of the benefice, to perform the ecclesiastical duties in their stead. Usually, though not always, he was one of their own body; and his stipend was entirely at their discretion, and he was removable at their caprice. The evil results of such a practice are apparent; and an effectual attempt to arrest the evil was made by a statute in the reign of Richard II.; but this was found to be insufficient; and accordingly it was enacted by statute 4 Henry IV. c. 12, that the vicar should be a secular ecclesiastic; perpetual; not removable at the caprice of the monastery; that he should be canonically instituted and inducted; that he should be sufficiently endowed at the discretion of the ordinary to do Divine service, to inform the people, and to keep hospitality. It is under this latter statute, therefore, that our vicarages in their present form came into existence, and the endowments of them have usually been by a portion of the glebe or land belonging to the parsonage; and a particular share of the tithes which the appropriators found it most troublesome to collect, and which are therefore generally called privy or small tithes, the greater or prœdial tithes being still reserved to their own use. But one and the same rule was not observed in the endowment of all vicarages. Hence some are more liberally, and some more scantily, endowed; and hence the tithes of many things, as wood in particular, are in some parishes rectorial, and in some, vicarial tithes.

The distinction, therefore, between a rector and a vicar, at the present day, is this, that the rector has generally the whole right to all the ecclesiastical dues within his parish; the vicar is entitled only to a certain portion of those profits, the best part of which are absorbed by the appropriator, to whom, if appropriations had continued as in their origin, he would in effect be perpetual curate with a fixed salary.

The parson, and not the patron of the parsonage, is of common right the patron of the vicarage. The parson, by making the endowment, acquires the patronage of the vicarage. For, in order to the appropriation of a parsonage, the inheritance of the advowson was to be transferred to the corporation to which the church was to be appropriated; and then the vicarage being derived out of the parsonage, the parson, of common right, must be patron thereof. So that if the parson makes a lease of the parsonage, (without making a special reservation to himself of the right of presenting to the vicarage,) the patronage of the vicarage passeth as incident to it. But it was held in the 21 James I., that the parishioners may prescribe for the choice of a vicar. And before that, in the 16 James I., in the case of _Shirley_ and _Underhill_, it was declared by the court, that though the advowson of the vicarage of common right is appendant to the rectory, yet it may be appendant to a manor, as having been reserved specially upon the appropriation.

And if there be a vicar and parson appropriate, the ordinary and parson appropriate may, in time of vacation of the vicarage, reunite the vicarage to the parsonage.

From what has been already observed of the distinction between rector and vicar, it will be easy to anticipate what remains to be said of a _perpetual curate_; for a perpetual curate is, in many things, in the same position as was a vicar previous to the statute of Henry IV. before mentioned. The fact is, that certain cases were exempted from the operation of that statute; for if the benefice was given _ad mensam monachorum_, and so not appropriated in the common form, but granted by way of union _pleno jure_, it was allowed to be served by a curate of their own house, consequently not a secular ecclesiastic; and the like exemption from the necessity of appointing a vicar was sometimes also granted by dispensation, or on account of the nearness of the church.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, when appropriations were transferred from spiritual societies through the king to single lay persons, to them also, for the most part, was transferred the appointment of the vicars in the parishes where they were the appropriators, and in places where, by means of exemptions, there was no regularly endowed vicar; and as they were appropriators of the whole ecclesiastical dues, the charge of providing for the cure was laid on them; for neither in fact, nor in presumption of law, nor _habitualiter_, could a lay rector as such have cure of souls; they were consequently obliged to nominate some particular person to the ordinary for his licence to serve the cure; and such curates thus licensed became perpetual, in the same manner as vicars had been before, not removable at the caprice of the appropriator, but only by due revocation of the licence of the ordinary.

A perpetual curacy was formerly adjudged not to be an ecclesiastical benefice, so that it was tenable with any other benefice; but now perpetual curacies are expressly declared to be benefices within the meaning of that word in the Benefices Pluralities Act, and a perpetual curate is consequently liable to its restrictions in the same manner as any other incumbent; and it has been recently determined that perpetual curates, or their representatives, are liable to be sued in an action for dilapidations in the same manner as other incumbents.

In some cases it might be a matter of considerable difficulty to determine whether a place is a perpetual curacy or a chapelry only; and the more so, since, for most practical purposes, the question would be quite immaterial, and therefore less likely to have been judicially determined; but as an aid in deciding certain other questions which might arise, it might be important: and the following are the rules laid down by Lord Hardwicke for determining whether it is a perpetual curacy or not.

To determine this, he says, “consider it first as to the rights and privileges appearing to belong to the chapel itself; next, as to the right of the inhabitants within the district; thirdly, as to the rights and dues belonging to the curate of the chapelry. If all these rights concur to show the nature of a perpetual curacy, that must determine it.

“As to the first consideration, it appears this is a chapel belonging to a country town. It has belonging to it all sorts of parochial rights, as clerk, warden, &c., all rights of performing Divine service, baptism, sepulture, &c., which is very strong evidence of itself that this is not barely a chapel of ease to the parish to which it belongs, but stands on its own foundation, _capella parochialis_, as it is called in Hobart; and this differs it greatly from the chapels in London, which are barely chapels of ease, commencing within time of memory, which have not baptism or sepulture; all which sort of rights belong to the mother-church, and the rector or vicar of the parish, who has the cure of souls, has the nomination, as the rector of St. James’s or St. Martin’s has, but they have no parochial rights, which clearly belong to this chapel. Nor have any of the inhabitants of this chapelry a right to bury in the parish church of Northop, and that right of sepulture is the most strong circumstance, as appears from 3 Selden’s History, Tithes, fol. column 1212, to show that it differs not from a parish church.

“The next circumstance to determine this question is the right of the inhabitants, viz. to have service performed there, and baptism and christening, and having no right to resort to the parish church of Northop for these purposes, nor to any other place, if not here; nor are they or have they been rateable to the parish church of Northop. It was determined in the case of _Castle Birmidge_, Hob. 66, that the having a chapel of ease will not exempt the inhabitants within that district from contributing to repairs of the mother-church, unless it was by prescription, which would then be a strong foundation, that it must be considered as a curacy or chapelry.

“Next, as to the rights and dues of the curate. All these concur to show it to be a perpetual curacy, and not at all at the will and pleasure of the vicar; for the curate has always enjoyed the small tithes and surplice fees, nor is there any evidence to show that the vicar has received the small tithes.”

A nomination to a perpetual curacy may be by parol. “Most regularly,” Lord Hardwicke says, “it ought to be in writing;” but, he adds, “I do not know that it has been determined that it is necessary. A presentation to a church need not be in writing, but may be by parol; if so, I do not see why a nomination to a perpetual curacy may not be by parol.”

A perpetual curate has an interest for life in his curacy, in the same manner and as fully as a rector or vicar; that is to say, he can only be deprived by the ordinary, and that in proper course of law; and, as Lord Hardwicke observes, it would be a contradiction in terms to say that a perpetual curate is removable at will and pleasure.

The ministers of the new churches of separate parishes, ecclesiastical districts, consolidated chapelries, and district chapelries, are perpetual curates, so that they are severally bodies politic and corporate, with perpetual succession, and consequently may accept grants made to them and their successors; and they are to be licensed and to be removable in the same manner as other perpetual curates. This is also the case with those ministers who are appointed to new districts or parishes under the Church Endowment Act; and as licence operates to all such ministers in the same manner as institution would in the case of a presentative benefice, it would render voidable any other livings which such ministers might hold, in the same manner as institution.

VICARS CHORAL. The assistants or deputies of the canons or prebendaries of collegiate churches, in the discharge of their duties, especially, though not exclusively, those performed in the choir or chancel, as distinguished from those belonging to the altar and pulpit.

The vicars choral, as their name implies, were originally appointed as the deputies of the canons and prebendaries for Church purposes; that is, to provide for the absence or incapacity of the great body of capitular members: the clerical vicars to chant in rotation the prayers at matins and evening, &c., and the whole body to form a sufficient and permanent choir for the performance of the daily service; a duty which the canons were originally required to perform in person. The presbyteral members were usually four, being the vicars of the four dignitaries, _personæ principales_ (see _Persona_). Sometimes they were five; the rest were deacons, and in minor orders, in later times chiefly laymen.

This institution was most salutary; since, were every canon required to have the peculiar qualifications required from vicars, viz. a practical knowledge of ecclesiastical music, men of more essential and higher qualities would of necessity be often excluded from the canonical stalls. In fact, the appointment of deacons and inferior ministers to this peculiar office, which we do not find established till the beginning of the fourth century, (i. e. the κανονικοὶ ψαλταὶ, vide _Bingham_, iii. 7,) bears a striking analogy to the regulation of the Jewish temple; where some of the Levites, the deacons of the elder Church, were newly appointed by David to the musical service.... Originally the vicars choral were commensurate with the capitular members, each of these having a vicar, appointed by himself, and holding his place only so long as his principal lived. The numbers have now greatly diminished. At York, they were at one time, 36; at Lincoln, 25; at Hereford, 20. At St. Patrick’s each vicar is still denominated from a dignitary or prebendary, twenty-six in number; but one vicar is in many instances the representative of two stalls; and he is designated from both, as “the prebendary of A and B, vicar.”

In all cathedrals of the old foundation in England, and in Ireland, where there were choirs, the vicars choral formed a minor corporation, in some way under the control of the dean or chapter, but with separate estates, with collegiate buildings, halls, chapels, some of which still subsist. Those at Hereford were incorporated in the 15th century, those at Exeter in Henry IV.’s time. At Southwell they formerly formed a college, till the Reformation. These presidents were styled custos, or warden, subdean, subchanter, provost, or procurator. In Ireland, but twelve of the cathedrals have had foundations for vicars choral, as far as any record remains, and in some of these their very sufficient endowments had been suffered by a long course of neglect and abuse to be diverted from their original purpose, and were a few years ago alienated by law.—A better spirit has happily arisen of late years.—In Scotland it does not appear that vicars choral were attached to all cathedrals. Bishop Elphinston endowed twenty vicars choral or minor canons at Aberdeen, in 1506; at Glasgow, vicars of the choir were founded in 1455; Elgin cathedral modelled on that of Lincoln, in 1224, had twenty-two vicars choral, commensurate with the chapter.

In cathedrals of the new foundation, the term vicar choral was generally superseded by that of _Minor Canon_ for the clergy, and _Lay-clerk_ for the laity. (See _Minor Canon_.)

The term was occasionally used in a less strict sense, to signify a choral priest or chaplain. Thus the church of St. Nicholas in Galway was founded in 1501, for a warden and eight vicars choral, (or singing vicars, as they were sometimes called,) who served that church. The corporation is styled in some ancient documents, _Wardianus et Capitulum_. A few vicars are still maintained, who serve the church in turn, but discharge no choral duty.

In all foreign cathedrals, there are inferior choral members, though the designations vary much; they consist of priests, deacons, clergy of the inferior orders, and laymen.—See _Jebb on Choral Service_.

VICAR GENERAL. An ecclesiastical officer, who assists the bishop in the discharge of his office, as in ecclesiastical causes and visitations; much the same as the chancellor. The archbishop of Canterbury has his vicar general; and this is the designation of the bishop’s principal official in Ireland, where the diocesan title of chancellor is unknown.

In the reign of Henry VIII., when the rejection of papal usurpation led for a time to a recoil of a very Erastian character, Thomas Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex, was appointed the king’s vicar general, vicegerent, and special and principal commissary; with powers of visitation and correction over all the spirituality; an anomalous office, which could not exist but in times of confusion.—Vide _Collin’s Eccl. History, and Cromwell’s Commission in_ vol. ii., _Appendix_, p. 21.

VICAR PENSIONARY. Certain clergymen appointed at a fixed stipend to serve churches, the titles of which belonged to a collegiate foundation: as at St. Salvador’s College, St. Andrews.—Vide _Lyons’ History of St. Andrews_.

VICE-DEAN, or SUBDEAN. In cathedrals of the new foundation, one of the canons is annually chosen to represent the dean in his absence; and as such he ranks next to him in the choir and chapter.

VIDAME: _Vicedominus_. The vicegerent, or official of a bishop in temporals. A dignitary in a few foreign cathedrals is thus called: a sort of subdean.

VIGIL. The night or evening before certain holy-days of the Church. In former times it was customary to have religious services on these eves, and sometimes to spend a great part of the night in prayer and other devotions, to qualify the soul for the better observance of the festival itself on the morrow. These nights thus spent were called _vigils_ or _watchings_, and are still professedly observed in the Church of England.

This term originated in a custom of the early Christians, who fasted and watched the whole night previous to any great festival; hence _Vigiliæ_, Vigils, or watchings, from _Vigilo_, to watch.—As a military custom this was most ancient. The Jews seem originally to have divided the night into three watches; but in the New Testament we read of “the fourth watch of the night,” (Mark vi. 48,) a custom, perhaps, introduced by their conquerors, the Romans, who divided their night into four vigils. The primitive Christians might have been inclined to this custom from various references to it in the Gospel; particularly in the close of the parable of the ten virgins; though it is not improbable that the secrecy with which they were obliged to meet, “for fear of the Jews,” (John xx. 19,) and other persecutors, went far towards establishing it. This, like many other innocent or necessary ceremonies, having been at length abused, the nocturnal vigils were abolished, about the year 420, and turned into evening fasts, preparatory to the principal festival. But it appears that a vigil was observed on All Hallows Day, by watching and ringing of bells all night long, even till the year 1545, when Henry VIII., in his letter to Cranmer, as to “creeping to the cross,” &c., desired it might be abolished.

It is not every festival which has a vigil preceding it. Those appointed by the Church are as follows:—

Before the Nativity of our LORD.

the Purification and Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.
Easter Day.
Ascension Day.
Pentecost.
St. Matthias.
St. John Baptist.
St. Peter.
St. James.
St. Bartholomew.
St. Matthew.
St. Simon and St. Jude.
St. Thomas.
St. Andrew.
All Saints.

It has been given as a reason why the other holy-days have no vigils before them, that they generally happened between Christmas and the Purification, or between Easter and Whitsuntide, seasons of joy which the Church did not think fit to break into by fasting and humiliation.—See fully on this subject, _Wheatly on the Common Prayer_.

VIRGIN MARY. (See _Mariolatry_ and _Mother of God_.) The mother of our Blessed LORD and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. What follows is from the celebrated Bishop Bull. “She was of all the women, of all the virgins in Israel, elected and chosen by GOD to be the instrument of bringing into the world the long-desired MESSIAS. All the virtuous daughters of Jacob, a good while before the revelation of our SAVIOUR, but especially in the age when he appeared, (the time wherein they saw the more punctual and remarkable prophecies concerning the coming of the MESSIAS fulfilled,) desired, and were not without hopes, each of them, that they might have had this honour done unto them. But it was granted to none of all these holy women and virgins, but to the Virgin Mary. And therefore ‘all generations shall call her blessed.’

“The Blessed Virgin Mary was the only woman that took off the stain and dishonour of her sex, by being the instrument of bringing that into the world, which should repair and make amends for the loss and damage brought to mankind by the transgression of the first woman, Eve. By a woman, as the principal cause, we were first undone; and by a woman, as an instrument under GOD, a Saviour and a Redeemer is born to us. And the Blessed Virgin Mary is that woman. Hence Irenæus, in his fifth book, makes a comparison between the virgin Eve, (for such the ancients believed her to be till after her transgression,) and the Virgin Mary. ‘_Seductionem illam solutam_,’ &c., i. e. ‘That seduction being dissolved, whereby the virgin Eve designed for man was unhappily seduced; the Virgin Mary, espoused to man, by the truth, happily received the glad tidings from an angel. For as the former was seduced by the speech of an angel to flee from GOD, having transgressed his commandments: so the latter, by the word also of an angel, received the good news, _ut portaret_ DEUM, that she should bear GOD within her, being obedient to his word. And as the former was seduced to flee from GOD, so the latter was persuaded to obey GOD. So that the Virgin Mary became the comforter of the virgin Eve.’ Where the last words of the holy martyr are grossly misinterpreted by the Latin translator, and have given to the Papists to conclude from them, that Eve was saved by the intercession of the Virgin Mary. A most absurd conceit, unworthy of the learned and holy Father, or indeed of any man else of common sense; for who knows not that Eve was past all need of intercession, before ever the Blessed Mary could be capable of making intercession for her? Doubtless the Greek word used by Irenæus here was παράκλητος, which, as it signifies ‘an advocate,’ so it also as frequently signifies ‘a comforter,’ and so ought to have been rendered here. But, you will say, how did Eve receive comfort from the Blessed Virgin Mary? I answer, in that gracious promise delivered by GOD himself in the sentence passed on the serpent, after Eve’s seduction by him, where it is said, ‘that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.’ Every man now knows that the seed there spoken of is CHRIST; and, consequently, that the individual woman, whose immediate seed he was to be, is the Blessed Virgin Mary. The holy Virgin was the happy instrument of the saving incarnation of the SON of GOD, who hath effectually crushed the old serpent, the devil, and destroyed his power over all those that believe on himself, and thereby she became the instrument of comfort to Eve and all other sinners. This is certainly all the good Father intended by that expression.

“The Blessed Virgin was consecrated to be a temple of the Divinity in a singular manner. For the eternal SON of GOD, by an ineffable conjunction, united himself to that human nature, which was miraculously conceived and formed in her, even whilst it was within her; and so he that was born of her, at the very time that he was born of her, was Θεανθρωπος, GOD and Man. O astonishing condescension of the SON of GOD! O wonderful advancement of the Blessed Virgin! and therefore we daily sing in our Te Deum, ‘Thou art the King of Glory, O CHRIST; Thou art the everlasting SON of the FATHER. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.’ Upon which account, the fathers of the third General Council at Ephesus, convened against Nestorius, approved the title of Θιοτοκος, ‘the Mother of GOD,’ given to the Blessed Virgin.”

A little afterwards he says, “I will mention some few instances of extravagant honour which the Papists give, but which we of the Church of England utterly refuse to yield to the Blessed Virgin, out of a true zeal to the honour of GOD.

“We will not give her lavish and excessive attributes, beyond what the Holy Scriptures allow her, and the holy men of the primitive Church afforded her. We will call her ‘blessed,’ as the mother of our LORD in the sense above explained. But we dare not call her ‘queen of heaven,’ ‘queen of angels, patriarchs, prophets, and apostles,’ ‘source of the fountain of grace,’ ‘refuge of sinners,’ ‘comfort of the afflicted,’ ‘advocate of all Christians,’ as she is called in that Litany of our Lady, still used in their devotions. For we have no instance of such attributes given to the Blessed Virgin in the Holy Scriptures, and they are too big for any mere creature.

“We will not ascribe those excellencies to her that she never had nor could have; as a fulness of habitual grace, more grace than all the angels and archangels of GOD put together ever had; that she was born without original sin, and never committed any the least actual sin, and consequently, never needed a saviour. These are wild things, which very many of the Papists, drunk with superstition, say of her.

“We will not give her the honour of invocation, or praying to her, as all the Papists do, for the unanswerable reasons above mentioned. Indeed, as long as that one text of Scripture remains in our Bibles, which we read, (1 Tim. ii. 5,) ‘There is one GOD, and one Mediator between GOD and men, the Man CHRIST JESUS,’ we shall never be persuaded, by any sophistry or subtle distinctions of our adversaries, to betake ourselves to the mediation of the Blessed Virgin, much less of any other saint. Much more do we abhor the impiety of those among the Papists, who have held it disputable, whether the milk of the Blessed Virgin, or the blood of her Son, be to be preferred; and at last could pitch upon no better resolution than this, that the milk and blood should be mixed together, and both compound a medicine for their souls.

“We abhor to divide the Divine kingdom and empire, giving one-half, the better half, the kingdom of mercy, to the Blessed Virgin, and leaving only the kingdom of justice to her Son. This is downright treason against the only universal King and Monarch of the world.

“We are astonished at the doxology which some great and learned men of the Church of Rome have not been ashamed to close their printed books with, ‘_Laus DEO Deiparæque Virgini_:’ ‘Praise be to GOD, and the Virgin-mother.’

“We should tremble every joint of us, to offer any such recommendation as this to the Virgin Mary. Hear, if you can without horror, a prayer of theirs to her. It is this: ‘O my Lady, holy Mary, I recommend myself into thy blessed trust and singular custody, and into the bosom of thy mercy, this night and evermore, and in the hour of my death, as also my soul and my body; and I yield unto thee all my hope and consolation, all my distress and misery, my life and the end thereof, that by thy most holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my works may be directed and disposed, according to thine and thy SON’S will. Amen.’ What fuller expressions can we use to declare our absolute affiance, trust, and dependence on the eternal SON of GOD himself, than they here use in this recommendation to the Virgin? Yea, who observes not, that the will of the Blessed Virgin is expressly joined with the will of her SON, as the rule of our actions, and that so as that her will is set in the first place. A plain smatch of their old blasphemous impiety, in advancing the Mother above the Son, and giving her a commanding power over him. Can they have the face to say, that all this is no more than desiring the Blessed Virgin to pray for them, as we desire the prayers of one another on earth? And yet this recommendation is to be seen in a Manual of Prayers and Litanies, printed at Antwerp no longer ago than 1671, and that _permissu superiorum_, in the Evening Prayers for Friday. A book it is, to my knowledge, commonly to be found in the hands of our English Papists; for I had it from a near relation of mine, (who had been perverted by the emissaries of Rome, but is since returned again to the communion of the Church of England,) who assured me that she used it herself, by the direction of her confessor, in her private devotions.”

No instance of Divine honour paid to Mary (remarks Coleman from Augusti) is recorded of an earlier date than the fifth century. Cyril of Alexandria, and Proklus of Constantinople, were the first to pay these honours to her. Festivals to her memory began to be held about the year 431, but were not generally observed until the sixth century. From this time until the sixteenth century, they were general in all the Western Churches, though differing in number and in rank, in the several countries of Europe. The Greek Church observes only three great festivals of this description.

The following is a brief enumeration of the principal festivals in question.

1. The festival of the Purification. Candlemas, Feb. 2, instituted in the sixth century.

2. Of the Annunciation, popularly styled Lady Day, March 25th, an early festival, styled by St. Bernhard, _radix omnium festorum_.

3. Of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, instituted by Urban VI. 1389.

4. Of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, Aug. 15th, early instituted. Mary was the tutelary divinity of France; and for this reason this day was observed with peculiar care. It was also the birthday of Napoleon, and accordingly was observed under his dynasty as the great festival of the nation.

5. Of the Nativity of Mary, Sept. 8th, instituted in the Eastern Church in the seventh century; in the Western, in the eleventh or twelfth.

6. Of the Naming of Mary, A. D. 1513.

7. Of Conception. This feast, according to Bellarmine, was not necessarily dependent upon the question so fiercely discussed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries respecting the immaculate conception.

VISITATION. This is that office which is performed by the bishop usually once in three years, or by his archdeacon every year, by visiting the churches throughout the diocese. It is the duty of a commissary to summon the churchwardens and sidesmen to a visitation, but he has no authority to summon any other persons; but if he does summon those persons, and they, refusing to appear, should be excommunicated for this contempt, a prohibition would be granted. (_Noy_, 122.) Two things are requisite in these visitations: 1st, The charge. 2nd, The inquiry. The charge consists of such things as the visitor thinks proper to impart to the clergy; but usually it is to put them in mind of their duty, and to persuade them to perform it. The inquiry formerly consisted of several articles taken out of the canons; and the bishop’s visitation being accounted an episcopal synod, there were at that time certain persons who attended it, and who were called _Testes Synodales_, or _Juratores Synodi_, and they were to present those who were negligent in performing religious offices, or any irregularities amongst the clergy, both in respect to their morals and behaviour, and likewise all dilapidations, and generally what they found to be amiss in the diocese. The bishop at first exercised this jurisdiction alone; it was what was implied in his very office; and this he was to do in every parish throughout his diocese once a year, there to examine the minister and the people, which he might do with more ease at that time, because parish churches were not so numerous then as afterwards. When this was disused, then ecclesiastical persons were to be assembled in a certain place, and inquiry was made, upon oath, concerning the state of the clergy, and at this place they were all bound to appear.

Afterwards, when bishops came to be ministers of state, and to attend the courts of kings, which began in the Norman reigns, then archdeacons were vested with this jurisdiction under the bishops, and visited in those years wherein the bishops did not. But still the bishops were to visit once in three years, and being then the king’s barons and statesmen, they came with very great equipage, insomuch that, by the Council of Lateran, their number was limited according to their qualities, viz. if the visitor was an archbishop, he was not to have above fifty horses in his retinue; if a bishop, he was not to exceed thirty; if a cardinal, then twenty-five; if an archdeacon, he was to have no more than seven, and a dean but two; and if they respectively exceeded those numbers, then no procuration was due for the maintenance of the supernumeraries. But even this was very chargeable to the parochial clergy, for the visitor was to be maintained at their expense a day and night in every parish; and, therefore, it was thought fit to turn that charge into a certain sum, which is now called procurations, and this is paid to archdeacons in that very year wherein bishops visit, for it is by some affirmed to be due to them _ratione officii_; and some say it is due to them by virtue of the statute of 33 Henry VIII. c. 5, by which these duties are made pensions. The first of these opinions is contrary to several canons, which not only enjoin personal visitations, but expressly forbid any procurations to be paid where the archdeacon himself did not visit in person. But notwithstanding those canons, custom has so far prevailed, that the archdeacons receive these fees in the bishop’s triennials, when they do not visit in person; but instead of that they hold two chapters about Easter and Michaelmas, and there, by themselves or their officials, they formally inquire into the state and condition of the Church, which inquiry is now called a visitation, and for which they are entitled to these fees.

Visitation, as commonly understood, denotes the act of the bishop, or other ordinary, going his circuit through his diocese or district, with a full power of inquiry into such matters as relate to church government and discipline. By the canon law visitations were to be once a year, but that was intended of parochial visitations, or a personal repairing to every church, as appears not only from the assignment of procurations, but also by the indulgence, where every church cannot be conveniently repaired to, of calling together the clergy and laity from several parts into one convenient place, that the visitation of them may not be postponed. From this indulgence and the great extent of the dioceses grew the custom of citing the clergy and people to attend visitations at particular places. But as to parochial visitation, or the inspection into the fabrics, mansions, utensils, and ornaments of the church, that care has long devolved upon the archdeacons, who, at their first institutions in the ancient church, were only to attend the bishops at their ordination and other public services in the cathedral, but being afterwards occasionally employed by them in the exercise of jurisdiction, not only the work of parochial visitation, but also the holding of general synods or visitations, when the bishop did not visit, came by degrees to be known and established branches of the archdiaconal office as such, which by this means attained to the dignity of ordinary, instead of delegated jurisdiction; and by these degrees came on the present practice of triennial visitations by bishops; so as the bishop is not only not obliged by law to visit annually, but is actually restrained from it.

“By the 137th canon it is enjoined, that forasmuch as a chief and principal cause and use of visitation is, that the bishop, archdeacon, or other assigned to visit, may get some knowledge of the state, sufficiency, and ability of the clergy and other persons whom they are to visit, we think it convenient that every parson, vicar, curate, schoolmaster, or other person licensed whatsoever, do at the bishop’s first visitation, or at the next visitation after his admission, show and exhibit unto him his letters of orders, institution, and induction, and all other his dispensations, licenses, of faculties whatsoever, to be by the said bishop either allowed or (if there be just cause) disallowed and rejected, and, being by him approved, to be (as the custom is) signed by the registrar, and that the whole fees accustomed to be paid in the visitations in respect of the premises, be paid only once in the whole time of every bishop, and afterwards but half of the said accustomed fees in every other visitation during the said bishop’s continuance.”

Gibson says, that none but the bishop or other person exercising ecclesiastical authority by commission from him, has right _de jure communi_ to require these exhibits of the clergy; therefore, if the archdeacon require it, it must be on the foot of custom, the beginning whereof, he says, has probably been encroachment, since it is not likely that any bishop should give to the archdeacon and his official a power of allowing or disallowing such instruments as have been granted by himself or his predecessors. The canon last mentioned appears to be in observance now, for it is the practice for each clergyman to exhibit these letters of orders, &c. on his first attendance at the bishop’s visitation, and on the first appointment to an office, &c. in any diocese, as well as upon several other occasions.

By a constitution of Othobon it is ordained, that archdeacons visit the churches profitably and faithfully by inquiring of the sacred vessels and vestments, and how the service is performed, and generally of temporals and spirituals, and what they find to want correction that they correct diligently. And it was further ordained by this, as well as by other constitutions, that they should not extort money by giving sentence unjustly.

By a constitution of Archbishop Reynolds, it was enjoined that archdeacons and their officials in the visitation of churches have a diligent regard of the fabric of the church, and especially of the chancel, to see if they want repair; and if they find any defects of that kind, limit a certain time under a penalty within which they shall be repaired.

By a constitution of Archbishop Langton, archdeacons in their visitation are to see that the offices of the church are duly administered, and shall take an account in writing of all the ornaments and utensils of churches, and of the vestments and books, and shall require them to be presented before them every year, that they may see what has been added and what lost.

It is said that the archdeacon, although there be not a cause, may visit once a year; and if there be a cause, he may visit oftener; and that where it is said in the canon law, he ought to visit from three years to three years, this is to be understood so that he shall visit from three years to three years of necessity, but that he may visit every year if he will.